has anyone got a picture of eli who used to trade at the market. i used to stand for ages watching him balance crockery on his arms. it was great the way he pretended he didnt know whatwas in his sacks and boxes.fond memories.

i havent got any pictures but my wife used to work on sarah and simons sweet stall when she was 15 they had 2 stalls and she got paid 11 bob for the saturdays

I think he appears briefly on one of those local history videos produced by Angus Tilston ('Pleasures Past'). Can't remember which one, but it would have been a Wirral one, and probably covering the 1960's or 70's.

Angus is on at the Wirral Heritage event coming up soon at Birkenhead Town Hall (details on the 'up coming events' forum). Seem to think he's selling copies at a discount.

Go see!

Good old Eli. Used to love the way he and the other fellahs used to rattle china dinner services around as though they were unbreakable. Tried it at home and got a thick ear for my trouble, they weren't unbreakable at all.

Some footage of the old Birkenhead Market at Wirral TV

Go to Reflections of Lverpool and Wirral 1960 - 1980 and it's at 17:19
Can't see Eli though...

Not the best quality photo but recognisably the man who used to fascinate me as a kid in the 1950s. Living in Liscard, a trip to Birkenhead with my Mum was like going to another planet – getting a different coloured bus which always seemed to be held up at Duke Street bridge for ships to go past and then going to the market which seemed to be full of more people than the whole population of Wallasey.

We always ended up at Eli’s standing there for what seemed hours, particularly if Mum had her eye on something on the stall and was waiting for it to come up. Eli always started his sales pitch with “I’m not asking……” and the old girls in the audience (and it was an audience because Eli used to put on a great show) would try to guess what the final price would be. As a young kid, I thought everything must be a bargain because if the starting price was twenty quid and it was eventually sold for five bob then it must be cheap!


Potted biography: born Eli Bernstein in Liverpool in 1903. Started helping on his older brother’s stall in Birkenhead at the age of 10. Lied about his age and joined the army near the end of WW1. Set up his own stall in Birkenhead market at the end of the war and continued through to 1974 when the market burned down. Retired and died in 1986. Fondly remembered by thousands.

The man himself,I remember him but just couldn't picture him,Good find Nightwalker

Nice pic, remember him selling a jacket cheap and then when it was opened up to show the quality it only had one arm. He knocked a few bob off it for the defect and a woman bought it, she must've had a one armed hubby or something like. Brilliant salesmanship though, he didn't miss a breath.

Was he helped by a fella called Harry ?
Seem to remember the stall being run by him in it's last years, with the cry 'ere y'are 'arry! ringing out when an acceptable price was mentioned.
Later this moved to where the flower stall is by the precinct (TJ's) side entrance - but was only there a few years - Harry was pretty old then too...

I think the fellas name who took over this stall was John Carney

I remember Eli well. We got most of the stuff for our house from him. I even got my first calculator from him in the early 70s, a massive big thing with a red LCD that you couldn't see in daylight made i think by texas instruments. When Eli left after the fire it WAS a man called Harry who took over. I remember people in the crowd shouting 'over ere Arry' and 'I'll ave that Arry' I used to get some good stuff from both of them through the 70s and 80s.

Sure it wasn't a Speak and Spell, yewgarth?

Gem of a find Nightwalker, always had his pitch in the Country Stall right in the corner, only a wooden market barrier separating him, and his assistant, from Hamilton street. Of all the China and Crockery he diplayed in his trading display, I never saw him drop the ball. Good days indeed.