Lives of our forbears were black and white but they knew how to party

Aug 28 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

As Liverpool turns 800, Mike Chapple looks back to how Liverpool celebrated its 700th and 750th birthdays

TO WHAT extent Liverpool enjoyed its birthday before the 20th century is difficult to gauge with any great accuracy, especially since Liverpool’s fortunes only began to boom in the twilight of the 1700s.

But, with the advances in newspapers, media and communication we are able to appreciate one thing more than any other – our predecessors knew how to celebrate in style.

The centrepiece of the 700th birthday in 1907 was the spectacular pageant in Wavertree Park, in which 1,500 people paraded in historic garb to tell the story of Liverpool from neolithic times through to the signing of the Charter by King John.

The head of history at Liverpool University, Ramsey Muir, who wrote the city’s 700th birthday book, even dressed up as our Royal benefactor to re-enact the esteemed autograph scene. Daily Post reader Richard Barlow, from Heswall, has a programme of music from the spectacular event which included the rendition of a specially composed Anniversary Ode.

For the 750th anniversary in the Charter fortnight of 1957, which like the 700th was held in June to allow the maximum participation of the schools still in term-time, the city went one better with a real- life Royal guest, the Queen Mother.

Behind the scenes was a special Charter celebrations sub-committee made up of a seven-member cross-party council team set up two years beforehand. It had a budget of £40,000 to be spent on the celebrations spanning June 16 to June 30.

The highlight of it all was the seven-hour tour of the city on June 25 by the regal favourite who spawned a million “Gawd Bless yer Marms” after visiting Blitz-hit Liverpool with her late husband George VI, in 1940.

On arrival at Lime Street in her special coach attached to the Red Rose express, she embarked on her elongated tour, visiting everywhere from the city Library in William Brown Street and the Anglican Cathedral to the Dunlop factory – where she admired the quality of their tennis balls – and even popped in on a lucky couple’s council house in Speke.

Other highlights included the Industry Advances exhibition, covering 75,000 square feet of Cleveland Square, off Paradise Street, and the street decoration competition. This was keenly contested between Leta Street, Walton; Grafton Street, Toxteth; Walker Street, off West Derby Road and Roseberry Street, where pre-Beatles John Lennon and The Quarrymen performed in a birthday gig on the back of a coal lorry. There were also any number of children’s street parties with much ice cream and lemonade consumed, while city school pupils received a free book with a blue cover chronicling the history of Liverpool.

Steve Binns, the city’s official city historian, said the 750th birthday was still thought of with great affection by local people of a certain age when he takes them on guided tours of the city’s landmarks.

‘YOU underestimate how important these occasions are at your peril,” said 55-year-old Mr Binns, who knows his Liverpool implicitly despite being blind.

“Dates are the clothes pegs on which people hang their lives on and which makes birthdays like this even more special because they may only happen once in a person’s lifetime.

“That’s why this Tuesday night I’ll be staying in town to listen to the big fireworks displays and think about the people in this city who came before us – and those who are to come.”

Some other flashes from the party of 1957:

The BBC Light Programme took over the Philharmonic Hall for a special Charter celebration variety concert of local talent on Sunday, June 23, before an invited audience. Compered by Brian Reece, the bill featured Arthur Askey, a pre-recorded Ted Ray, Frankie Vaughan, Lita Roza, Michael Holliday, Nancy Evans, Deryck Guyler and Ken Dodd. It was broadcast the following evening on the Northern Home Service.

To celebrate the start of Liverpool’s 750th anniversary year, The Illustrated London News decided to devote 15 pages of its January 5, 1957, issue to the city’s history and development with aerial views of the centre and special drawings of St George’s Hall and the Anglican Cathedral.

Seventy-five of Britain’s lord mayors accepted invitations to visit the city during its anniversary celebrations.

A 50-minute documentary about the city’s past 50 years, spliced together by Associated British Pathe News, was shown as support to the feature film These Dangerous Years, partly shot in Liverpool, which was receiving its world premiere at the Forum in Lime Street on Monday, June 24. Frankie Vaughan, who played a teenage Scouse gang leader who makes good after being called up, and its producer, Anna Neagle, were both there to see it along with a “host of stars.”

For the birthday fortnight, letters from Liverpool were franked with the message: 1207-1957 come to Liverpool for Liverpool Charter Celebrations from 16th to 30th June, 1957.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic played host to eight promenade concerts and two celebrity performances on June 21 and 28 by soloists Gioconda de Vito and Arthur Rubenstein respectively.

Meanwhile, the Liverpool Playhouse’s Charter run was taken up by The Admirable Crichton with which the theatre opened in 1911 and esteemed actress Margaret Rutherford was appearing in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal Court.

mikechapple