Thanks to the ListBot I was inspired to go for a wander to Mount Street and the environs during a speedy one day visit to Liverpool last week.
Having read the problems people were having arranging visits I decided not to book ahead to look around inside, although I regret not doing that now.
Well just as I had done for 8 years, I got off the 86 bus at St Philip Neri ( a neat little "Arriva" buses single decker, no such thing as
Liverpool Corporation or Atlanteans these days) and did the old walk into Blackburne Place. Nice old houses still there set back on the left and
Blackburne House Conference centre (the old girls school) on the right.
Some silly concrete sculptures of left luggage greet you as you cross over Hope St and into Mount St which is blocked off to traffic at the top .
From afar the frontage looks as of old except the main door is locked shut.
There are now user friendly slopes either side of the main steps. Thegymnasium block has gone and replaced by a modern monstrosity which
clashes with the old school building (Prince Charles would not be amused!)
As you look through the windows at the front of the building everything has changed, but the windows themselves are unchanged. The music room windows
are still there and as are those of the Board room and Room 14. But no sign of Killer or "The Romans are adorning the maidens of the island with
roses"
A bit further down and as mentioned recently Ma Gee's shop has lost its shopfront and been turned back into a house, but the windows of Jackie's
tuck shop are still there but masked by net curtains.
Along Pilgrim St (no ice cream vans any more), pretty much unchanged including the cobbled street until you get to the lower yard gates and
here is where you see the changes. Security guards watch over the entrance
which covers the old lower yard entrance to the school. There are cars parked and decorative plants at irregular intervals.
Though the glass is now tinted you can still identify rooms to the back of the building. The prefects room, and Biology lab windows at the top,Room 21
and 22.one floor down Room 8 and 9 etc
Winding paths can be seen amongst the shrubs as you make your way anticlockwise into Upper Duke St and make your way towards the upper yard.
No buses are waiting to take you to football at Mersey Road, but the gates
are still there. Look across at the windows where Rooms 43 44 and 45 , 36, 35 and 34. 18 and 19 were.
The old Post Office is still there but now a corner conveniece shop. And the Art school is unchanged.
Having been back to school I walked into town to look at the old Education Offices in SirThomas St where I worked from 1974 to 1980, but the buildings
are derelict shortly to be gutted and turned into a major new hotel along
with the Barclays Bank building next door on the corner of Victoria St.
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