I remember when I first started secondary school having to walk through a building site to get to the bus stop over the road. This was around 1987, and it was just about to be put up. The patch of land next to it was a rough car park for a few years until they built Netto on it in 1993 (?).

Has anyone got any photos of this area before it became what it is today? I can barely remember what it looked like.

Netto is built pretty much on the site of the old Birkenhead fire station:

I was a bit of a kid wen the pyramids being constructed and really believed that the area fenced off was a architection site. Doh!
Timpsons the shoe shop was in the whereabouts of superdrug now-in hindsìht the last of the 'real' shoe shop!

All the area now occupied by the Pyramids was mainly terraced houses, with streets leading off between Borough Road and Grange Road. These included Vincent Street, Horatio Street, Coburg Street, Stafford Street, Huskisson Street and Collingwood Street. Along Borough Road from the fire station, going towards Birkenhead town centre, there were several shops dotted in among the houses, including a barber's shop called Tunna and a sweet shop - which are just two I can remember. In Huskisson Street, the impressive St John's Church was situated on a sort of island in the middle of the road. Further down Borough Road towards St Werburgh's Church, the earlier Grange shopping precinct was completed in the mid-1970s. This also involved the demolition of many rows of terraced houses along with some fine old Victorian buildings in Austin Street.

I played in the fire station early 60s firemen lived in station with family 2 story flats. There was a police station in side st were nettos front door is got put in cell when i was 6 nicked a big cake from van at rear of stubs. hated my mam 4 that. in cell 4 hours. opposite fire station was a shop my favorite one. named what?? lived in Warwick st. get photos soon..

Here's a pic. of Timpson's for you. It was on the corner of Horatio St. If you can't recognise the location, the van in the middle of the road is about opposite Woolworth's. (Yoller; the Pyramids started at Coburg St. I think).

If i can get hold of some old photos of the Woodlands school When it was on the woodlands i remember a few pictures takin on the bourgh road side as the school playground was looking towards the school play ground i saw the pyramids being built its ashame i wasnt into taking pictures otherwise i would of the Woodlands school had its own Swimming pool it was great

Thanks, Chriskay - you're right, the Pyramids started further down Borough Road than I thought (my memory is playing tricks in my old age). And that's a great picture of Grange Road - you can see the steeple of St John's Church in the centre and traffic is using the road. I can't remember when Grange Road was pedestrianised, but it must have been around the mid-70s.

One by YMCA or woodlands rd old school on left my brother had first house on YMCA side paid £2000 for it he will have pics always took pics

That building on the right of the van is Iceland so Woolworths is further down on the left.
And im sure Timpsons was on Vincent Street, and the steeple in the bacground was the church were the Pyramids is now and it was called St Johns.

Is this photo looking downhill (towards Liverpool)?

Awesome photos, looking forward to some more. Looks good with the road running down the middle. My brother took a load of photos of the Wirral in the late 80's, early 90's, will have to dig them out.

No, Mr_Ice_Man, Timpson's was on the corner of Horatio St. In the picture(1956) you can see the wall of the Methodist church which was on the opposite corner. On the opposite side of the road you can just see a lamp post & half way down that you can just see a sign sticking out; that is Maison Olive, ladies hairdressers, which was on the corner of Catherine St., so Woolworths is the next shop down on the other corner of Catherine St. The shop on the corner of Vincent St. was(& still is), Pyke's the jeweller. You're quite right about St.John's church.
Here's a map from about the same period as the pic.

Cheers, Chris.

suggest the Pyramids start from what used to be
Collingwood Street which had a petshop on the corner next to Fabris? ice cream shop
Could you tell me where to get or buy a copy of that map
I have 1909 one but would like to have a 1950/1960 map of
Birkenhead

I think Grange Road was pedestrianised in '78/'79. Myself and my ex. had just moved into a new house and I was after some granite setts for the driveway. Whilst shopping in Grange Road at that time they were ripping the old setts up that had been buried under the asphalt.

Got talking to one of the workers who, after a furtive glance around, offered his lorry full delivered to Saughall for £15 cash !
A bargain. Just about to clinch the deal when his boss came along. Byeeeee !

Thanks for pic. Its great!

Collingwood St. was much further down Grange Rd., beyond the church. The Pyramids started at about Coburg St. which is the next street down from Horatio St. in the picture. I remember Fabbri's (think it was a double 'b'), but I remember it being next to Forizo, garden shop, which was on the corner of Huskisson St., which was where St.John's church was. We are probably thinking of different eras; I'm thinking 1940's. Incidentally, Forizo still exists; they have a unit in Holborn Square.
You have a PM.

Cheers, Chris.

On the opposite corner from the Forizo shop on Grange Road was Dunn's hat shop. Further down towards the town centre, on the same side of the road, there was a pub - but I can't remember what it was called. Does anyone know? Can anyone remember any of the other shops that were on Grange Road before the redevelopment which started in the early 70s?

Bibby & Perkins Outfitters. On the RH side at the Charing Cross end of Grange Road. Used to go there with my Mum for school uniform, shoes etc.

Had one of those X-Ray machines. You stood with your feet in a small recess. You and the assistant looked down through a visor at the top to see if the shoes were a correct fit. Rough outline of the shoe with a skeletal foot within ! Great fun.

As course, X-Rays were harmless then. ha.ha.

Rushworth & Dreaper, music shop, near Bibby & Perkins; I got my school uniform there too. There was a barbers in the basement. Timothy White's & Taylors, chemists. W H Smith's, where I worked in 1952/53, next to Pyke's jewellers. Robbs, of course; upmarket department store. Montague Burton "The Tailor of Taste"; there was a billiard hall above. (Who were "The Fifty Shilling Tailors"?) The Co-Op of course, at Tudor House. Norvic shoes. All these were on the Charing Cross side of St.John's. I didn't often go down below the bend in the road. What was the name of the big pawnbrokers lower down?

I think the pawnbrokers were called Bentley's

Was it the Atlas

There were a couple of tailors , Hymie Jacobs and Alexanders, a shoeshop, charing cross end, Freeman,Hardy and Willis and at the Beatties end a tool/diy shop called Stretchers.

Wasn't the old fire station down at Exmouth Street? That's nowhere near where Netto is now.

The fire station in Exmouth st is the one that replaced the old station where Netto is now.

nice pixs and intresting infomation and history thanks!

The new fire station is on Exmouth Street, the old fire station was on the corner of Borough Road and Whetstone Lane.

This is another view of the fire station (on the left) looking from Charing Cross towards Borough Road.

Now and then pictures of the old and new fire station can be found in the Lowther, Fox & craven street topic

I will start now and then topics for these.

Now and then for the photo above will be done soon too

Years ago, my dad told me they had a basement in a pet shop in this area. It got flooded and all the animals in the basement drowned!

Birkenhead Fireman with the Merryweather fire engine 1896

Can't ... quite ... see the YMCA from that photo.

Sorry, my mistake,does anyone know when the fire station in Exmouth Street was opened then?
Angela

March 1973

That's 'cos it's not there!!

It's here:

in Grange Road, in a building that was later to become British Home Stores.

Just bout to say that the Ymca is where Primark is know back then

Yes, here's the YMCA & a Baptist chapel where Woolworths is.

Built in 1858, it was sold to Woolworth in the 1930s. With the money from the sale, they built a new Chapel on Whetstone Lane in 1939.

....and here's the Baptist Chapel

AS anyone got any piccys of the old WoodLands school ?? If not i might phone the school up and see if its possible to scan a few photos as its gotta have some facing towards borugh road back in the day... Cause as i said the Woodlands playground backed onto borough road the old school was impressive but it was showing its age reason for the move.. The School was very atmospheric back then typical old school look hehe

Allisons is now Beatties
A lad who lived next door to me fell through the roof of Allinsons
and was killed

Bentleys pawn shop next to the Atlas pub and on the other side of road Woodsons grocery Store, Birkenhead Barbecue, Moss Bros, Sayers

Thanks, I remember now.

Bentley's, Woodson's and the Atlas Hotel with Grange Road 'dressed' for the coronation in 1953

What are they now? I can't picture them!

Great pic. uptoncx. This is the bottom half of Grange Rd., beyond St. John's church.

That's an excellent picture, uptoncx - I've never seen it before and it brings back lots of memories. The only thing I can recall about Woodson's is that it used to have one of those old overhead vacuum tube systems for sending documents around the store - presumably customers' orders and such - and it fascinated me as a child. As for other shops in Grange Road, there was a place called Llewellyn's, further down towards the town centre on the right-hand side just past St Werburgh's Church, which I think sold motor scooters. Next door to Llewellyn's, at the junction with Argyle Street and opposite the George and Dragon pub, was a tobacconist's shop.

Borough Road in the 1950s

...The tobacconist was more or less next to the George and Dragon and then in that little stretch of shops there was a shop that sold leather belts, bags etc. Going back into grange rd there was a furniture shop called Woodhouse and Cavendish. Rostances (not sure if that's spelt correct) in oxton rd had the vacuum system as well for sending money to the cash dept.

Need help with this pic. On the right there are 2 bus shelters, opposite the further one there was a little shop which sold foreign stamps. Can anyone remember the name?

Also, I'm inclined to think that the ornate lamp standards are a hangover from the days of trams (finished 1937) & carried the power lines.

I remember the stamp shop, but not its name. As well as stamps, it sold cigarette cards and coins and I think it was run by a chap from Darwen in Lancashire. Further down, across Whetstone Lane, the Wirral Pets shop was on the corner and further down from that, a fishing tackle shop. On the opposite side of the road from the stamp shop was a shop that sold clocks, called Tempus Fugit (Time Flies).

The pet shop later moved to oxton rd opposite the Windsor pub mid 1960s then moved to top oxton rd by vale pub. The fishing tackle shop was called Hitchell's or Mitchell's ran by very old couple.

I thought the bloke who ran the stamp shop was a miserable old g*t. The name Forshaw or Crawshaw or some other...shaw comes to mind. I remember Tempus Fugit & the pet shop too. I used to wait at that bus shelter after visiting my gran in Windsor St. for the 64 bus to take me home; Irvine Rd. was my stop, next stop after the Rovers.

The Pet shop was called Wirral pets, and i think when that closed down Birkenheads first Sex shop took over the building.

wirral pets shop became a restaurant. The sex shop was a couple of doors down

Cheers for that, probably ate half the stock.

the name of the pawn brokers was Bentleys

there were 3 Bentleys I can recall
1 Grange Road
2 Bottom of Exmouth st just round the corner in Conway st opposite the Meadows pub
3 in the Haymarket on a row of shops between Jackson st and Thomas st

any more?

Have noticed in old pics Irwins shops seems to have been a few spread about Grange rd , Upton, and Laird st to name a few

There's an Irwins by the roundabout in Wallasey Village and another on the corner opposite Fairs cameras in Bebington.

I worked in Wirral Pets 1970 and later again in 1972. Wirral Pets originally had Whetsone Lane, one opposite the Claughton Arms, one in Old Chester Road and then they bought the big shop in 51 Oxton Road. It was started by Len Thomas. His admin manager was Anne Walker. Gradually the firm was centralised to just Oxton Road and the others were closed. Whetstone Lane alwasy had problems with the cellars flooding. 51 Oxton Road was haunted and most of the staff would not go to the top floor. What had been bedrooms were used as storerooms and the door were's were very old fashioned with latches instead of doorknobs. Len ran a large wholesale pet business from there as well and had customers as far as Shrewsbury. There was a lady called Betty who managed the shop downstairs, Janet Kennedy and Helga Lane were two of the shopgirls. They both lived on the Woodchurch. Before Wirral pats opened a tyre place had been run from the back of it. There was still a set of 1930's knock on wheels complete with the tyres in the cellar. Len eventually sold out and the business moved up the road.

...could be wrong but I think quite a few of the Irwin shops got bought out by Tesco in the 60's/70's. Think the old Tesco shop in Pensby Rd, Heswall was originally an Irwins, before Tesco moved to Telegraph Road.

There was an Irwins top of the hill from The Village, Lower Bebington.

Wonder what happened to Helga Lane?

Do you remember the shop opposite Allisons/Beatties that sold proper liquorice root, tiger nuts and such like.

Hey! Don't like the sound of someone crunching tigernuts!

Seriously I do remember that shop.

We had a monkey called oscar,went everywhere with us,
Oscar allways sat on pulley over fire as soon as he saw my it went mad throw shite at him rip his shirts up, it hated my dad,

come home from school one day and our mum sold Oscar to wirral pets for £25 Gutted,

was in pet shop every day,only lived over the road.

Great childhood memories for me. I went to Woodlands school from 1958, Mr Bethell was the headmaster, great pool and always remember no mans land separating the boys and girls.

I lived on Borough Road but we moved to Wales when I was 12 so limited memories of the shops.

I had 2 brothers David and Peter, if it jogs any memories we had a piglet as a pet(think I was really naughty and charged people to see it).

Intresting infomation and History thanks guys.....

Is it the same little stamp shop that was still there in the late 80's?

Buggered if I can remember the name of it but used to go passed it all the time on the bus.

I think that it was possibly called Hitchells.

Bob.

My mum lived in Collingwood Street, never seen any pics, anyone able to help?

Here is a Street party in Howe Street, it may be Collingwood at the end. Some of the people are more than likely from Collingwood.

Thanks to Ghostly1

Howe Street

ORIGINAL THREAD

My nan is in that picture, right hand side, behind the table 3rd lady in wearing the black dress and my mum too in front of her, also think the boy wearing the glasses is my uncle.

Thanks for sharing!!!

There was an Irwins in New Chester Road in Rock Ferry.

Irwins was on Bebington Rd Rockferry

Hi all i've just got on to this thread,jeeeeeez what memories
i lived on the block between 5 L Motors and Wirral Electrics.
I went to the Woodlands school Maggie[scared the crap out of kids]Davies was the headmistress,before Mr Bethell 1956 to 1967.
Then i went to the University of Life also know as Hamilton Sec or Hemmy as it was better know.Ive found a couple of pics you might find interesting.
Who else on here went to The Woodlands or Hemmy

That's not the branch I'm thinking of, which was on the corner of Canterbury Road and New Chester Road.

Was the Bebington Road branch near Dacre Hill?

Regarding the stamp shop, I seem to recall the name "The Prenton Philatelist".

Never ventured in there, but the proprietor was frequently to be seen on Borough Road on his pushbike. And yes, he looked grumpy.

brilliant pic were do you get them from i used to work at w.h. smiths at the top end of grange road little old fashioned shop had to say prayers when shop closed lol back in 1970 opposite dept store forgot the name of it pikes the jewellers close by happy days

i remember that payment method a lot of people don't beleive me i remember in in rostances dept store h aha

I went to school with a lad called Shorrock and I think his family owned the stamp shop - so the shop might have been called Shorrocks?

My name is Michael Haydn I went to Hemmy I lived just over the road in Conway Place my first school was Trinity Street my playground was the Streets of Birkenhead.

The shop WAS called Shorrocks.

That was the name; thanks.