Mapping out everyone’s memory lane

Jun 30 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could photograph every street in Liverpool and put them up on the web,” said Tony, casually. “If we could get enough photographers involved, it wouldn’t be too much of a task,” he added.

Well, it clearly was an immense task, but there was a determination to do it, driven by that patriotic fervour you don’t find in any other city.

Dave Wood, 52, a professional photographer and expatriate, who now lives in Luton, but is an enthusiastic Friend and a bit of a computer wizard, said that it would be possible if people could “load” their own photographs on the website.

“Within a few days it was done,” says Pat, who was brought up in Berkley Street, Toxteth, always called Liverpool 8 when he was a child.

“Every street has a story to tell,” he continues.

“We have people interested in the streets where they were brought up. They were emailing us and asking if we had photographs of that street.

“We set up a project which enables us to photograph the street to order. People in Australia have asked us to do that and we have been able to .”

The network of photographers, covering every area of the city, provide this service free of charge.

From the following examples, you can sense the scheme’s scope.

“Looking for a pic of Gregson Street L6. My great-grandmother was born at No 4 in 1855 when the area was known as Toxteth Park.”

“Would like a photo of Edgley Lane, off Orrel Lane.

“My wife lived there when we met.”

“Does anyone have pictures of the prefabs that used to be off Hillside Road, in Longview, Huyton? They were demolished in 1969-70.”

The potential is obvious. But these photographs are for the Liverpool Gallery only.

A warning says: “All photographs appearing on the Liverpool Streets’ website are the exclusive property of the person who took the image and are protected under international copyright laws.

“Photographs may not be used or manipulated in any form without the permission of the photographer. This includes use of any image as part of another photographic concept or illustration.

“No photograph or image or any part of this site is within the public domain.”

“People are sending in black and white photographs of the 1950s and they are generating lots of interest because you can see the cobbles and there are no yellow lines and people have brought out their tables and chairs,” says Pat, 54.