_{Toxteth : Mersey Beat : A Black Perspective}

A very brief history of Toxteth:

There is some ambiguity as to the origin of the name. One theory is that the etymology is "Toki's landing-place". However, Toxteth is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and at this time, it appears as "Stochestede", i.e. "the stockaded or enclosed place", from the Anglo-Saxon stocc "stake" and Anglo-Saxon stede "place" (found in many English placenames, usually spelled stead)...wikipedia

In the late 18th century as Liverpool became more overcrowded, it was decided to build a "new town" to the south of the land owned by the Earl of Sefton. Following an Act of Parliament in 1775, building leases could be granted for the land and the boundary between Liverpool and Toxteth Park was re-named Parliament St from its original name of Towns end Lane. The town was only meant to extend as far as Northumberland St and many of the earliest streets which were laid out in a grid pattern, were named in honour of the Molyneux family.

The original idea was to call the new town Harrington, but the new name never really caught on and the area continued to be called Toxteth. The intended name was in honour of Isabella, 1st Countess of Sefton, who was daughter of the Earl of Harrington. However she is still commemorated by Upper Harrington St, Stanhope St (named after her family surname) and Upper Stanhope St.

A relative of hers, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield is remembered by Chesterfield St. Initially there was a Harrington St, but this was changed to Caryl Street after the absorbtion of Toxteth into Liverpool to avoid confusion with Harrington St in the city centre. This new name was after Caryl Molyneux, who was the leader of the loyalist troops that ended Prince Ruperts siege of Liverpool during the Civil War... Internet papers

Rich merchants who had made their money through slavery and on the back-breaking work of the poor people, built large mansions near to Dingle lane (which was then open countryside until the latter half of the 19th Century), to escape the poverty and smells of inner city Liverpool. Notable families who moved there were the Rathbone's, the Roscoe’s, the Yates’s, and the Croppers. The Cropper family owned the land where the Turner memorial home now stands.

As the wealth of the City increased, the new middle and upper classes built large houses along Princes Avenue and Upper Parliament Street and the roads leading to the newly created Princes Park. In 1893 the electric overhead railway station opened in Park Road. And the first tram tracks were laid in 1898 in Park Road which then followed in the early 1900’s when tram tracks were laid in Princes Avenue bringing the electric trams to the newly built depot in the Dingle Lane.

By 1835 12,000 people lived in Liverpool 8 (or the Township of Toxteth Park as it was known back then). By 1911 this had increased to 150,000. During the Second World War many of the homes were destroyed by the German Air force (The Luftwaffe) because of their close proximity to the industrial area of the docks. This resulted in people being re-housed on the outskirts of the inner city to new housing estates that were being created in Kirkby, Speke, Croxteth, Huyton, Halewood, and as far afield as Runcorn, and Winsford. 

This lead to a massive decline in the local population which continued during the slum clearances of the 1960’s and 1970’s. And as the people moved away from Liverpool 8 the once great shopping streets such as: Mill Street, Park Road, Windsor Street, North Hill Street, High Park Street, Granby Street and Lodge Lane lost their customers and some shops closed down. And the well known tenement blocks like Caryle Gardens, Warwick Gardens, King Gardens, and Dingle House that were built in the 1930’s for the people who lived in the courts and dingy back streets were demolished. The decline of the area continued in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when Containerisation came into affect making the dock system in the South end of the city redundant. Herculaneum Dock, Toxteth Dock, Brunswick Dock, and other docks closed down making thousands of Dockers and the people who worked in the industries that relied on them for work ended up unemployed. We also lost the giant wheat Silo that used to be at Toxteth Dock and other local landmarks and the trains that used to run on the tracks alongside the dock wall bringing goods in and out of the docks. Although there has been a slight resurgence with small businesses cropping up where the docks used to be it’s just a shadow of its former self. The fine Victorian houses that used to be in the Dingle and the Granby Street area were unnecessarily demolished in my opinion and, although many of the newbuilt houses now have the luxuries of an indoor toilet and bathroom, and garden, the heartbeat of this once thriving community was diminished. I do hope I’m wrong and a renaissance of the area begins for future generations.  John Harrison. November 2010.

"Relations between Black and White people in Liverpool have been racialised since at least the end of the First World War in 1919"

Andrea Murphy "From the Empire to the Rialto"

By the late 50's and early 60's, many so called "half caste" children born during and at the end of the second world war to mixed parents, had grown up. Some had become gifted musicians and were leading the way in the "musical explosion" that was taking place in and around Liverpool. The south end of Liverpool in 1959 was not considered a safe place to be by the rest of the city. Especially the Parliament Street area. Canning Street from its junction with Duke Street, extending down past the Anglican Cathedral to the Whitehouse pub, and along Great George Street to Park Lane and the Dingle. Also, around what was then the Rialto Cinema/Dancehall. With its abundance of night clubs and daytime drinking fraternity. The area was certainly very lively, and, of course, wherever there was drink there would be music, "Live music”, real musicians up there on stage creating the atmosphere that was needed for any successful club. And where there was drink and music, inevitably there would also be pockets of violence. This and the fact that Liverpool 8 was basically known as a "ghetto" populated by black and white immigrants from as far afield as Jamaica, Africa, China, Poland and Norway (similar to Harlem in New York), was the basis for its bad reputation. Despite this disrepute the district was to become a "catalyst" for the beat explosion of the early sixties "Mersey Beat" era, and would also produce "black musicians" who would set in motion

"The biggest musical explosion that had happened since Motown"...Bill Harry: Who Put the Beat in Merseybeat.

This explosion was to pave the way for other black/white musicians, not only from Liverpool but throughout the British Isles.

In the late 50's, living in and growing up in Liverpool's Toxteth district was an exciting experience . With its abundance of characters and racial mix of people, it made for an energetic mixture of lifestyles. Music was everywhere, both indigenous and imported, mainly black music, Calypso, Jazz, R&B and local favorite Accapella. Many people could not afford expensive musical instruments, but that didn't mean they were not musical, they had the cheapest/greatest musical instrument of all, the voice. From the school playgrounds to the street corners, harmony was very much in evidence. Many black youths would spend literally hours learning to harmonise with each other, using the songs of mainly black American vocal groups as a basis for experimentation.

All of the clubs were frequented not just by "black immigrants" and visiting seamen but by white local and non local people. It was the largest collection of "night clubs" in the Liverpool area. Many American servicemen stationed at the American airbase in Burtonwood would also spend time at these clubs. They would also bring with them many American R&B records which were not generally available in Liverpool at that time, which, just added to the "cosmopolitan" atmosphere prevalent in the whole of the Liverpool 8 (Toxteth) area.

The Pink Flamingo was one of the original "licensed" clubs in Toxteth. It covered two floors in a house at the junction of Upper Stanhope Street and Princes Road (next door to the chemist's shop with it's large display of colored medicine bottles in its front window) . It had a very grande entrance, from the street there was a half dozen steps up to a door with two large columns with a small balcony on top.

The White House was situated on the corner of Berry St and Duke St, not far from the Anglican Cathedral. It was built in c1800. It was a very popular watering hole in the late 50's early 60's, lots of Jazz was played there by musicians such as the Odie Taylor Combo, with Wayne Armstrong, Tommy Brown, Vinny Atherton and George Dixon among others. Lennon and McCartney were often seen trying to figure out the chords and the styles that were being played, and would quite often go from there to the Jacaranda, not far away in Slater Street, they would try to get to play on the Steel Drums of Lord Woodbines group "The All Caribbean Steel Band".

Some clubs from L8:

The Palm Cove/ The Embassy club. Wilkies/Technics. The Nigerian.

Pink Flamingo. The Beacon. The Somali Club. Rachaels /The Gladray.

Semi Quaver/Tumtum. Yoruba Social Club. Ghana Club. Silver Sands.

West Indian. Johnsons. The Ibo Club. Sierra Leone Social Club

Dutch Eddies. 101 Club. Federal Club. The Bedford. Stanley House Social Club.

Polish Club. Lyndas Club. 68 Club. A&B Club. Pavillion Club. Dressler.

30 clubs, the list is by no means definitive, but goes a long way to showing how lively Liverpool 8 was at that time.

The Whitehouse public house...

"The Casuals", with Wally Quarless , George Dixon and Norman Frazer would also play at The Whitehouse. The Casuals would eventually change their name to The InCrowd, and were joined by Steve Aldo, and later still by Colin Areety on vocals. They would play quite frequently at the Masonic pub amongst other places.

_Clubs...

Stanley House, which sat at the junction of Park Way and Upper Parliament Street was more of a ‘Social Centre’ than a ‘Club’ club. Originally it opened in 1944 with the help of the Colonial Office. It consisted of a large hall that could be used to hold ‘dances’, along with a gymnasium in the basement (used by world champion boxers Hogan "Kid" Bassey and Dick Tiger), a library and many small meeting rooms and a Bar on the second floor. It also housed a nursery and Youth club in the same building. There was an interesting headline in the Evening Express on Jan 11th 1955 "Lord Derby visits the Jungle and feels proud"; the report went on to say "Lord Derby went into Liverpool’s "Jungle" last night to listen to Negro spirituals and Calypsos and to give his blessing to the work of Stanley House in Upper Parliament St".

Montpelier Terrace was set back from the road at the corner of Grove Street and Parliament Street. The West Indian Club, was on this terrace, in the basement of a large old Victorian house. It was mostly a drinking club with music supplied by a Juke box.

The Palm Cove club situated at No 237 Smithdown Lane. Roy and Babs Stevens owned and ran the club. It had a dance floor and a jukebox which played Reggae/Calypso/Jazz records.

There was a house band with the name The Caribbeans. The members consisted of: Roy Stevens: Trumpet, Bill Davis: Bongos/Vocal, Owen Stevens (Roy's brother): Tenor Sax, Leslie Stephens: Alto Sax, Wayne Armstrong: Double Bass, Sammy Leggings: Drums, Desmond Henry: Drums. Don Maxwell: Piano. It was one of the most popular (if not THE most popular) club among West Indians and was open every night, Roy, later opened The Embassy Club in the basement of a large old Georgian house in Falkner Square.

Dutch Eddie was from Dutch Guyana and an ex seaman, and also someone who was known for facilitating loans if you needed one. The Tudor club itself was a large affair over two floors with bars and dance floors on each floor. There was live music there featuring such musicians as Trinidadian Jazz trumpeter Wilfred "Pankey" Alleyne, who earlier played with the "Caribbean All Star Orchestra" founded by Trinidadian born bassist Al Jennings. Joe Bygraves was a well known boxer and fought for the European heavyweight championship in 1957. He opened The Beacon Club, just a few doors away from Stanley House on Upper Parliament Street. The house itself was rather grand and featured an imposing central staircase to the first floor.

"Shebeens were African/Arabic illegal night-spots set up in some of the grand houses on Upper Parliament Street, Princess Avenue and the surrounding areas. Packed with a strange mix of musicians, shady characters, businessmen, pimps, prostitutes, Shebeens were glued together by 'sweat, body heat, hash, watered down spirits, spicy food snacks and African voodoo!"...George Roberts (Managing the Bands)

There were various voluntary associations based on national or ethnic groupings. Many of these were organized around social clubs. This was the case with the Nigerian National Union (Nigerian Social Club, Federal Social Club), the Tho Union (Tho Club), the Merseyside Somali Community Association (Somali Club, Silver Sands), the Ghanaian Union (Ghana Club, TumTum Star), Sierra Leone Union (Sierra Leone Club), the Yoruba Union (Yoruba Club), and the Cross Rivers Associations. These were also affiliated to the Merseyside African Council.

But this does not mean that they were not frequented by people only from whatever country the club was named after, on the contrary, drinking sprees would quite often start at one club early in the day, and continue on throughout the rest of the day visiting one club after another.

Derry Wilkie (1941 - 2001)

A dynamic young black singer from the Dingle, Derry Wilkie was born in Liverpool on 10 January 1941.His big break came in late 1959 when a group from Huyton called the Hy-tones, featuring Howie Casey on tenor sax was appearing at the Hall.  Bob Wooler asked them if Wilkie could join them on stage for a couple of songs. They were impressed and despite having two singers already he soon became their lead vocalist.Howie Casey: Derry came up and he was doing Little Richard, which was right up my street because prior to that we didn't have a singer who could get down to that sort of stuff. That was great, so we asked Derry to join the band. Inspired by Danny and the Juniors, they changed their name to Derry Wilkie and the Seniors in early 1960, and they appeared regularly at all the major Liverpool venues including the Jacaranda, whose owner Allan Williams,booked them for the Liverpool Stadium Show with American rock 'n' roller Gene Vincent on Tuesday May 3 1960.

As Derry and the Seniors they began to play at most of the local venues for promoters such as Charlie McBain,Wally Hill and Brian Kelly. Casey remembers both of Wally Hill's venues (Holyoakeand Blair Hall) as being 'quite violent': I vaguely remember the bouncers who wore black leather sort of gloves and white shirts, black trousers, black leather - and they had truncheons, or whatever.They used to circle the hall while the people danced and there was always a fight and they'd jump in and people would get kicked downstairs and there was blood and stuff everywhere. A few things like that went on.

As my American friend, AL Aronowitz put it; I’m the first spade singer in town.Four and a half years ago I started singing with a group called THE SENIORS. Great boys, fab musicians who were very highly rated among groups.We were playing for some time; we were popular; we even held our own against THE BEATLES in those days – we were good friends.We were the first group to go to Germany – Hamburg, you know. We didn’t know what we were starting – we slept in the gutter to do that.And the Seniors were the first group from Liverpool to make a record. Bit proud of that, even if it didn’t get anywhere.We got so fed-up of people taking advantage of us that we packed up as the Seniors.It was heartbreaking coming back to town after that. You do have your pride, you know what I mean.Spent a great six months with a group called THE PRESSMEN because BILL HARRY started me singing again. Great group, great sound. History repeated itself, we made more records – none of them got released, they weren’t commercial enough, they were rhythm and blues.Hit hard times again with the Pressmen – split up again. ..Derry Wilkie