Sue and I were married in September 1975, two months after we graduated from Nottingham, and we moved to a city neither of us knew – Liverpool. I was enrolled at the university, studying for a PhD in zoology. Sue was working in the lab at Unigate Dairies in Fazakerley. We found a one roomed flat in Princes Road, Toxteth. I won’t lie. It was grim. After a year we moved to Waterloo, a much more genteel neighbourhood.
It probably took us about a year to ‘get’ Liverpool. It’s a city that grows on you slowly. In the 1970s it was suffering from decades of neglect. The docklands were derelict and abandoned. So was much of the city. We were there during the notorious 'Toxteth Riots.' But we did ‘get’ Liverpool eventually. There’s a rather charming stoicism about the city. Being ‘scouse’ is less about where you come from and more about your frame of mind. In the 70s it was a city of rip-off goods, and dodgy politics, and football, and wisecracks. I’m not sure much has changed. In the 1980s I worked for a while at the Port of Liverpool Building on the Pier Head. The Albert Docks were being transformed. There was a sense that Liverpool had turned a corner. Things were looking up. Today our daughter, Zoe, is an Events Manager for Liverpool Council. It’s an amazing job. It means we are drawn back to the city every time there is a big event –and there are a lot in Liverpool - music festivals, fireworks, lightshows, tall ships – and here, in the photograph, for one of three amazing visits by the giants!
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