Seeing those photos of Allerton Road has brought memories flooding back.
As kids we went to the Saturday matinee of mayhem. It was always a close cut thing to get out of the cinema at the end before the kids from Under the Bridge in Garston robbed your bus fare. Don't why we worried because we'd already spent it and would happily run home down Mather Avenue .
The first 'grown up' film I saw there was the 1960 version of the Time Machine starring the square jawed Rod Taylor. For some reason my mum took me and I don't know what she made of the green skinned Morlocks but they scared the shit out of the eight year old me.
Couple of years ater it was off to the flicks with my mates to see the likes of 'Jason and the Argonauts' and 'Zulu'. On one memorable occasion my mates' dad took a gang of us in to see 'Goldfinger' because it was an A. The sight of Shirley Eaton's gold plated arse started an interest in girls in a gang of 11 year olds - unlike today naked female flesh was rarely seen outside of museums and the occasional glimpse in a discarded Men's Magazine.
Few years later we went pretty much every Sunday night. The adverts were a mix of national and local and one of the ads featured the 'Toy Centre' just over the Road from the Odeon. Unwisely the film maker had decided to include one of the staff, a young girl we all knew, and every time her face came on screen she was hooted and abused, terrible I know but the 14/15 girls were much worse than the lads. Saw 'The Graduate', 'Butch Cassidy', 'Bonnie and Clyde' to name a few.
In 1967 during the Summer of Love and at the end of the disappointing 1966/67 season (my carefully hand painted banner was seized at Burnley by Lancashire Constabulary) I took my first serious girl friend for a 'Business Man's Lunch' (for the younger members a cut price meal not a sexual innuendo) at a Chinese Restaurant near the junction with Queens Drive. I had to get an advance on my paper round money from my mum to pay for it. She ditched me in acutely embarrassing circumstances a fortnight later.
Another memory of that time was that WH Smith foolishly had all the singles out on display which was a field day for the local scallies (when they weren't robbing scooters) to nip in and take their pick.
There was a mention of Rose Lane earlier. I seem to recall a cafe in Rose Lane which seemed t attract the Mod/Scooter crowd? I never summoned up the courage to go there despite spending ages in my check hipsters and polo shirt easing my hair into a pretty good resemblance of Steve Marriott.
Keep those photos coming - they are a beacon of light during the current shitstorm.
