While researching yesterday’s post about Squeaking Jimmy, I dug out my copies of Horne and Maund’s seminal five book series Liverpool Transport. A lifetime’s work – these are often described as books for ‘anoraks’ by those with only a passing interest in transport. To me, they belong to a fine tradition of writing about Liverpool that I believe is unrivalled in any other city.
Over the last 40+ years, the number of books keeps rising, including many seminal works such as Quentin Hughes’s Seaport – which had a profound effect on all who read it – and the Pevner series, recently brilliantly revised in two volumes by Richard Pollard and Joseph Sharples. There have been many other important books – including English Heritage’s six volume series published for Capital of Culture Year. I have published approaching 200 titles as Bluecoat Press and yet I have turned down five times as many because there is a limit to what I can do. The result of all this effort is a deep awareness of the Liverpool’s rich history – quite astonishing for such a ‘young’ city. Go to Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds or any other city and you will find nothing like the same breadth or depth of titles. Sadly, I see the number of books being published rapidly slowing down – after all, there are only two major bookshops (both Waterstones) in the city centre and little else outside. The internet is obviously a superb source of information but it is difficult to replicate the structure of a physical book (although ebooks will soon take on this function).
Publishing is at an interesting crossroads and I hope my blog helps in the transition from paper to digital. Today’s photographs are a case in point – two previously unpublished images of market life in the 1890s. Both are captioned Back o’ the Market and bear close similarities to Inston’s work. This is life in the raw as hawkers try to make a few pennies from selling rags, broken crockery or whatever else can make them a few coppers.
The image of the ragged trousered and barefooted child, is captivating.
The lower picture is Dawson St, with the Theatre Royal jutting out into Williamson Square.
captivating indeed – it’s rare to see such an early photo of an everyday scene which seems to capture something of the subjects’ emotions. A moment captured, these people continued to live and eventually die. We have replaced them, but our days are numbered and we too will be replaced. Powerful stuff, photography!
These photographs are wonderful. The quality is marvelous. They make the past seem much closer; it’s as if they’ve dressed modern-day people in Victorian clothes. I like the man in the top picture who seems to be selling what lookes like boot laces or pieces of hemp. He looks like he’s having a chuckle to himself, and I can just imagine that little bare-foot boy today wearing trainers and a baseball cap. If he managed to grow into adulthood, it’s likely he would have fought in the 1st World War.