Havelock Street

Havelock Street with the totally dominant Seacombe Tower now in place in the 1970s providing street residents with a very different view to what they had been used to. A Liverpool Echo image uploaded to Netherfield Rd Facebook by Mary Thornton.

Mike Pealing explains: Havelock Street, the image cleaned up a little and colourised. The well known 'Tossy Bars' - originally to help the elderly get up this incredibly steep slope - can be clearly seen. Lack of TV aerials suggests the late 1940s or early 1950s. Bit of rope on the lamppost bar, left over from kids swinging around it?

A 14-h.p Minerva car is pictured in the early 1900s climbing up Havelock Street with its gradient of 1 in 5. The street was normally closed to traffic in these early days because of its steepness. This was said to be the first car ever to accomplish this ascent from Netherfield Road North at the bottom to Northumberland Terrace at the top. This might have been a publicity stunt to highlight the quality of the Minerva car. The smartly dressed driver is clearly the owner, possibly with his normal chauffer alongside him in case of an emergency. Charles S. Rolls (of future Rolls-Royce fame) was the first Minerva dealer in England to sell the 2.9-litre 14 hp version we see here. The most important market for the manufacturer remained England, where, at £105, the smaller 636 cc single-cylinder Minervette was the cheapest car on the market. Interestingly, there were few cars, if any, on most of the steep Everton streets in this area, even into the mid-1950s. I can distinctly remember when one of the very the first cars arrived in the nearby Melbourne Street where I lived as a kid. The date was around 1959 (circa 40 years after the Minerva made its surprise appearance on nearby Havelock Street). I remember it well because it was the first time a near neighbour had instructed us not to play street football within ‘shooting’ distance of his new pride and joy. What a shock that was. Up to that point, we had played against our wall every daylight hour of every day. As more cars appeared at this time, Play Streets were introduced which prevented non residents from driving down these streets between certain hours. Havelock Street was so steep it had a freestanding handrail bar up one side to assist senior citizens on their climb to the summit. Many kids used the bar to test out their circus balancing skills. Havelock Street was also famous for daredevil local kids who fancied their chances careering down the slop on their home made steering carts, dramatically more dangerous than attempting to drive that early Minerva up the hill!

You might ask: "Whatever happened to the famous Havelock Street. Yes, the incline is as steep as ever, but remember the terraced houses and the iron railing that ran the length of the street on the right to help the older people stay on their feet during icy winters? Kids used to balance on it like circus performers. Here a lady still has to make the trek up towards Northumberland Terrace with her shopping, probably from 'Greaty', but everything around her has been demolished, except for the famous St George's 'Iron Church', of course. This was once the final street on my Liverpool Echo paper round in the late 1950s, an exercise that ensured I was fit as a mountain goat!

St George’s Church on Northumberland Terrace, early 1960s. Can you spot the roof of your house on the streets below the church like Caros, Pyramid, Ewbank, Havelock, Joshua, Daniel, Somerville and others? A sea of family living, all destroyed by the clearances.

We all remember days like this, getting ready to swing on a rope from one of the old gas lamps, this one at the top of the extremely steep Havelock Street near St George's Church.