Hornby F. Lowe Cutlery, Liverpool 1879 - 1990

[Imagedude]

Hornby F Lowe ran a cutlery shop in Liverpool city centre. Sadly the shop closed in the late 80's after a hundred years of trade. I got my first proper knife there, a SAK Explorer, in 1977. Note the scissor sign above the front door. The display contained knives from Sabatier, Puma, William Rodgers and many of the other Sheffield cutlers of the time.

The article below contains the following (interesting) comment...

Hornby Lowe’s Cutlery Stores, with its superb frontage, was in business from at least 1879. The shop, with its macabre display of hunting, fishing and, I suppose, stabbing knives, was living on borrowed time but it had a character that greatly added to the streetscape.

Comment taken from http://streetsofliverpool.co.uk/sch...&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=school-lane-1970

 

[ged]

The photo of Hanover Street in that article reminds me of the year I spent at university in Liverpool. I used to walk that way from Brownlow Hill to my digs near the docks -- can't for the life of me remember the name of the street where I stayed. The photo was taken a year or so before I went there. I can remember a Mr. Lowe from those days but I don't think it's the same man that ran the cutlery store. I can't put a face to him now. On a grant of about ten pounds a week I could barely afford to eat, so I could never have bought any toys, but I can remember hanging my nose over shiny things in shop windows. I couldn't say for sure that any of the windows were in School Lane but I do vaguely remember it. The place was no less depressing in 1972 than it looks in those photos. In fact if you'd told me it the photos were taken in 1932, apart from the mini-skirts I'd probably have believed you.

Within a month of starting the course at at Liverpool, I applied to transfer to Loughborough. I had to complete the year at Liverpool, and the first miners' strike since 1926 took place while I was in digs in Liverpool.

http://www.agor.org.uk/cwm/themes/events/1972_1974_strikes.asp

I can still remember playing Black Maia by candle-light with three other students, wrapped up in the sitting room like we were at the north pole.

I can still remember the feeling of relief when I left my digs for the last time.

If the entire area has been flattened and replaced with modern buildings, whoever did that should get a medal.

 

[Opal]

The photo of Hanover Street in that article reminds me of the year I spent at university in Liverpool. I used to walk that way from Brownlow Hill to my digs near the docks -- can't for the life of me remember the name of the street where I stayed. The photo was taken a year or so before I went there. I can remember a Mr. Lowe from those days but I don't think it's the same man that ran the cutlery store. I can't put a face to him now. On a grant of about ten pounds a week I could barely afford to eat, so I could never have bought any toys, but I can remember hanging my nose over shiny things in shop windows. I couldn't say for sure that any of the windows were in School Lane but I do vaguely remember it. The place was no less depressing in 1972 than it looks in those photos. In fact if you'd told me it the photos were taken in 1932, apart from the mini-skirts I'd probably have believed you.

Within a month of starting the course at at Liverpool, I applied to transfer to Loughborough. I had to complete the year at Liverpool, and the first miners' strike since 1926 took place while I was in digs in Liverpool.

http://www.agor.org.uk/cwm/themes/events/1972_1974_strikes.asp

I can still remember playing Black Maia by candle-light with three other students, wrapped up in the sitting room like we were at the north pole.

I can still remember the feeling of relief when I left my digs for the last time.

If the entire area has been flattened and replaced with modern buildings, whoever did that should get a medal.

Ged, was the place you stayed, around Leeds Street? Leeds St runs to near the dock Rd from Scotty Rd, I'm from the city centre, my nin lived off Brownlow Hill (Russell St).

 

[ged]

Ged, was the place you stayed, around Leeds Street? Leeds St runs to near the dock Rd from Scotty Rd, I'm from the city centre, my nin lived off Brownlow Hill (Russell St).

Hehe, I used to walk past the end of Russel Street every day when I went to lectures. I think my digs must have been further south than Leeds Street. I can remember looking up Lime Street a few times as I walked past the end of it, and singing the Beatles song about Maggie May (I used to drive everyone nuts with my singing). The only other street in that area that really sticks in my mind is Upper Frederick Street. I wondered if that's where my digs were, but looking on the satellite images (no such thing in those days of course!) the layout of the houses is completely different. Perhaps they've been demolished. I can't remember the name of my landlady but I'm pretty sure she was Scottish. One day I found somebody in my room and it turned out she'd taken another lodger but had neglected to tell me. He was studying the history of the docks. He only stayed about a month, all too much for him I think. The place I stayed in was an old terrace of big Victorian houses with three or four storeys. The row of houses had no front gardens but was set back off the road, with an unmade (and as I recall pretty rough) private lane in front of the houses which ran parallel to the metalled street itself. There was a high brick wall between the private lane and the road and an entrance at each end of the lane. There were several steps up to the front doors from the lane, I think the houses might have had cellars which were only partly underground. Ring any bells?

 

[Opal]

A lot of new builds around there now, me mam sold flowers outside the Southern Hospital a few hundred yards away and I fish nearby at Mariners Wharf, happy days, sorry for the highjack.