Re the top pic ......
I reckon this was taken late 50's rather than early 60's, what people won't realise is the height of activity that little corner will have seen just in the 70's alone.
Hydes sweet shop was a genuine corner shop with the proprietors being an ancient English couple. I say ancient because when you're a young lad everyone is ancient. It was a shorter walk than to Aigburth Vale but it was stacked with sweets to the fucking brim.
Mrs Hyde, the fucking cow, once told me mum I'd bought two boxes of matches in the same day. It wasn't my fault my older mate next door was a pyromaniac even at age 13.
I actually think Mr Hyde's younger brother is still alive to this day - he must be as old as the pyramids. I could be wrong though.
A few yards down was Ted Leather's cobblers shop, an old style skilled cobbler who fixed, sowed, repaired and shined shoes in front of your very eyes on machines and contraptions that probably don't even exist now.
There was a little garage and then there was a tiny little Bookies where all the locals would gather.
Slightly beyond that was a 'hang out' place were Mark D**lan would hang out of his bedroom window shouting at people while his mum traded more than shoes in some peoples opinion.
A few yards further is the 1st Allerton Scout Headquarters. A tiny front doorway would open to a vast space beyond were scores of kids would gather weekly. I loved following the band up Elmswood Road as it paraded on Mossley Hill church during special occasions.
Then, believe it or not, in that photo is a Tizer distribution depot. I don't think it was made there but it was certainly stocked and stolen from there. The gates seemed 14 foot high when you were 4 foot tall, but that fizzy stuff required risks and initiative and I could actually here it calling my name as I scaled the perimeter walls. Occasionally the gates were inadvertently left open which meant the local lads would ly on the grass on nearby Sefton Park burping Tizer for days.
Opposite the Tizer factory was Aigburth Vale Girls school (on the right but not really in site). Those girls popped the cork of many of the lads more than any bottle of Tizer could.
