1 00:00:04,300 --> 00:00:07,380 When we live in a house, we're just passing through. 2 00:00:07,380 --> 00:00:09,780 People have occupied it before us, 3 00:00:09,780 --> 00:00:13,220 others will take our place when we leave. 4 00:00:13,220 --> 00:00:16,900 100 human dramas played out in every room. 5 00:00:20,260 --> 00:00:24,420 Every house in Britain has a story to tell, but in this series, I'm 6 00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:27,340 going to uncover the secret life of just one - 7 00:00:27,340 --> 00:00:30,260 a single townhouse here in Liverpool... 8 00:00:30,260 --> 00:00:32,500 UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS 9 00:00:35,580 --> 00:00:39,820 ..a city that rivalled New York in the late 19th century, 10 00:00:39,820 --> 00:00:43,460 yet 100 years later was one of the poorest places in Europe. 11 00:00:45,100 --> 00:00:49,580 In many ways, 62 Falkner Street is an ordinary house. 12 00:00:49,580 --> 00:00:51,620 But as I'm going to show you, 13 00:00:51,620 --> 00:00:54,860 in reality it's an amazing treasure trove. 14 00:00:54,860 --> 00:00:59,940 He leaves them not just £100 but all also number 62 Falkner Street. 15 00:01:00,060 --> 00:01:03,220 In March 1885, again in this house, 16 00:01:03,220 --> 00:01:05,900 he grabbed her by the throat and assaulted her. 17 00:01:05,900 --> 00:01:09,660 The life that you can see recorded in these old documents is 18 00:01:09,660 --> 00:01:12,980 extraordinary. Delving into the archives, 19 00:01:12,980 --> 00:01:16,020 I'll use the personal histories of the residents of this house to 20 00:01:16,020 --> 00:01:19,900 reveal the story of Britain over almost 200 years... 21 00:01:22,140 --> 00:01:25,220 ..a period of seismic social change, 22 00:01:25,220 --> 00:01:28,660 from the early years of Victoria's reign, 23 00:01:28,660 --> 00:01:30,660 right through to the present day. 24 00:01:32,540 --> 00:01:37,180 In this episode, the swinging '60s engulf Liverpool... 25 00:01:37,180 --> 00:01:39,780 ..a famous neighbour arrives... 26 00:01:39,780 --> 00:01:42,940 The door burst open and the arrival of John Lennon, see. 27 00:01:44,300 --> 00:01:47,860 The residents witness riots, destruction, 28 00:01:47,860 --> 00:01:50,340 and the coming of an epidemic. 29 00:01:50,340 --> 00:01:54,500 And the very existence of our house hangs by a thread. 30 00:01:54,500 --> 00:01:58,380 And if the house is vacant, then it was at serious risk of 31 00:01:58,380 --> 00:02:00,700 being demolished. 32 00:02:00,700 --> 00:02:04,940 I'm going on the ultimate detective hunt, to discover lives that haven't 33 00:02:04,940 --> 00:02:07,500 been recorded in the history books, 34 00:02:07,500 --> 00:02:11,460 but which can tell us a new version of our nation's past - 35 00:02:11,460 --> 00:02:15,700 a new history of Britain hidden within the walls of a single house. 36 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:40,580 Welcome to number 62 Falkner Street. 37 00:02:40,580 --> 00:02:44,500 This Georgian-style townhouse was built as a gentleman's residence 38 00:02:44,500 --> 00:02:48,380 in one of the Empire's great trading hubs - Liverpool. 39 00:02:51,020 --> 00:02:52,980 The area in which it sits, 40 00:02:52,980 --> 00:02:56,940 Liverpool 8, has gone from being a middle-class enclave to a mixed 41 00:02:56,940 --> 00:02:59,380 neighbourhood where people of different races, 42 00:02:59,380 --> 00:03:02,620 classes and religions live cheek by jowl. 43 00:03:06,180 --> 00:03:09,140 The house, too, has slid down the social scale. 44 00:03:10,260 --> 00:03:14,820 It's gone from smart, single dwelling house, to boarding house, 45 00:03:14,820 --> 00:03:18,260 to a series of cheap rented rooms. 46 00:03:18,260 --> 00:03:20,820 Its first resident - a Liverpool 47 00:03:20,820 --> 00:03:23,980 customs clerk, had moved in back in 1841, 48 00:03:23,980 --> 00:03:28,580 and since then, more than 50 people had called this house their home. 49 00:03:31,980 --> 00:03:36,100 I want to find out what happened to the house from the post-war years 50 00:03:36,100 --> 00:03:37,620 until today. 51 00:03:38,980 --> 00:03:41,820 As well as sifting through electoral rolls, directories 52 00:03:41,820 --> 00:03:43,500 and newspapers, 53 00:03:43,500 --> 00:03:46,060 for the first time, I'll meet some of the people 54 00:03:46,060 --> 00:03:47,980 who actually lived there. 55 00:03:50,140 --> 00:03:53,820 My search begins in the year 1945. 56 00:03:53,820 --> 00:03:56,020 The house has new occupants. 57 00:03:59,500 --> 00:04:02,380 The family living here are called the Stotts. 58 00:04:02,380 --> 00:04:05,940 There's Reynold, who's 48 - he's an electrician. 59 00:04:05,940 --> 00:04:09,940 His wife, Ada, who's 45 and a shorthand typist. 60 00:04:09,940 --> 00:04:11,300 And their daughter, Audrey. 61 00:04:13,420 --> 00:04:16,460 Frustratingly, we've been able to find very little evidence with which 62 00:04:16,460 --> 00:04:18,620 to build up a picture of this, family. 63 00:04:18,620 --> 00:04:22,060 and we can't find any trace of any living relatives. 64 00:04:22,060 --> 00:04:25,220 But we've spoken to people who knew them at the time, and we do strongly 65 00:04:25,220 --> 00:04:28,500 believe that they were the owners of 62 Falkner Street. 66 00:04:31,620 --> 00:04:34,260 The family moved in in 1945, 67 00:04:34,260 --> 00:04:37,460 when Liverpool was picking up the pieces after the war. 68 00:04:39,420 --> 00:04:42,460 German bombs had left the city's docks in ruins, 69 00:04:42,460 --> 00:04:46,100 and 6,000 homes either destroyed or beyond repair. 70 00:04:49,060 --> 00:04:52,700 With a wave of service personnel returning from the war, 71 00:04:52,700 --> 00:04:55,140 the pressures on housing were intense. 72 00:04:55,140 --> 00:04:58,620 Many young adults had no choice but to share with parents 73 00:04:58,620 --> 00:05:00,780 or grandparents. 74 00:05:00,780 --> 00:05:04,540 Rental accommodation was in short supply. 75 00:05:04,540 --> 00:05:08,300 So it's no surprise that the Stotts decided to rent out rooms in 76 00:05:08,300 --> 00:05:09,980 their large house. 77 00:05:11,220 --> 00:05:15,860 The electoral roll reveals the names of their tenants. 78 00:05:15,860 --> 00:05:19,340 They are John and Beryl Quayle. 79 00:05:19,340 --> 00:05:24,100 And they move in in 1947, which is also the year that they get married. 80 00:05:24,100 --> 00:05:27,820 And 62 Falkner Street is their first home as a married couple. 81 00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:33,500 The Quayles were a typical young couple setting up their 82 00:05:33,500 --> 00:05:34,900 first home together. 83 00:05:35,980 --> 00:05:39,260 John was a returning serviceman. 84 00:05:39,260 --> 00:05:42,500 He'd spent the war with the RAF's Fleet Air Arm, 85 00:05:42,500 --> 00:05:47,020 repairing aircraft on a jungle airstrip in Sri Lanka. 86 00:05:47,020 --> 00:05:51,340 He'd come to Liverpool to get a job as a motor mechanic. 87 00:05:51,340 --> 00:05:54,500 His new wife, Beryl, was from the local area. 88 00:05:54,500 --> 00:05:58,260 She worked as a dress fitter in a ladies' fashion house in the centre 89 00:05:58,260 --> 00:06:00,140 of Liverpool. 90 00:06:01,740 --> 00:06:05,660 We know the couple rented the two attic rooms at the top of the house, 91 00:06:05,660 --> 00:06:09,900 originally used as children's bedrooms or servants' quarters. 92 00:06:12,500 --> 00:06:15,500 So this is the top floor. 93 00:06:15,500 --> 00:06:20,060 Yeah. This will have been your parents' flat. Huh! 94 00:06:20,060 --> 00:06:22,900 Wow! Beautiful, big old house. 95 00:06:23,980 --> 00:06:27,340 We have a wealth of information about John and Beryl's life here, 96 00:06:27,340 --> 00:06:30,980 thanks to their son, Bill Quayle. 97 00:06:30,980 --> 00:06:33,100 Never been inside the building. 98 00:06:33,100 --> 00:06:36,740 I knew about it, anecdotal, from my parents, and they loved it here. 99 00:06:36,740 --> 00:06:38,740 They were very, very happy here. 100 00:06:38,740 --> 00:06:40,580 And this is where it all began? Oh, yeah. 101 00:06:42,220 --> 00:06:45,420 The Quayles moved in straight after their honeymoon. 102 00:06:45,420 --> 00:06:48,380 Beryl was just 20, John 22. 103 00:06:49,900 --> 00:06:53,980 The accommodation was far from grand, but it was a big step up. 104 00:06:55,220 --> 00:06:59,340 This was the first time Beryl had lived away from her family home. 105 00:07:00,860 --> 00:07:02,540 It was brilliant for them, 106 00:07:02,540 --> 00:07:05,380 particularly for mother, cos she grew up with seven siblings in a 107 00:07:05,380 --> 00:07:07,860 semidetached house with three bedrooms, 108 00:07:07,860 --> 00:07:10,580 so she was used to sharing a room with four sisters. 109 00:07:10,580 --> 00:07:14,100 So this would be palatial for her, cos she had her own room. 110 00:07:14,100 --> 00:07:16,980 Her and my dad for the bedroom, and then the front room is like, 111 00:07:16,980 --> 00:07:19,780 "Wow, we can actually stretch out in here and do what we want." 112 00:07:19,780 --> 00:07:21,940 For her, it was paradise. 113 00:07:21,940 --> 00:07:24,900 So this was a really special place in your parents' life? Yeah. 114 00:07:24,900 --> 00:07:26,700 It was their first home together. Yep. 115 00:07:26,700 --> 00:07:29,460 But not an easy place to live, I imagine? 116 00:07:29,460 --> 00:07:32,780 Well... Um, there was no water up here. 117 00:07:32,780 --> 00:07:37,020 So they had to get a bucket of water and bring it up the stairs to use 118 00:07:37,020 --> 00:07:39,700 for washing and stuff. 119 00:07:39,700 --> 00:07:42,140 Cos they used to have a washstand in the bedroom. 120 00:07:42,140 --> 00:07:46,020 And they used to have a Primus stove in the living area, 121 00:07:46,020 --> 00:07:48,660 so they could actually make a cup of tea and do the cooking. 122 00:07:48,660 --> 00:07:51,380 But they had to bring all the water all the way up the stairs, 123 00:07:51,380 --> 00:07:54,100 and to go to the toilet, all the way down to the ground floor. 124 00:07:58,780 --> 00:08:01,020 How did your parents get together? 125 00:08:01,020 --> 00:08:04,100 The story I got told was the fact 126 00:08:04,100 --> 00:08:09,100 that my mother was persuaded to go to a dance organised by the Army. 127 00:08:09,180 --> 00:08:10,860 It was a TA dance. 128 00:08:10,860 --> 00:08:12,780 1940s JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS 129 00:08:14,460 --> 00:08:18,100 And my father was also persuaded to go, as well. 130 00:08:18,100 --> 00:08:20,860 So they both went to the dance, and that's where they met. 131 00:08:23,300 --> 00:08:26,380 They spent the whole evening dancing together. 132 00:08:26,380 --> 00:08:28,420 And they went on from there. 133 00:08:31,780 --> 00:08:34,540 It's a universal story - 134 00:08:34,540 --> 00:08:37,980 a young couple meet, fall in love, marry, and set up home. 135 00:08:40,220 --> 00:08:43,540 But what was different for the Quayles was that they were doing it 136 00:08:43,540 --> 00:08:45,740 amidst crippling austerity. 137 00:08:47,380 --> 00:08:50,500 The war effort had left the country with next to nothing - 138 00:08:50,500 --> 00:08:53,380 it was bombed-out, exhausted and drab. 139 00:08:55,060 --> 00:08:57,100 It's queue for everything. 140 00:08:57,100 --> 00:08:59,580 In fact, it's far worse now than it was during the war. 141 00:09:06,100 --> 00:09:07,620 One of the Quayles' biggest 142 00:09:07,620 --> 00:09:09,660 challenges was furnishing their new home. 143 00:09:11,500 --> 00:09:14,580 I think the thing that's interesting about John and Beryl 144 00:09:14,580 --> 00:09:19,580 setting up home in 1947 is that furniture was in very short supply, 145 00:09:19,740 --> 00:09:23,380 and it's restricted through the rationing system. 146 00:09:26,340 --> 00:09:29,380 The couple's choices were very limited. 147 00:09:29,380 --> 00:09:33,060 The production and supply of new furniture was tightly controlled by 148 00:09:33,060 --> 00:09:36,660 the Government under its utility scheme. 149 00:09:37,900 --> 00:09:40,980 Even if it's utility furniture for priority customers only on the 150 00:09:40,980 --> 00:09:43,740 points system, we can all take it as a hint that peace production 151 00:09:43,740 --> 00:09:45,820 is on the way. 152 00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:49,620 The idea that peace and plenty would return together just wasn't true. 153 00:09:51,860 --> 00:09:55,180 Beryl and John didn't go to a furniture showroom to choose the 154 00:09:55,180 --> 00:09:58,340 furniture, because the furniture showrooms weren't allowed to have 155 00:09:58,340 --> 00:10:01,100 any furniture on display. 156 00:10:01,100 --> 00:10:05,980 They would have chosen, probably, from this utility furniture catalogue. 157 00:10:05,980 --> 00:10:10,180 The local District Assistance Board would issue you 60 units 158 00:10:10,180 --> 00:10:12,220 to spend on furniture. 159 00:10:12,220 --> 00:10:16,700 Now you could only have these 60 units if you were bombed-out 160 00:10:16,700 --> 00:10:18,340 or newly married. 161 00:10:18,340 --> 00:10:22,100 And even then, there were restrictions placed on the kinds of 162 00:10:22,100 --> 00:10:24,860 things that you could buy. So if you wanted a sofa bed, 163 00:10:24,860 --> 00:10:27,380 you could only have a sofa bed if you lived in a bedsit. 164 00:10:27,380 --> 00:10:30,940 You couldn't have one if you lived in a house or a flat. 165 00:10:30,940 --> 00:10:36,180 So they were even able to control what the public were able to buy. 166 00:10:39,260 --> 00:10:41,420 Despite the day-to-day hardships, 167 00:10:41,420 --> 00:10:45,940 John and Beryl loved their rented rooms in Falkner Street. 168 00:10:45,940 --> 00:10:49,340 But they didn't intend to be carrying pails of water upstairs 169 00:10:49,340 --> 00:10:52,460 and cooking on a Primus stove forever. 170 00:10:52,460 --> 00:10:54,700 They knew they wanted to start a family, 171 00:10:54,700 --> 00:10:57,540 but as far as bringing kids up, this was not an ideal place. 172 00:10:57,540 --> 00:11:00,660 So they knew they were going to be using this as a stepping stone 173 00:11:00,660 --> 00:11:05,820 to save up to be able to afford the deposit on a terraced house, 174 00:11:06,220 --> 00:11:08,900 because they wanted their own place. 175 00:11:08,900 --> 00:11:12,540 As you get a bit of money, you try and get yourself something with a bit of greenery. 176 00:11:14,620 --> 00:11:17,780 Like many post-war couples, the Quayles wanted an escape 177 00:11:17,780 --> 00:11:21,420 from the grime and the bomb damage of the city centre. 178 00:11:21,420 --> 00:11:24,220 Their aim was to buy a house in the suburbs. 179 00:11:24,220 --> 00:11:29,260 And their route out of Falkner Street was through hard work and careful saving. 180 00:11:29,420 --> 00:11:31,860 Beryl kept her job in retail, 181 00:11:31,860 --> 00:11:34,900 John worked his way up from mechanic to bus driver. 182 00:11:36,580 --> 00:11:38,900 And the man who has spent a lot of his life in uniform, 183 00:11:38,900 --> 00:11:41,700 he looks quite at ease in his bus driver's uniform. 184 00:11:41,700 --> 00:11:44,740 Yeah, he used to iron his own shirts every morning. 185 00:11:44,740 --> 00:11:48,060 Yeah. He wore a uniform most of his life. 186 00:11:50,700 --> 00:11:52,820 After saving for seven years, 187 00:11:52,820 --> 00:11:56,620 the Quayles had enough for a deposit on their first house. 188 00:11:56,620 --> 00:11:58,660 In 1954, they moved in. 189 00:12:02,340 --> 00:12:05,100 Their new home had a separate kitchen, 190 00:12:05,100 --> 00:12:09,020 a proper bathroom and a spacious living room. 191 00:12:11,100 --> 00:12:16,340 It must have seemed unimaginably luxurious after life in Falkner Street. 192 00:12:16,780 --> 00:12:19,420 It's difficult for us to entirely remember, even though 193 00:12:19,420 --> 00:12:22,140 it's only 50, 60 years ago, 194 00:12:22,140 --> 00:12:27,180 but back then, millions of people regarded houses like this as relics. 195 00:12:27,180 --> 00:12:30,740 Of an age that they wanted to escape from, not commemorate. 196 00:12:32,620 --> 00:12:36,340 A year after they moved in, Beryl gave birth to her son, Bill, 197 00:12:36,340 --> 00:12:38,460 the child she had always wanted. 198 00:12:44,220 --> 00:12:48,220 By fleeing the inner city, the Quayles were typical of the age. 199 00:12:50,620 --> 00:12:54,940 The buses that John drove connected Liverpool to a whole series 200 00:12:54,940 --> 00:12:56,980 of newly built settlements. 201 00:12:56,980 --> 00:13:00,460 Housing developments were springing up in outlying towns 202 00:13:00,460 --> 00:13:03,060 like Speke, Kirkby and Halewood. 203 00:13:03,060 --> 00:13:07,580 New industrial estates provided jobs for their residents. 204 00:13:07,580 --> 00:13:09,780 According to a post-war survey, 205 00:13:09,780 --> 00:13:15,060 52% of women wanted to live in a suburb or small town. 206 00:13:15,500 --> 00:13:19,340 This is the Daily Mail Book Of Britain's Post-War Homes, 207 00:13:19,340 --> 00:13:23,860 based on the ideas and opinions of four-and-a-half million women. 208 00:13:23,860 --> 00:13:26,060 And there's a lovely quote here, it says, 209 00:13:26,060 --> 00:13:29,620 "Today, the women of the city are crying aloud, 'give us space, 210 00:13:29,620 --> 00:13:33,740 " 'space in which to breathe, space in which to bring up our children, 211 00:13:33,740 --> 00:13:37,140 " 'space in which to live, move and have our being.' " 212 00:13:39,420 --> 00:13:43,620 After John and Beryl Quayle's departure, the house was rented out 213 00:13:43,620 --> 00:13:45,580 to a succession of different people. 214 00:13:50,140 --> 00:13:52,260 The landlords changed too. 215 00:13:52,260 --> 00:13:55,700 When the Stott family left after 15 years in the house, 216 00:13:55,700 --> 00:14:00,060 62 Falkner Street was sold to a local investment company. 217 00:14:08,500 --> 00:14:10,260 Then came the '60s. 218 00:14:16,100 --> 00:14:20,900 There was an explosion of painting, music, poetry and counterculture 219 00:14:20,900 --> 00:14:23,580 from the coffee shops, pubs and art studios of Liverpool. 220 00:14:28,780 --> 00:14:32,660 How can we account for this great outburst of creativity 221 00:14:32,660 --> 00:14:35,300 in this city at that moment? 222 00:14:35,300 --> 00:14:38,340 Well, for a start, there were lots of young people in the population, 223 00:14:38,340 --> 00:14:40,780 thanks to the post-war baby boom. 224 00:14:40,780 --> 00:14:45,180 And Liverpool being a port town, had always had strong connections to the 225 00:14:45,180 --> 00:14:49,100 wider world and it absorbed lots of cultural influences. 226 00:14:49,100 --> 00:14:53,860 But more than that, Liverpool has always had a very strong sense of 227 00:14:53,860 --> 00:14:55,660 its own identity. 228 00:14:55,660 --> 00:14:58,060 A creative, nonconformist streak 229 00:14:58,060 --> 00:15:01,300 that's often found expression in the arts. 230 00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:10,420 Not far from the house lives June Furlong. 231 00:15:10,420 --> 00:15:13,820 She has vivid memories of the neighbourhood at the time. 232 00:15:16,140 --> 00:15:19,820 If you walked that way, you get into all the art establishments. 233 00:15:19,820 --> 00:15:23,660 You walked that way, you get into the Liverpool University. 234 00:15:23,660 --> 00:15:26,940 And then you walked that way, and you got to the Rialto. 235 00:15:26,940 --> 00:15:29,140 So it was all going on. 236 00:15:29,140 --> 00:15:32,580 There were social clubs that were quite nice along there. 237 00:15:32,580 --> 00:15:35,380 You just go up here and turn left - Falkner Square... 238 00:15:35,380 --> 00:15:37,500 ..and that Embassy Club... 239 00:15:37,500 --> 00:15:40,660 In the daytime, it was a sort of eating club, you know, 240 00:15:40,660 --> 00:15:42,700 dining club and all that. 241 00:15:42,700 --> 00:15:44,940 At night, it was changed completely. 242 00:15:44,940 --> 00:15:47,020 I'd go with a big group of artists 243 00:15:47,020 --> 00:15:49,300 because you could get a drink after hours. 244 00:15:52,900 --> 00:15:57,980 And the Gladray Club in Upper Parliament Street, oh, God. 245 00:15:57,980 --> 00:16:01,700 I mean, the things you'd see there, we'd only go in for a drink. 246 00:16:05,220 --> 00:16:07,340 That was all swinging. 247 00:16:07,340 --> 00:16:09,500 It was a very good scene, really, in the '60s. 248 00:16:11,820 --> 00:16:15,260 The nearby social clubs reflected the make-up of the neighbourhood. 249 00:16:15,260 --> 00:16:19,460 Decades of immigration had led to a fantastic diversity 250 00:16:19,460 --> 00:16:20,980 in the population. 251 00:16:22,340 --> 00:16:24,580 So there was the Nigerian Club, 252 00:16:24,580 --> 00:16:26,780 the Somali, 253 00:16:26,780 --> 00:16:28,660 the West Indian, 254 00:16:28,660 --> 00:16:31,460 the Polish and Mediterranean clubs, 255 00:16:31,460 --> 00:16:32,900 along with many others. 256 00:16:34,940 --> 00:16:38,180 They played the latest imported records - 257 00:16:38,180 --> 00:16:40,180 R&B, ska, jazz and calypso. 258 00:16:44,500 --> 00:16:47,060 In the hipster area of Falkner Street, 259 00:16:47,060 --> 00:16:49,540 there were some famous neighbours. 260 00:16:49,540 --> 00:16:54,020 John Lennon moved with his new wife, Cynthia, to number 36. 261 00:16:55,260 --> 00:16:58,460 June got to know Lennon when she was working as a life model 262 00:16:58,460 --> 00:17:00,340 at the art school. 263 00:17:00,340 --> 00:17:04,420 I remember sitting in the room where I had sat all my life, 264 00:17:04,420 --> 00:17:08,460 the door opened, burst open, and the arrival of John Lennon, you see. 265 00:17:08,460 --> 00:17:11,860 And he looked at me and said, "My name is John Lennon, 266 00:17:11,860 --> 00:17:14,700 "I'm enrolled to do a fine art degree here, 267 00:17:14,700 --> 00:17:16,380 "and I'll be drawing you. 268 00:17:16,380 --> 00:17:20,260 "Is that all right?" I said, "Well, that's all right, you know, 269 00:17:20,260 --> 00:17:23,660 "get yourself an easel, get a chair and sit down." 270 00:17:23,660 --> 00:17:26,500 He was very entertaining, but he used the place 271 00:17:26,500 --> 00:17:28,980 like a big cocktail party, you know. 272 00:17:28,980 --> 00:17:32,420 I mean, if I had kept all those letters that John Lennon, 273 00:17:32,420 --> 00:17:35,340 who came here regularly looking for me to go to parties, 274 00:17:35,340 --> 00:17:37,500 if I'd kept all those notes from him, 275 00:17:37,500 --> 00:17:41,340 I'd be in blooming South Kensington now, I wouldn't be sitting here. 276 00:17:43,580 --> 00:17:46,380 The street was at the centre of the city's social, 277 00:17:46,380 --> 00:17:48,940 cultural and intellectual scene. 278 00:17:50,620 --> 00:17:52,820 But the '60s didn't swing for everyone. 279 00:17:53,980 --> 00:17:57,500 In 1962, a family moved into the house. 280 00:17:59,620 --> 00:18:01,700 Robert. Hi, David. 281 00:18:01,700 --> 00:18:04,940 Hi, nice to meet you. And you. And this is... 282 00:18:04,940 --> 00:18:07,820 This is where you were born? I was born in that very house, yeah. 283 00:18:10,420 --> 00:18:14,700 Robert Mercer Jr was born soon after his family moved into the house. 284 00:18:16,700 --> 00:18:19,100 He spent the first seven years of his life here. 285 00:18:20,340 --> 00:18:23,020 His father, Robert, did casual jobs, 286 00:18:23,020 --> 00:18:25,220 his mother, Dorothy, was a former nurse. 287 00:18:26,660 --> 00:18:30,940 He had three siblings, Trevor, Sandra and Jackie. 288 00:18:30,940 --> 00:18:34,900 And what about the community that lived here? What sort of people had come to Falkner Street 289 00:18:34,900 --> 00:18:37,060 and the streets around? Well, there was a mix, really. 290 00:18:37,060 --> 00:18:40,540 I mean, next door and around the corner in Bedford Street was a 291 00:18:40,540 --> 00:18:42,980 friend of my mother's - Alice and her husband. 292 00:18:42,980 --> 00:18:45,380 They were from Jamaica. He was a docker. 293 00:18:45,380 --> 00:18:48,980 It was a nice community, you know, no problems. 294 00:18:48,980 --> 00:18:50,820 It was really nice. 295 00:18:50,820 --> 00:18:53,060 A nice mix of the different people. 296 00:18:53,060 --> 00:18:54,700 Different ages, as well. 297 00:18:54,700 --> 00:18:58,300 Shall we go and see... Certainly, yeah, let's go in. ..what it looks like now? Yeah. 298 00:19:00,340 --> 00:19:03,020 Wow! It looks a lot smaller. 299 00:19:03,020 --> 00:19:06,260 The house looks smaller? Yeah, well, I was seven when I left, wasn't I. 300 00:19:06,260 --> 00:19:08,300 So, bound to be. 301 00:19:08,300 --> 00:19:10,780 Hey, look at that, original, still. 302 00:19:10,780 --> 00:19:13,020 Still the same original staircase that was fitted here. 303 00:19:14,420 --> 00:19:18,060 The family rented two rooms and a landing on the first floor. 304 00:19:19,220 --> 00:19:22,380 This is where we slept, in here. 305 00:19:22,380 --> 00:19:25,780 The year after they moved in, Dorothy had a fifth child, 306 00:19:25,780 --> 00:19:29,860 and soon seven family members shared this space. 307 00:19:29,860 --> 00:19:33,220 This was a bedroom? Yeah, with a difference. 308 00:19:33,220 --> 00:19:35,940 It had a partition wall in. 309 00:19:35,940 --> 00:19:40,940 Up, along and then down, with a doorway about here. 310 00:19:42,460 --> 00:19:47,020 Mum and Dad slept in a bed there, and all five kids slept in there. 311 00:19:47,020 --> 00:19:52,100 Five siblings? Yeah. So they could watch telly as well as us. 312 00:19:52,100 --> 00:19:54,740 The television... The television was about there, yeah. 313 00:19:54,740 --> 00:19:56,260 Where's the bathroom? 314 00:19:56,260 --> 00:19:58,300 Well, no bathroom. It's just a corridor, 315 00:19:58,300 --> 00:20:00,300 at the end of the corridor was a toilet. 316 00:20:00,300 --> 00:20:02,340 Where did you wash? Well, we'd wash in the sink. 317 00:20:02,340 --> 00:20:04,940 We were only little kids, so we would fit in the sink. 318 00:20:12,100 --> 00:20:16,100 The Mercers' situation was mirrored all over the neighbourhood. 319 00:20:16,100 --> 00:20:17,980 Families crammed into decaying, 320 00:20:17,980 --> 00:20:22,340 old houses with nothing but the most basic facilities. 321 00:20:22,340 --> 00:20:26,900 70% of the city's old housing was regarded as substandard. 322 00:20:29,620 --> 00:20:34,020 A massive slum clearance programme saw houses demolished and residents 323 00:20:34,020 --> 00:20:37,460 moved to new high-rise and overspill estates. 324 00:20:40,020 --> 00:20:44,820 But the speed of rebuilding utterly failed to keep pace with demolition. 325 00:20:44,820 --> 00:20:49,060 18,000 households remained on the list for council housing. 326 00:20:49,060 --> 00:20:53,260 And huge gaps began to appear in the once-elegant terraces 327 00:20:53,260 --> 00:20:55,380 around Falkner Street. 328 00:20:57,380 --> 00:21:01,340 I would sit on the field, we used to have bonfires. 329 00:21:01,340 --> 00:21:04,300 When you say field, you mean an area that was bombed? Bombed-out. 330 00:21:04,300 --> 00:21:06,340 It's hardly countryside! You mean a bomb site! 331 00:21:06,340 --> 00:21:09,140 Yeah, a bomb site, yeah. Opposite, there was a little 332 00:21:09,140 --> 00:21:11,420 corner shop, stood on its own. 333 00:21:11,420 --> 00:21:14,060 Tobacconist/sweet shop, you used to go in there for sweets. 334 00:21:14,060 --> 00:21:16,660 Stood on its own cos everything else around you was bombed-out? 335 00:21:16,660 --> 00:21:19,340 Everything else, yeah. Stairs going up into the shop. 336 00:21:19,340 --> 00:21:21,540 Certain things stick in your mind, don't they? 337 00:21:21,540 --> 00:21:24,020 I've got this picture, which is from the late '60s, 338 00:21:24,020 --> 00:21:25,620 taken in Liverpool. 339 00:21:25,620 --> 00:21:28,300 Do you recognise these sort of conditions? 340 00:21:28,300 --> 00:21:32,500 Yeah. The oven there, the stove on the landing, just outside there. 341 00:21:32,500 --> 00:21:34,940 Because there is no kitchen? Yeah. 342 00:21:34,940 --> 00:21:37,220 Exactly like that. 343 00:21:37,220 --> 00:21:40,060 We'd get tinned potatoes, meats, peas, 344 00:21:40,060 --> 00:21:42,380 put them all in the pan and make, like, a stew. 345 00:21:42,380 --> 00:21:45,060 And it's tinned food because I'm not seeing a fridge. 346 00:21:45,060 --> 00:21:46,300 No, never had a fridge. 347 00:21:47,500 --> 00:21:48,780 So... 348 00:21:48,780 --> 00:21:51,700 It was just them times, wasn't it, you know? 349 00:21:51,700 --> 00:21:54,900 Even though it wasn't the best conditions, was it fun being here as a kid? 350 00:21:54,900 --> 00:21:56,460 Oh, yeah. It's home, isn't it? 351 00:21:56,460 --> 00:21:59,740 If you didn't live here and then come here you'd think, "What a slum that is," 352 00:21:59,740 --> 00:22:02,740 type thing, wouldn't you? No, it was fantastic. We loved it. 353 00:22:05,460 --> 00:22:08,540 In 1969, after seven years in the house, 354 00:22:08,540 --> 00:22:10,860 the family moved out to a new home, 355 00:22:10,860 --> 00:22:13,060 16 miles away in Runcorn. 356 00:22:18,820 --> 00:22:20,900 After years of casual work, 357 00:22:20,900 --> 00:22:23,900 Robert's father had got a new job at a chemical works. 358 00:22:29,220 --> 00:22:31,260 The year that the Mercers left, 359 00:22:31,260 --> 00:22:34,140 a photographer was travelling around Britain. 360 00:22:34,140 --> 00:22:39,100 He'd been sent by the housing charity Shelter to all the most deprived parts of the country 361 00:22:39,100 --> 00:22:41,340 to take photographs of the conditions there. 362 00:22:41,340 --> 00:22:43,100 And perhaps, inevitably, 363 00:22:43,100 --> 00:22:46,940 that journey took him to Liverpool 8 and to Falkner Street, 364 00:22:46,940 --> 00:22:51,300 where he took a couple photographs, including this tragic image 365 00:22:51,300 --> 00:22:53,780 of a young girl and her baby sister. 366 00:22:53,780 --> 00:22:57,060 It looks like they got dressed up to have their photograph taken, 367 00:22:57,060 --> 00:23:00,660 and yet they're standing in appalling conditions. 368 00:23:00,660 --> 00:23:03,420 Broken windows, damp running down the walls. 369 00:23:03,420 --> 00:23:07,340 These are the conditions of Falkner Street at the end of the 1960s 370 00:23:07,340 --> 00:23:09,380 and the beginning of the 1970s. 371 00:23:15,300 --> 00:23:18,780 This could be a Warsaw in 1944, but it isn't. 372 00:23:18,780 --> 00:23:21,580 It's my own city, Liverpool, in 1972. 373 00:23:21,580 --> 00:23:26,780 By the '70s, slum clearance schemes had moved 160,000 people 374 00:23:27,220 --> 00:23:29,300 out of central Liverpool. 375 00:23:29,300 --> 00:23:31,540 Entire streets were now abandoned. 376 00:23:33,420 --> 00:23:36,300 This coincided with a downturn in the local economy. 377 00:23:37,580 --> 00:23:41,300 There were multiple factory closures, huge sectors of the docks, 378 00:23:41,300 --> 00:23:44,580 once the lifeblood of the city, were shut down. 379 00:23:46,300 --> 00:23:49,260 In Liverpool 8, the neighbourhood around Falkner Street, 380 00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:51,020 unemployment was rife. 381 00:23:52,860 --> 00:23:55,300 There's no jobs anyway. 382 00:23:55,300 --> 00:23:57,260 There is only them scheme jobs, and they're not... 383 00:23:58,460 --> 00:24:00,780 Are you resigned to the fact that you'll never get a job? 384 00:24:00,780 --> 00:24:02,620 Yeah. Really? 385 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:08,340 62 Falkner Street in the midst of this blighted, 386 00:24:08,340 --> 00:24:11,380 forgotten neighbourhood was sold again. 387 00:24:11,380 --> 00:24:15,540 Another company, Rankmore Properties, bought it in 1971 388 00:24:15,540 --> 00:24:17,460 for £620. 389 00:24:18,900 --> 00:24:22,580 Around two thirds of what it had cost back in the 1840s. 390 00:24:24,580 --> 00:24:27,380 As far as tenants go, there don't appear to have been any. 391 00:24:28,540 --> 00:24:32,860 On the electoral roll from the years 1970 to 1977, 392 00:24:32,860 --> 00:24:35,940 there is no listing for number 62. 393 00:24:35,940 --> 00:24:39,140 And if the house is vacant in those years in Liverpool, 394 00:24:39,140 --> 00:24:42,380 then it was at serious risk of being demolished. 395 00:24:43,460 --> 00:24:46,460 But there was hope for number 62. 396 00:24:46,460 --> 00:24:51,060 Attitudes towards old Georgian and Victorian houses were beginning to 397 00:24:51,060 --> 00:24:55,780 change, because many of the new estates that had been built to replace the 398 00:24:55,780 --> 00:24:59,380 so-called slums had turned out even worse. 399 00:24:59,380 --> 00:25:01,060 They had been built in haste. 400 00:25:01,060 --> 00:25:02,780 They were unpleasant to live in. 401 00:25:02,780 --> 00:25:05,780 Their residents felt isolated. 402 00:25:05,780 --> 00:25:08,860 Have you any criticisms about the new sort of life you're living here? 403 00:25:08,860 --> 00:25:11,140 You come out onto the landing to come to the shops, 404 00:25:11,140 --> 00:25:13,140 you never speak to anyone. 405 00:25:13,140 --> 00:25:15,780 You know, I never see my neighbours at all. 406 00:25:15,780 --> 00:25:18,700 A few years ago, the architects and planners thought they'd got the 407 00:25:18,700 --> 00:25:22,220 answer to all the problems of urban deprivation. 408 00:25:22,220 --> 00:25:25,900 They roared their bulldozers up and down working-class streets, 409 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:27,940 destroying the traditional communities. 410 00:25:29,180 --> 00:25:33,380 And now, while those architects are no doubt sitting at home planning their next project, 411 00:25:33,380 --> 00:25:36,780 people have to remain in what's left of their last experiment. 412 00:25:36,780 --> 00:25:40,340 It's not surprising some of the people get pretty angry about it, 413 00:25:40,340 --> 00:25:42,980 not surprising to find messages scrawled up on the wall, 414 00:25:42,980 --> 00:25:45,820 messages like, "Get us kids out of here". 415 00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:54,140 What did this all mean for 62 Falkner Street? 416 00:25:54,140 --> 00:25:58,340 I've unearthed a trail of evidence revealing what happened to it next. 417 00:25:59,620 --> 00:26:02,940 Two events took place in the 1970s that were to save 418 00:26:02,940 --> 00:26:04,900 number 62 Falkner Street. 419 00:26:04,900 --> 00:26:07,060 The first took place in 1975, 420 00:26:07,060 --> 00:26:10,940 when an inspector from the Department of the Environment walked down the 421 00:26:10,940 --> 00:26:14,380 street and decided that all of the houses were of such architectural 422 00:26:14,380 --> 00:26:16,660 significance that they had to be saved, 423 00:26:16,660 --> 00:26:20,300 that they had to become listed buildings, Grade II. 424 00:26:20,300 --> 00:26:23,580 And here's the listing for number 62. 425 00:26:23,580 --> 00:26:25,140 There's not much here, 426 00:26:25,140 --> 00:26:28,420 a brief description of the basement window band, 427 00:26:28,420 --> 00:26:31,540 wedge lintels, the Doric doorcases, 428 00:26:31,540 --> 00:26:34,940 but what this listing meant was escape from the wrecking ball. 429 00:26:36,900 --> 00:26:41,700 The house was now protected in law for future generations. 430 00:26:41,700 --> 00:26:44,860 Anyone altering or extending it without permission 431 00:26:44,860 --> 00:26:48,380 could incur a fine, even a prison sentence. 432 00:26:50,260 --> 00:26:53,940 The second event took place in 1976. 433 00:26:53,940 --> 00:26:56,660 I have uncovered a planning application, 434 00:26:56,660 --> 00:26:59,140 a proposal to turn 62 Falkner Street 435 00:26:59,140 --> 00:27:02,980 from a single dwelling house into three flats. 436 00:27:02,980 --> 00:27:06,780 It's been lodged by a social housing organisation called the 437 00:27:06,780 --> 00:27:08,460 Liverpool Housing Trust. 438 00:27:11,500 --> 00:27:15,820 During the '70s, the trust bought up hundreds of old empty houses in 439 00:27:15,820 --> 00:27:20,260 Liverpool 8 and refurbished them for rental to low-income tenants. 440 00:27:22,100 --> 00:27:24,940 And 62 Falkner Street was one such house, 441 00:27:24,940 --> 00:27:28,100 which they bought for just £400. 442 00:27:30,260 --> 00:27:32,500 I've tracked down their former director. 443 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:39,180 What happened was a recognition that actually investing money in existing 444 00:27:39,180 --> 00:27:41,820 housing could save it, 445 00:27:41,820 --> 00:27:45,780 and so Liverpool Housing Trust ended up buying 446 00:27:45,780 --> 00:27:51,020 about 150 of these large properties, which made about 400 flats, 447 00:27:51,980 --> 00:27:56,460 and, all told, the whole area was systematically tackled 448 00:27:56,460 --> 00:27:58,460 over a period of about ten years. 449 00:28:02,140 --> 00:28:05,380 These are the plans that were produced by the Liverpool Housing Trust 450 00:28:05,380 --> 00:28:08,420 for the conversion of 62 Falkner Street. 451 00:28:08,420 --> 00:28:12,460 Each floor is to become a self-contained, one-bedroom flat, 452 00:28:12,460 --> 00:28:14,660 with its own bathroom and its own kitchen. 453 00:28:18,740 --> 00:28:21,620 The basement, where the kitchen and scullery used to be, 454 00:28:21,620 --> 00:28:23,900 was sealed up and used for storage. 455 00:28:25,700 --> 00:28:28,900 The ground floor, originally the dining room and morning room, 456 00:28:28,900 --> 00:28:30,580 became Flat 1. 457 00:28:35,540 --> 00:28:39,260 The first floor, designed as a drawing room and master bedroom, 458 00:28:39,260 --> 00:28:40,980 became Flat 2. 459 00:28:45,700 --> 00:28:48,580 And the small attic bedrooms became Flat 3. 460 00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:57,180 Now what's of course lost in all of this are the original features, 461 00:28:57,180 --> 00:29:00,660 the ceiling rose, the cornicing, the panelled doors, 462 00:29:00,660 --> 00:29:04,660 all the things that really mattered to the first Victorian owners 463 00:29:04,660 --> 00:29:07,020 of this house are, I'm sad to say, 464 00:29:07,020 --> 00:29:10,660 stripped out, put in a skip and thrown away. 465 00:29:20,820 --> 00:29:25,020 Of course, now we value period features and houses, 466 00:29:25,020 --> 00:29:28,220 so we might think of it as cultural vandalism, 467 00:29:28,220 --> 00:29:30,860 but I think if we see it through the lens of the time, 468 00:29:30,860 --> 00:29:33,420 it was about looking forwards. 469 00:29:33,420 --> 00:29:38,380 And of course, lots of the kinds of furniture that people were now using 470 00:29:38,380 --> 00:29:40,820 were a bit incompatible with these older houses. 471 00:29:45,940 --> 00:29:51,100 What we wanted to do is put in these lovely, tall, fitted units, 472 00:29:51,220 --> 00:29:55,820 and then the focal point of the room really changed, as well. 473 00:29:59,540 --> 00:30:02,980 The family would no longer sit around the fireplace, 474 00:30:02,980 --> 00:30:07,300 they would be much more likely to all crowd around the television as 475 00:30:07,300 --> 00:30:11,660 the focal point. So maybe there was no longer the need for this kind of 476 00:30:11,660 --> 00:30:13,340 decorative focus in the room. 477 00:30:24,820 --> 00:30:27,900 By 1979, the conversion was complete. 478 00:30:28,980 --> 00:30:33,620 The most radical transformation in the house's 130-year history. 479 00:30:34,660 --> 00:30:36,260 The first tenants moved in. 480 00:30:38,340 --> 00:30:42,380 An elderly railway engineer lived in Flat 1 on the ground floor. 481 00:30:44,620 --> 00:30:47,380 A single woman, remembered only as Miss French, 482 00:30:47,380 --> 00:30:49,460 lived in Flat 2 on the first floor. 483 00:30:52,460 --> 00:30:55,220 And on the top floor lived Brian Nicholson, 484 00:30:55,220 --> 00:30:57,660 who worked as a printer for the local paper. 485 00:30:59,460 --> 00:31:03,500 We tracked Brian down, and his ex-partner, Gale Ewart, 486 00:31:03,500 --> 00:31:05,980 who still live locally. 487 00:31:05,980 --> 00:31:09,020 So what first brought you to Falkner Street? 488 00:31:09,020 --> 00:31:12,900 I was lucky enough to get a flat, the offer of a flat, 489 00:31:12,900 --> 00:31:17,140 from Liverpool Housing Trust, which was 62 Falkner Street. 490 00:31:17,140 --> 00:31:21,140 So I moved in. That would probably be '79, somewhere around there, 491 00:31:21,140 --> 00:31:22,980 so I would be about 28 at the time. 492 00:31:22,980 --> 00:31:25,060 It was a nice place. 493 00:31:25,060 --> 00:31:27,620 And then, sometime later, you moved in with me, didn't you? 494 00:31:27,620 --> 00:31:31,620 Yeah, I moved in in about 1980, when I was 19. 495 00:31:31,620 --> 00:31:35,220 I lived about half a mile away in the centre of Toxteth. 496 00:31:35,220 --> 00:31:38,060 I eventually moved into that flat from home. 497 00:31:38,060 --> 00:31:41,300 So this period in your life was the beginning of your time together as a 498 00:31:41,300 --> 00:31:44,700 couple. Mm-hm. We lived our lives, and then I got pregnant, 499 00:31:44,700 --> 00:31:47,980 and we had a daughter there, which was fabulous, wasn't it? 500 00:31:49,740 --> 00:31:53,860 In 1981, Brian and Gale brought their baby daughter, Kerry, home 501 00:31:53,860 --> 00:31:56,900 to their tiny one-bedroom flat. 502 00:31:59,780 --> 00:32:04,660 So this is Brian and I at the time, with our daughter in the bath. 503 00:32:04,660 --> 00:32:07,980 And so this is her with our gorgeous fireplace. 504 00:32:07,980 --> 00:32:10,420 It's amazing to see the inside of the house from that period. 505 00:32:12,580 --> 00:32:15,500 It was a nice flat. It was a happy place. Yeah. 506 00:32:16,740 --> 00:32:20,260 A new chapter in Brian and Gale's life was just beginning. 507 00:32:23,540 --> 00:32:25,300 But outside their front door, 508 00:32:25,300 --> 00:32:28,580 the area still faced desperate social problems. 509 00:32:29,860 --> 00:32:34,340 One commentator said that a pall of defeat hung more heavily over the 510 00:32:34,340 --> 00:32:37,340 neighbourhood than any place he'd ever visited. 511 00:32:38,420 --> 00:32:41,980 Unemployment was running at nearly 40%, 512 00:32:41,980 --> 00:32:45,740 and the local black community faced discrimination and harassment. 513 00:32:48,660 --> 00:32:53,020 In July 1981, a few minutes' walk from Falkner Street, 514 00:32:53,020 --> 00:32:56,020 the arrest of one young black man led to a scuffle 515 00:32:56,020 --> 00:32:58,620 between police and the public. 516 00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:04,180 This sparked a sequence of events that became known 517 00:33:04,180 --> 00:33:05,820 as the Toxteth Riots. 518 00:33:07,940 --> 00:33:09,700 # Babylon's burning 519 00:33:10,860 --> 00:33:12,500 # You're burning the street 520 00:33:13,580 --> 00:33:15,980 # You're burning your houses... # 521 00:33:15,980 --> 00:33:19,180 'More than 100 white and coloured youths fought a pitched battle 522 00:33:19,180 --> 00:33:20,740 'against the police. 523 00:33:20,740 --> 00:33:24,940 'Ammunition was all around in derelict sites and empty houses. 524 00:33:24,940 --> 00:33:30,100 'Police faced a hail of stones, bottles, iron bars and petrol bombs.' 525 00:33:30,740 --> 00:33:32,180 What can you remember of that? 526 00:33:34,300 --> 00:33:37,660 Do you remember we were sitting in The Clock pub? Yeah. 527 00:33:37,660 --> 00:33:40,140 We were sitting in the pub, and we were looking out, 528 00:33:40,140 --> 00:33:43,180 and there was a line of policemen with shields one side, 529 00:33:43,180 --> 00:33:46,220 and a gang of young men the other side, sort of attacking them. 530 00:33:46,220 --> 00:33:48,620 The police lines were shoved further and further back. 531 00:33:49,980 --> 00:33:53,460 I can recall at one point bricks and things coming back over the police 532 00:33:53,460 --> 00:33:57,140 line, they were actually throwing bricks back at the people who were throwing them at them. 533 00:33:57,140 --> 00:33:58,740 A very strange night. 534 00:33:58,740 --> 00:34:01,020 # ..with anxiety 535 00:34:01,020 --> 00:34:03,060 # Babylon's burning 536 00:34:03,060 --> 00:34:04,740 # Babylon's burning... # 537 00:34:04,740 --> 00:34:08,380 The next morning, when you woke up, what did Toxteth look like? 538 00:34:08,380 --> 00:34:11,420 It was the smell you noticed first before you actually came out, 539 00:34:11,420 --> 00:34:14,540 you could actually smell burnt rubber, you know, that strange smell. 540 00:34:14,540 --> 00:34:18,340 And there were cars and things dotted around. 541 00:34:18,340 --> 00:34:21,380 The tarmac was just all burnt on Parliament Street, 542 00:34:21,380 --> 00:34:23,700 and the buses had stopped running that way. 543 00:34:23,700 --> 00:34:25,860 It was a main road through. 544 00:34:25,860 --> 00:34:27,580 I remember the milk floats. 545 00:34:27,580 --> 00:34:30,900 A dairy was broken into, and you know the electric milk floats, 546 00:34:30,900 --> 00:34:32,780 they were actually driven at the police. 547 00:34:32,780 --> 00:34:36,140 There were tensions the whole time, you know, my whole life as a child, 548 00:34:36,140 --> 00:34:41,100 so I understood, we both understood why the riots at the time happened, 549 00:34:41,260 --> 00:34:44,420 because of the way people were treated, and the way 550 00:34:44,420 --> 00:34:48,380 society had sort of left local people behind. 551 00:34:48,380 --> 00:34:52,420 It was not a good time to be young and black, I don't think, 552 00:34:52,420 --> 00:34:54,700 in the early '80s. 553 00:34:54,700 --> 00:34:59,700 So we understood, and we were sort of very aware of what was happening. 554 00:35:02,820 --> 00:35:05,020 After the first four days of rioting, 555 00:35:05,020 --> 00:35:07,860 much of the main battle ground on Upper Parliament Street 556 00:35:07,860 --> 00:35:09,540 was in ruins. 557 00:35:12,700 --> 00:35:15,700 150 buildings had been burnt down. 558 00:35:18,020 --> 00:35:19,420 Shops looted. 559 00:35:21,500 --> 00:35:24,700 And injuries sustained, on both sides. 560 00:35:28,820 --> 00:35:33,660 The causes of this mass uprising would be debated for months to come. 561 00:35:33,660 --> 00:35:37,940 Members of the community were in no doubt about why it had happened. 562 00:35:39,380 --> 00:35:42,140 Jimi Jagne was just 17 at the time. 563 00:35:43,420 --> 00:35:46,460 What were the difficulties facing people living around here and in 564 00:35:46,460 --> 00:35:49,740 Liverpool 8 in the years leading up to the riots? 565 00:35:49,740 --> 00:35:51,940 There was no desire by the authorities 566 00:35:51,940 --> 00:35:55,220 to assist people in breaking out of the community 567 00:35:55,220 --> 00:35:57,340 and, in fact, on a social level, 568 00:35:57,340 --> 00:36:00,700 whenever young black people tried to venture outside, 569 00:36:00,700 --> 00:36:04,940 the racism that they'd encounter in surrounding districts was such that, 570 00:36:04,940 --> 00:36:07,740 you know, you yearn for home, sweet home. 571 00:36:07,740 --> 00:36:11,460 So you'd find yourself pushed back to Liverpool 8 because the 572 00:36:11,460 --> 00:36:14,300 welcome outside wasn't exactly warm? It was not good at all. 573 00:36:16,940 --> 00:36:19,380 The biggest problem was the relationship between 574 00:36:19,380 --> 00:36:22,300 the black community and the police. 575 00:36:22,300 --> 00:36:27,460 The police in this city were practically masters of their own universe. 576 00:36:30,940 --> 00:36:33,620 They were a very powerful police force. 577 00:36:33,620 --> 00:36:36,860 They felt untouchable. We knew that they had a problem with us as black youths, 578 00:36:36,860 --> 00:36:39,060 because they saw us basically as troublemakers. 579 00:36:41,900 --> 00:36:45,580 How had things got that bad between the police and the black community? 580 00:36:45,580 --> 00:36:48,220 It had always been bad for as long as I remember, 581 00:36:48,220 --> 00:36:50,460 but growing up as a kid during the '70s, 582 00:36:50,460 --> 00:36:54,860 it was obvious that there was a difficult situation with the police around here. 583 00:36:54,860 --> 00:36:56,860 Their presence was felt all the time, 584 00:36:56,860 --> 00:36:58,580 they'd be driving around in vehicles, 585 00:36:58,580 --> 00:37:03,460 and you'd always hear stories of kids and teenagers and older people 586 00:37:03,460 --> 00:37:05,260 being stopped on the streets by the police. 587 00:37:07,540 --> 00:37:09,780 The Merseyside Police force had these problems, 588 00:37:09,780 --> 00:37:12,820 now not all officers saw black people as criminals, 589 00:37:12,820 --> 00:37:15,660 and not all the people who were living in L8 were black, 590 00:37:15,660 --> 00:37:18,300 so this was a mixed community, wasn't it? 591 00:37:18,300 --> 00:37:20,740 That's right, it was a very mixed community. 592 00:37:20,740 --> 00:37:23,460 In terms of race, we were living really comfortably here, 593 00:37:23,460 --> 00:37:27,660 everybody seemed to understand what the issues were for the next person, 594 00:37:27,660 --> 00:37:31,380 and in fact those same issues more than likely impacted on yourself, 595 00:37:31,380 --> 00:37:32,860 if not someone else in your family. 596 00:37:32,860 --> 00:37:35,340 So there was no reason, really, 597 00:37:35,340 --> 00:37:40,420 why there had to be any troubles here between people of different races. 598 00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:42,220 We got along just great. 599 00:37:44,300 --> 00:37:47,740 The disturbances of that summer, not just in Liverpool 8 600 00:37:47,740 --> 00:37:50,580 but in Brixton, Moss Side and elsewhere, 601 00:37:50,580 --> 00:37:54,860 were the result of years of simmering frustration and anger. 602 00:37:56,460 --> 00:38:01,180 What we had was a system that seemed to rail against us so completely 603 00:38:01,180 --> 00:38:04,900 that we had no outlets. There was no way that we could express ourselves, 604 00:38:04,900 --> 00:38:07,020 outside of this particular situation. 605 00:38:07,020 --> 00:38:10,500 There were no guarantees that all that we were going to fix or remedy 606 00:38:10,500 --> 00:38:13,500 our problem, but you had to die trying. 607 00:38:13,500 --> 00:38:15,700 Looking back now, 35 years later, 608 00:38:15,700 --> 00:38:18,940 what was the significance of those events? 609 00:38:18,940 --> 00:38:22,100 Although this neighbourhood suffered for so many years as a consequence 610 00:38:22,100 --> 00:38:25,900 of those riots, it was a pivotal point in race relations in this country. 611 00:38:25,900 --> 00:38:29,140 It was brought to the attention of the whole country that we had problems here. 612 00:38:33,060 --> 00:38:37,340 The riots of 1981 were a low point in the relationship between the 613 00:38:37,340 --> 00:38:39,860 police and the Liverpool black community. 614 00:38:39,860 --> 00:38:43,780 But they also marked perhaps the lowest point in the decline of 615 00:38:43,780 --> 00:38:47,460 Liverpool as a city, because in the aftermath of the riots, 616 00:38:47,460 --> 00:38:51,940 a programme of urban regeneration and renewal was put in place. 617 00:38:55,380 --> 00:38:58,860 There was no overnight transformation in Liverpool 8. 618 00:38:58,860 --> 00:39:01,460 Social problems persist to the present day, 619 00:39:01,460 --> 00:39:03,580 but the recovery had begun. 620 00:39:04,740 --> 00:39:07,740 Money flowed into Liverpool to tackle infrastructure, 621 00:39:07,740 --> 00:39:09,420 housing and employment. 622 00:39:12,900 --> 00:39:15,500 More than 850 acres of dockland, 623 00:39:15,500 --> 00:39:18,140 most of which had been closed for years, 624 00:39:18,140 --> 00:39:20,980 was restored and reopened. 625 00:39:20,980 --> 00:39:24,220 The city's famous Albert Dock began to trade again, 626 00:39:24,220 --> 00:39:27,260 though the money came now from tourism, not shipping. 627 00:39:30,620 --> 00:39:35,580 62 Falkner Street continued its existence as social housing. 628 00:39:38,700 --> 00:39:42,620 The tenants during the late '80s describe it as a happy place. 629 00:39:43,700 --> 00:39:46,340 Life followed familiar routines. 630 00:39:46,340 --> 00:39:48,380 Visits from family, nights at the pub. 631 00:39:55,620 --> 00:40:00,780 In the early '90s, I moved to Liverpool to study history at the university. 632 00:40:00,980 --> 00:40:04,500 At that time, the area around Falkner Street was run-down, 633 00:40:04,500 --> 00:40:08,060 but it was regarded as exciting, diverse and Bohemian. 634 00:40:10,140 --> 00:40:13,340 So the next wave of people who were drawn to the area came not just 635 00:40:13,340 --> 00:40:16,620 because of the cheap rents, but because of its vibrant culture. 636 00:40:16,620 --> 00:40:20,060 And they weren't labourers and bus drivers, they were sculptors, 637 00:40:20,060 --> 00:40:22,100 musicians and poets. 638 00:40:25,780 --> 00:40:31,060 Among these new tenants was Jeff Young, who moved in in 1992. 639 00:40:31,380 --> 00:40:33,700 Of all the people I've traced, 640 00:40:33,700 --> 00:40:37,500 he was the easiest to find because he's an acclaimed playwright 641 00:40:37,500 --> 00:40:38,740 and screenwriter. 642 00:40:40,380 --> 00:40:43,220 What drew you to living in this part of Liverpool? 643 00:40:43,220 --> 00:40:45,500 I just always wanted to live in Liverpool 8, 644 00:40:45,500 --> 00:40:46,780 from when I was a kid. 645 00:40:46,780 --> 00:40:50,380 I was drawn to it romantically, physically, architecturally. 646 00:40:50,380 --> 00:40:53,700 The life on the streets, the whole West Indian feel to it, you know. 647 00:40:53,700 --> 00:40:56,860 But many people outside of Liverpool would have thought that's where the 648 00:40:56,860 --> 00:41:01,740 riots were. Yeah, to me, the riots kind of fed into that atmosphere, 649 00:41:01,740 --> 00:41:05,580 you know. You could feel the energy of the riots was still there. 650 00:41:05,580 --> 00:41:09,900 A romantic, poetic, kind of Bohemian beatnik thing, 651 00:41:09,900 --> 00:41:12,180 a little bit edgy, you know, after dark. 652 00:41:12,180 --> 00:41:15,540 You know, but that's exciting, you know. 653 00:41:15,540 --> 00:41:18,020 So this is you back in the '90s? 654 00:41:18,020 --> 00:41:23,180 This is me probably in the mid-'90s, slightly wild. 655 00:41:23,260 --> 00:41:26,300 Wild-eyed, glassy-eyed, I think. 656 00:41:26,300 --> 00:41:27,740 And which flat did you live in? 657 00:41:27,740 --> 00:41:30,180 I lived in flat two, on the first floor. 658 00:41:30,180 --> 00:41:32,220 I've been looking trying to find some photographs. 659 00:41:32,220 --> 00:41:34,060 These were both in the living room. 660 00:41:34,060 --> 00:41:36,180 That's me and my... You and your cats? 661 00:41:36,180 --> 00:41:39,100 Cats and my dad. My reluctant father in the photo. 662 00:41:40,340 --> 00:41:43,700 Then, if you looked at the front of the house, it was intact as a 663 00:41:43,700 --> 00:41:45,980 Georgian facade, as a Georgian building. 664 00:41:45,980 --> 00:41:48,860 Inside, it was like living in cardboard boxes, you know? 665 00:41:48,860 --> 00:41:51,660 The, kind of, dividing walls were paper-thin, 666 00:41:51,660 --> 00:41:54,940 and it was almost like the identikit structure that they slotted into the 667 00:41:54,940 --> 00:41:56,580 inside of the buildings, you know? 668 00:41:59,540 --> 00:42:02,820 As a freelance writer, the flat was Jeff's office, 669 00:42:02,820 --> 00:42:05,460 the neighbourhood was where he found his inspiration. 670 00:42:07,100 --> 00:42:09,220 So yeah, I was working as a writer. 671 00:42:09,220 --> 00:42:10,780 I was working as a stand-up poet, 672 00:42:10,780 --> 00:42:13,340 and then I got into theatre pretty quickly. 673 00:42:13,340 --> 00:42:15,660 But it was the hanging-outness of it. 674 00:42:15,660 --> 00:42:18,700 You'd get up late, you'd get some breakfast together, and then when it 675 00:42:18,700 --> 00:42:21,660 seemed like a sensible enough time, you go to the pub. 676 00:42:21,660 --> 00:42:23,780 You know, and you'd meet other people in the pub. 677 00:42:23,780 --> 00:42:26,660 And you'd be sitting with a painter, or a musician and you'd talk. 678 00:42:26,660 --> 00:42:29,460 And so, that was it. That was the height of the dream for me. 679 00:42:30,460 --> 00:42:31,940 I was a deadbeat. 680 00:42:31,940 --> 00:42:35,140 Can you remember the other sort of people who were living in the flats 681 00:42:35,140 --> 00:42:39,220 in Falkner Street? Yeah, you know, it's fluid, it changed all the time. 682 00:42:39,220 --> 00:42:43,140 Upstairs was a musician and his daughter. 683 00:42:43,140 --> 00:42:46,940 And downstairs was a guy who ran a tapas joint 684 00:42:46,940 --> 00:42:49,540 up in the business quarter. 685 00:42:49,540 --> 00:42:51,860 And he would play the organ in the evenings. 686 00:42:51,860 --> 00:42:56,100 So quite often we would hear the music coming up from the... 687 00:42:56,100 --> 00:42:58,100 Through the cardboard floors, you know. 688 00:43:00,980 --> 00:43:03,980 He was very separate, he was very self-contained. 689 00:43:03,980 --> 00:43:05,820 You would hardly ever see him. 690 00:43:05,820 --> 00:43:07,620 But... I didn't get to know him. 691 00:43:12,140 --> 00:43:14,620 I start a search for the mystery musical neighbour 692 00:43:14,620 --> 00:43:16,980 from the ground-floor flat. 693 00:43:19,380 --> 00:43:22,900 The electoral roll reveals his name, Mark Merino. 694 00:43:22,900 --> 00:43:27,100 A native of Merseyside, of dual English and Spanish Basque heritage. 695 00:43:28,780 --> 00:43:32,820 Although it's listed in an old phone directory from 1993, 696 00:43:32,820 --> 00:43:35,220 Mark's restaurant no longer exists. 697 00:43:36,580 --> 00:43:40,140 But then, I track down Mark's younger sister, Miranda, 698 00:43:40,140 --> 00:43:42,420 who agrees to meet me. 699 00:43:42,420 --> 00:43:45,700 My brother spent a bit of time living down in London 700 00:43:45,700 --> 00:43:50,300 in the early '80s, and then he moved back up to Liverpool - 701 00:43:50,300 --> 00:43:53,580 Falkner Street... and started the tapas bar. 702 00:43:58,460 --> 00:44:02,020 Oh, it was just fabulous, the food, the atmosphere. 703 00:44:02,020 --> 00:44:03,660 All the chefs were Basque. 704 00:44:03,660 --> 00:44:05,780 Mark made a lot of effort. 705 00:44:05,780 --> 00:44:10,020 You know, he would be up early in the mornings to go to the fish market, you know. 706 00:44:10,020 --> 00:44:13,780 And he drove all the way to Valencia in Spain 707 00:44:13,780 --> 00:44:16,980 to get the jamon serrano on the bone, you know, 708 00:44:16,980 --> 00:44:20,860 because that is proper, proper, proper food. 709 00:44:20,860 --> 00:44:26,060 And he'd put on flamenco evenings or piano evenings, 710 00:44:27,620 --> 00:44:29,940 great musicians would come and play. 711 00:44:29,940 --> 00:44:33,180 He was extreme and extravagant... 712 00:44:34,660 --> 00:44:37,620 ..but all in really good ways. 713 00:44:41,660 --> 00:44:45,980 Mark's restaurant operated out of this building in central Liverpool. 714 00:44:45,980 --> 00:44:49,820 His old friend Kath Charters used to visit back in the '90s. 715 00:44:53,500 --> 00:44:57,460 So what was this place like when it was Mark's tapas bar? 716 00:44:57,460 --> 00:45:01,820 Oh, it was really, really amazing because it was kind of a beautiful 717 00:45:01,820 --> 00:45:05,860 spot in amongst a lot of not-quite-so-beautiful spots. 718 00:45:09,980 --> 00:45:12,180 And it was, as well as being the first tapas bar, 719 00:45:12,180 --> 00:45:14,220 it was part of the gay scene in Liverpool. 720 00:45:14,220 --> 00:45:16,220 It was part of the gay scene in Liverpool, 721 00:45:16,220 --> 00:45:19,500 I mean, all the piano players were gay, all the staff were gay, 722 00:45:19,500 --> 00:45:23,580 and it was a place where people could go and be fed beautifully, 723 00:45:23,580 --> 00:45:27,220 maybe have a little bit of quiet time, also have a little bit of fun time. 724 00:45:27,220 --> 00:45:29,700 It was enjoyable and it was creative. 725 00:45:29,700 --> 00:45:32,620 And what was the gay scene like in Liverpool in those days? 726 00:45:32,620 --> 00:45:34,820 It was very joyous and very raucous. 727 00:45:34,820 --> 00:45:39,780 I mean, there's always been and still is a camaraderie 728 00:45:40,020 --> 00:45:42,020 in the gay community in Liverpool 729 00:45:42,020 --> 00:45:45,260 that I don't personally experience anywhere else. 730 00:45:47,540 --> 00:45:50,860 But in 1993, while the restaurant thrived, 731 00:45:50,860 --> 00:45:55,220 Liverpool's gay community was in the grip of the HIV epidemic. 732 00:45:56,660 --> 00:45:59,740 From just a handful of cases a decade earlier, 733 00:45:59,740 --> 00:46:04,260 there were now around 150 new diagnoses every year. 734 00:46:06,020 --> 00:46:09,860 Many of the people in Liverpool most affected by the virus lived within a 735 00:46:09,860 --> 00:46:11,700 short distance of the house. 736 00:46:14,900 --> 00:46:19,220 What was the impact of HIV on the gay community here in Liverpool? 737 00:46:19,220 --> 00:46:22,460 It was very devastating, as it was in lots of places. 738 00:46:22,460 --> 00:46:25,540 I mean, where I lived and where Mark lived, 739 00:46:25,540 --> 00:46:29,180 there was maybe, like, five to seven streets around that area 740 00:46:29,180 --> 00:46:33,660 where numbers of gay men lived, and you would just kind of begin 741 00:46:33,660 --> 00:46:37,500 to be aware that you weren't seeing that person on the street any more. 742 00:46:37,500 --> 00:46:41,980 There were just people, young men, dying all the time. 743 00:46:41,980 --> 00:46:45,540 We were literally attending a funeral every couple of weeks, 744 00:46:45,540 --> 00:46:50,300 if not weekly. And there was that sense of desperation at the time 745 00:46:50,300 --> 00:46:53,100 that people were not going to recover from this. 746 00:46:56,820 --> 00:47:00,500 Kath worked for a local HIV charity supporting people 747 00:47:00,500 --> 00:47:02,660 living with the virus. 748 00:47:04,540 --> 00:47:07,860 We had a very big therapeutic 749 00:47:07,860 --> 00:47:10,020 team at that time. 750 00:47:10,020 --> 00:47:13,780 And the people used to go and assist people with their shopping. 751 00:47:13,780 --> 00:47:17,740 Maybe assist people cleaning, decorating the house. 752 00:47:17,740 --> 00:47:21,780 Those kind of tasks that people may no longer be able to do. 753 00:47:21,780 --> 00:47:25,300 But equally, that family members might be afraid to do. 754 00:47:25,300 --> 00:47:29,500 Because people, even relatives, didn't want to go near their... 755 00:47:29,500 --> 00:47:32,780 Anyone who had HIV. Yeah, and there was that whole thing... 756 00:47:32,780 --> 00:47:36,660 And touch them. Yeah, or you might share cups with them, and that kind of thing. 757 00:47:36,660 --> 00:47:40,460 This was thought to be a route of transmission, in those days, 758 00:47:40,460 --> 00:47:42,740 by, you know, the outside world really. 759 00:47:47,820 --> 00:47:52,940 In 1994, Kath came to 62 Falkner Street to support a new client. 760 00:47:53,220 --> 00:47:56,900 Mark himself had contracted HIV. 761 00:47:58,940 --> 00:48:02,820 Mark was someone you had known from this bar, from his restaurant. 762 00:48:02,820 --> 00:48:06,260 Yeah. Then you got to know him in a different way, through your work. 763 00:48:06,260 --> 00:48:08,660 Then I got to know him in a different way, yeah. 764 00:48:08,660 --> 00:48:11,980 I was going out with one of the woman here in the bar. 765 00:48:11,980 --> 00:48:15,420 I know the people who were actually associated with the bar would go 766 00:48:15,420 --> 00:48:18,860 around to Mark's house when he was getting ill and we would cook and 767 00:48:18,860 --> 00:48:21,140 talk to him and, you know, kind of be with him. 768 00:48:23,940 --> 00:48:28,500 Mark got increasingly frail and he wanted to eat particular things 769 00:48:28,500 --> 00:48:33,700 cos his big thing was to feed himself and food was his medicine. 770 00:48:35,940 --> 00:48:39,100 So, we really spent a lot of time with him at home. 771 00:48:40,980 --> 00:48:42,860 He didn't particularly want to be in hospital, 772 00:48:42,860 --> 00:48:46,220 had a bit of an aversion to hospitals. He wanted to be at home. 773 00:48:46,220 --> 00:48:50,340 So he was determined to spend his... What time he had left in Falkner Street? 774 00:48:50,340 --> 00:48:51,780 Yeah, he wanted to be there. 775 00:48:51,780 --> 00:48:54,820 So you would sit in front of those big sash windows and... Yeah, yeah. 776 00:48:54,820 --> 00:48:58,420 And eat and talk? Yeah, we talked a lot. 777 00:49:00,620 --> 00:49:05,740 At that time, in the early '90s, HIV treatments were largely ineffective. 778 00:49:06,460 --> 00:49:11,300 The majority of people diagnosed went on to develop AIDS-related illnesses. 779 00:49:12,500 --> 00:49:15,060 Mark's health went into rapid decline. 780 00:49:17,060 --> 00:49:21,020 He was living in Falkner Street and he was just getting progressively 781 00:49:21,020 --> 00:49:24,460 more ill. His stints in hospital would be longer, 782 00:49:24,460 --> 00:49:26,740 and then the time out in between 783 00:49:26,740 --> 00:49:31,620 when he went back into hospital would be less and less. 784 00:49:31,620 --> 00:49:34,580 He started deteriorating quite rapidly. 785 00:49:38,060 --> 00:49:42,940 The end was very, very unpleasant and very painful for him. 786 00:49:42,940 --> 00:49:46,980 And for the observers as well. 787 00:49:48,060 --> 00:49:50,140 It was tragic. 788 00:49:53,500 --> 00:49:56,740 We didn't waste time in being morbid. 789 00:49:58,580 --> 00:50:02,700 We made every single moment 790 00:50:02,700 --> 00:50:05,460 that we could spend together... 791 00:50:06,900 --> 00:50:08,620 ..as wonderful as possible. 792 00:50:10,380 --> 00:50:13,460 Because it was going to have to last me a long time, those memories. 793 00:50:15,300 --> 00:50:17,500 Yeah. 794 00:50:20,100 --> 00:50:22,740 Mark died in November 1994. 795 00:50:24,140 --> 00:50:25,580 He was 36. 796 00:50:36,860 --> 00:50:41,260 Mark was not the first resident of 62 Falkner Street 797 00:50:41,260 --> 00:50:45,740 to have had his life cut short by an epidemic disease. 798 00:50:45,740 --> 00:50:49,780 But somehow, when such a death happens in the Victorian Age it 799 00:50:49,780 --> 00:50:51,580 comes as no surprise to us. 800 00:50:52,820 --> 00:50:57,100 And that's perhaps what was so shocking and disorienting about 801 00:50:57,100 --> 00:51:02,340 AIDS and HIV, was that it took place at a time and to a generation 802 00:51:03,020 --> 00:51:07,420 who had got used to the idea that medicine would always have an answer. 803 00:51:07,420 --> 00:51:12,500 We had grown accustomed to the idea that it was other people, 804 00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:14,340 at other times in the past, 805 00:51:14,340 --> 00:51:18,700 who lived under the shadow of epidemic disease and not us. 806 00:51:18,700 --> 00:51:21,380 And it makes it very real to me 807 00:51:21,380 --> 00:51:24,060 to think that when I was a student living in this city, 808 00:51:24,060 --> 00:51:27,180 my bus between university and home went down the bottom 809 00:51:27,180 --> 00:51:32,420 of the street, that Mark was in this room facing the reality 810 00:51:32,900 --> 00:51:35,300 of what HIV and AIDS meant. 811 00:51:35,300 --> 00:51:37,740 I watched it on the news, I worried about the reports, 812 00:51:37,740 --> 00:51:40,740 for him it was all too real. 813 00:51:47,580 --> 00:51:51,060 In the new millennium, 62 Falkner Street was home 814 00:51:51,060 --> 00:51:53,740 to a new crop of tenants. 815 00:51:55,460 --> 00:51:58,420 The house was now one of 16,000 properties owned 816 00:51:58,420 --> 00:52:00,820 by the Liverpool Housing Trust. 817 00:52:02,300 --> 00:52:04,780 But when their funding began to dwindle, 818 00:52:04,780 --> 00:52:08,860 the trust took the decision to sell off their most valuable houses. 819 00:52:10,780 --> 00:52:13,540 After 25 years as rented flats, 820 00:52:13,540 --> 00:52:17,100 plans were drawn up to convert 62 Falkner Street 821 00:52:17,100 --> 00:52:18,940 back into a single dwelling. 822 00:52:22,180 --> 00:52:24,900 The basement became two bedrooms and a bathroom. 823 00:52:28,060 --> 00:52:31,740 The ground floor became a family kitchen and reception room. 824 00:52:34,420 --> 00:52:37,660 The first floor, a play room and second sitting room. 825 00:52:40,460 --> 00:52:42,500 And the top floor, three bedrooms. 826 00:52:45,780 --> 00:52:49,900 The Falkner Street of today is unrecognisable from the place it was 827 00:52:49,900 --> 00:52:51,620 in previous decades. 828 00:52:53,100 --> 00:52:56,860 Liverpool's Georgian and Victorian terraces are now amongst the most 829 00:52:56,860 --> 00:52:58,740 desirable properties in the city. 830 00:53:00,820 --> 00:53:04,940 Liverpool historian John Belchem lives in such a house himself. 831 00:53:04,940 --> 00:53:09,540 Falkner Street, or at least the parts of it that survive, look today 832 00:53:09,540 --> 00:53:12,340 as beautiful as they must've done when it was first built. 833 00:53:12,340 --> 00:53:16,060 This has been, has it not, an amazing story of regeneration? 834 00:53:16,060 --> 00:53:18,740 It is a very successful story of regeneration 835 00:53:18,740 --> 00:53:21,700 and an area of regeneration to a city centre. 836 00:53:21,700 --> 00:53:25,380 Yes, as tastes have changed and people have come to appreciate 837 00:53:25,380 --> 00:53:28,620 Georgian, early-Victorian architecture, a lot of care has gone 838 00:53:28,620 --> 00:53:31,460 into restoring them and making people realise that 839 00:53:31,460 --> 00:53:34,220 the architectural aesthetics of this really do 840 00:53:34,220 --> 00:53:36,340 make a lovely area in which to live. 841 00:53:36,340 --> 00:53:40,940 It's hard to imagine that these beautiful houses were ever seen as 842 00:53:40,940 --> 00:53:44,260 not having enormous value, but they were. Indeed so, 843 00:53:44,260 --> 00:53:47,700 because they were sort of in the wrong place at the wrong time, as it were. 844 00:53:47,700 --> 00:53:49,940 But in a strange way it has come back full circle, 845 00:53:49,940 --> 00:53:52,380 because that's what it was built to be. 846 00:53:52,380 --> 00:53:55,060 Precisely, this was built to be exclusive. 847 00:53:55,060 --> 00:53:57,220 I mean, it looks as if we might be going back that way. 848 00:53:57,220 --> 00:54:01,740 So it is becoming more monocultural, and I think that is the downside 849 00:54:01,740 --> 00:54:04,580 of what otherwise is a wonderful process. 850 00:54:04,580 --> 00:54:07,540 So the sorts of people who can buy a house on Falkner Street today, 851 00:54:07,540 --> 00:54:11,940 they are the modern equivalents of the Victorian merchants for whom 852 00:54:11,940 --> 00:54:14,380 these houses were first built. That is absolutely true. 853 00:54:18,820 --> 00:54:22,020 Today, number 62 Falkner Street is home to Gaynor. 854 00:54:24,100 --> 00:54:26,500 She lives here with her two children. 855 00:54:27,980 --> 00:54:30,780 Hello. Hello. How are you doing? 856 00:54:30,780 --> 00:54:33,220 All right, thank you. Come in. Nice to see you again. 857 00:54:33,220 --> 00:54:35,180 So, tell me, how long have you lived here? 858 00:54:35,180 --> 00:54:37,500 About seven-and-a-half years now. 859 00:54:37,500 --> 00:54:41,100 We lived a little bit further out of Liverpool city centre but we 860 00:54:41,100 --> 00:54:43,180 wanted to move into the city. 861 00:54:43,180 --> 00:54:46,620 Just the character of the area, the space of the house, 862 00:54:46,620 --> 00:54:51,540 so we could have friends and be hospitable and have lots of people around. 863 00:54:51,540 --> 00:54:54,500 How much do know about the history of this house? 864 00:54:54,500 --> 00:54:56,580 I don't really know much. 865 00:54:56,580 --> 00:55:01,820 I know that the houses will have been very grand 866 00:55:02,340 --> 00:55:04,420 when they were built. 867 00:55:04,420 --> 00:55:07,300 And I know little bits because of what neighbours have said. 868 00:55:07,300 --> 00:55:08,740 Erm... 869 00:55:08,740 --> 00:55:10,220 But I don't really know. 870 00:55:10,220 --> 00:55:14,780 So, shall we meet some of your forebears who have called this house their home? 871 00:55:14,780 --> 00:55:17,100 Yes, please. OK. 872 00:55:18,940 --> 00:55:22,500 This house is almost 180 years old. 873 00:55:22,500 --> 00:55:26,020 And the first resident moved in in November 1840, 874 00:55:26,020 --> 00:55:29,220 and his name was Richard Glenton. 875 00:55:29,220 --> 00:55:31,860 And this is a copy of the lease. 876 00:55:31,860 --> 00:55:33,380 Oh, my goodness. 877 00:55:33,380 --> 00:55:37,860 So this is the first owner to live here. Gosh. 878 00:55:37,860 --> 00:55:39,620 That is interesting. 879 00:55:42,860 --> 00:55:46,100 132 people have lived in this house 880 00:55:46,100 --> 00:55:48,540 from the year 1840 until now. 881 00:55:49,780 --> 00:55:52,620 There may be more, who never appeared in the records. 882 00:55:54,700 --> 00:55:58,260 Customs clerk Richard Glenton walked through this front door 883 00:55:58,260 --> 00:55:59,980 when the house was brand-new. 884 00:56:01,180 --> 00:56:05,820 Then came James and Ann Orr, former servants who made a fortune. 885 00:56:08,260 --> 00:56:09,700 Wilfred Steele, 886 00:56:09,700 --> 00:56:14,100 the cotton broker who deserted his family for a new life in America. 887 00:56:16,660 --> 00:56:20,860 Widowed Elizabeth Bowes rented rooms to Danish immigrant Edward Lublin. 888 00:56:24,380 --> 00:56:26,380 Ann Robinson, 889 00:56:26,380 --> 00:56:30,020 the wife of the drowned watchmaker Alfred, gazed out of these windows. 890 00:56:34,940 --> 00:56:39,300 The Snewing children slept in these rooms at the turn of the 20th century. 891 00:56:40,700 --> 00:56:44,820 In the 1940s, Jack Greenall would have climbed these stairs 892 00:56:44,820 --> 00:56:46,900 after a hard day at the docks. 893 00:56:49,020 --> 00:56:52,740 And John and Beryl Quayle would have collected coal for their fire from 894 00:56:52,740 --> 00:56:55,060 this basement. 895 00:56:55,060 --> 00:56:58,260 Does this make you feel like you are part of a story? 896 00:56:58,260 --> 00:57:01,100 Because you are one of these people that we have traced? 897 00:57:01,100 --> 00:57:02,500 You are the latest chapter. 898 00:57:03,580 --> 00:57:06,580 The history has been put here right in front of me. 899 00:57:06,580 --> 00:57:10,660 And it is not until you hear stories like these folk here 900 00:57:10,660 --> 00:57:13,860 that you realise that actually the variety of people that lived in the 901 00:57:13,860 --> 00:57:17,420 house because of the changing times. 902 00:57:17,420 --> 00:57:20,580 And actually it makes you think about the situations that they found 903 00:57:20,580 --> 00:57:22,860 themselves in and how they went about their life, 904 00:57:22,860 --> 00:57:25,420 and how they conducted themselves. 905 00:57:25,420 --> 00:57:27,500 And what they thought was important. 906 00:57:27,500 --> 00:57:31,940 You can empathize with the situations that they were in. 907 00:57:31,940 --> 00:57:34,460 And that's, that's quite special. 908 00:57:37,380 --> 00:57:40,940 It's the end of my time at 62 Falkner Street 909 00:57:40,940 --> 00:57:44,140 uncovering the extraordinary life of this house 910 00:57:44,140 --> 00:57:46,780 and the people who called it home. 911 00:57:49,060 --> 00:57:54,100 Just like us, the residents of 62 Falkner Street lived in uncertain times. 912 00:57:54,100 --> 00:57:58,940 They had no idea what events lay ahead of them and their lives were 913 00:57:58,940 --> 00:58:02,620 gloriously messy and unpredictable. 914 00:58:02,620 --> 00:58:07,740 But if you stand back and you look at this long chain of people spanning two centuries, 915 00:58:07,940 --> 00:58:12,980 they are far more than just a random collection of individual stories. 916 00:58:13,260 --> 00:58:18,500 The life of each resident is a chapter in a bigger historical story. 917 00:58:19,100 --> 00:58:22,700 One that links the history of this house to Liverpool, 918 00:58:22,700 --> 00:58:24,780 to Britain and the wider world. 919 00:58:24,780 --> 00:58:27,820 And all of this told from behind one front door.