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Posted By: karl1972 Poulton road sweet shop - 7th Oct 2020 10:21am
Does anyone remember this little sweet shop,I used to buy my sweets from there in the 70's,Texan bars were the best.

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Posted By: Norton Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 7th Oct 2020 1:19pm
I think it was a former public toilet turned into a takeaway. Can't remember why it was painted in piano keys, though.
Posted By: _Ste_ Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 7th Oct 2020 3:42pm
Originally Posted by Norton
I think it was a former public toilet turned into a takeaway. Can't remember why it was painted in piano keys, though.



That is disgusting, what kind of idiot turns a former public TOILET into a takeaway?
Posted By: karl1972 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 7th Oct 2020 4:34pm
It was never a takeaway it just sold drinks and sweets,there used to be one the other side of the park on the corner of Liscard road and Church street
Posted By: Dilly Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 7th Oct 2020 5:37pm
The Piano keys could have been from when it was a little recording studio, it may even still be a studio as that is the last thing I knew it to be.
Posted By: tigertiger1953 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 6:37am
It was not a public toilet it was a police sub station. There was an almost identical one on New Brighton promenade near to the old Floral Pavilion. There was a more modern variety near the Oyster Catcher pub. Some youths removed the plastic letters 'P' and 'O' from that one leaving 'LICE'. A totally different design was on the promenade at the bottom of Tobin Street. It had long since fallen out of use by the early 1960s and the wall panels had been removed leaving the roof and supporting brick pillars and raised base causing some people to believe that it was a band stand.
Posted By: Excoriator Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 9:20am
Why would a police substation need two doors in such a tiny building? The public toilet hypothesis is much more plausible.

Perhaps it was a public toilet before it became a police station?
Posted By: mikeeb Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 11:23am
Here is a 1954 OS map showing it as a police station and the toilets behind it.

Attached picture 1954 OS map.png
Posted By: Excoriator Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 11:36am
Can't see it sorry. I don't have 'permission'. God know who does.

I'm not disputing its existence as police station, but a building that small with two doors strongly implies it was a toilet at some point in its existence.

Perhaps it was upgraded from toilet to copshop and new toilets built behind it?
Posted By: mikeeb Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 11:36am
interestingly, what happened to the houses behind it?
They are not on a 1938 map and not on a 1970 map.
Not a very long life for what looks like large houses.
Posted By: mikeeb Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 11:45am
You can view it here ex
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/330742/391131/12/100954
Posted By: mikeeb Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 8th Oct 2020 11:57am
Originally Posted by Excoriator
I'm not disputing its existence as police station, but a building that small with two doors strongly implies it was a toilet at some point in its existence.

Perhaps it was upgraded from toilet to copshop and new toilets built behind it?

The toilets were built before the police station and have not moved.
The police station was built in front of the toilets.
Here is a 1925 map. https://maps.nls.uk/view/114581068
Posted By: tigertiger1953 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 9th Oct 2020 12:15am
Originally Posted by mikeeb
interestingly, what happened to the houses behind it?
They are not on a 1938 map and not on a 1970 map.
Not a very long life for what looks like large houses.


They were prefabs built at the end of the war and later demolished.
Posted By: tigertiger1953 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 9th Oct 2020 12:25am
Originally Posted by Excoriator
Can't see it sorry. I don't have 'permission'. God know who does.

I'm not disputing its existence as police station, but a building that small with two doors strongly implies it was a toilet at some point in its existence.

Perhaps it was upgraded from toilet to copshop and new toilets built behind it?


I worry that you think any building with two doors is a toilet! It was built as a police substation and nothing else. How do I know this without relying on Google (as is the custom these days it seems)? Because as a kid I was taken in there by a police constable along with another lad for riding two on a bike. Had he taken two boys in a public toilet that would raise public concerns I am sure.

The door on the left led inside to the police office which as you can imagine was very small. The other door? Well in those days police officers either walked or rode bicycles and the door on the left was access to a small area where the police officer could safely place his bicycle. The public toilets at the back were nothing at all to do with the police substation. Totally unrelated .
Posted By: tigertiger1953 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 9th Oct 2020 12:43am

Not a very long life for what looks like large houses.[/quote]

They were just the usual prefab size but had very decent gardens. The oval shaped area with two trees on the map was actually quite dense with shrubs and trees and was a favourite place for gangs of youths to hang out and ambush lone boys cutting through from Central Park.
Posted By: diggingdeeper Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 9th Oct 2020 1:07am
Originally Posted by Dilly
The Piano keys could have been from when it was a little recording studio, it may even still be a studio as that is the last thing I knew it to be.


https://www.4rfv.co.uk/c/40846/fynk
Posted By: Wally1 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 13th Oct 2020 2:56pm
It was definitely a small police station. I used to pass it every day.
Posted By: tigertiger1953 Re: Poulton road sweet shop - 13th Oct 2020 6:19pm
You were lucky to get past it! We were cycling towards the Gorsey Lane/Oxton Road junction when there was a sharp whistle and a portly police constable who looked as though he had visited the Rose and Crown too often stood in the left hand doorway. He called us over and brought us inside. To the right was a counter on which rested a large ledger with a piece of sawn- off broom handle as a book mark. Our names were duly entered in the ledger. My friend asked if the piece of broom handle was a truncheon. The police constable removed it and holding it near my friend's face said 'Would you care for a taste of it?'. The days when you did not try and be smart with police officers.
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