Acclaimed photographer and former Daily Post picture editor Stephen Shakeshaft tells Peter Elson how Liverpool’s people and the fast-changing backdrop of the city inspired his latest exhibition

Born in 1946, Stephen started at the Daily Post & Echo in September, 1962. His career as photographer began a year later, with him finally retiring in 2007.

“Coming to work from Wirral to Liverpool Central station, the first thing I saw walking into St John’s Market was a parrot on a stand and the fruit market with Lizzie Christian, who’d give me an apple each day.”

Stephen’s father worked in insurance and was a keen nature photo-grapher.

“I was desperate to get away from school. My mentor was the amazingly named Phenyl Brickwell Robson.

“He was an ex-wartime bandleader and taught me to print as he swayed and conducted swing music like In the Mood.

“But he also taught me about people and I realised Liverpool was everything you could wish for.

“This was the catalyst for my third exhibition about Liverpool – its people.

“I’ve worked with 18 editors and used to say to them that any great story would always be superseded by something more bizarre or extreme.” Sifting through his archive again emphasised how different that world was, 45 years ago.

Even in 1980, children were still being bathed in tin baths and families were using outside toilets in Everton.

“I was constantly drawn to these streets being demolished. There was always one old lady left waiting to be moved in the last house standing.

“She’d be wearing the Liverpool uniform of a full-apron and always asked you in for tea, buttering the bread on its side.

“Once these communities disappeared, so did Liverpool’s atmosphere and the people’s sense of belonging.”

There were other diversions. Stephen vividly remembers the pall of black smoke from Fazakerley tyre factory when the neighbouring estate had to be evacuated.

He discovered a lady, overwhelmed with relief at finding the dog she had lost.