ST HELENS, like plenty of other industrial towns, has changed over the years.
Sometimes that is for the better – and there are things we did even as late as the 70s and 80s that we would never want to go back to.
But sometimes ‘progress’ and the way we live, work and shop - and the way big business and industry works - can leave behind things we have been fond of. And St Helens has lost plenty of places like that.
Call it rose-tinted glasses but plenty of us often yearn for the past – and featured among that longing are the places and institutions we loved, used or passed regularly but have now long gone.
Here is a list of 10 – and there are countless others that readers can chip in with.
1. The Fleece Hotel.
For decades, until its closure in 1986, The Fleece on Church Street was St Helens’ plushest hotel and one of the grandest town centre buildings.
It was host to countless wedding receptions over the decades and for years had the Regent House tailors tucked below it.
It was also on the pub goers circuit on a weekend with a legendary disco. It was flattened in 1986 and replaced by the new WH Smith building.
2. Helena House.
One of St Helens’ most distinctive buildings, with an iconic frontage, was flattened in the mid-80s and the Baldwin Street/Cotham Street site stood idle for a long spell before Wilkinson’s was built.
The building housed the large Co-op and included a ballroom – but it also had a function for townsfolk as a favourite place for meeting a date.
Part of that was the warmth from the blowers above the entrance. It was tragic waste that the eye-catching façade of this iconic building was not saved and built around like many other towns and cities have done.
3. Harts.
Another fine St Helens store on Church Street, and if memory serves me right it was very close to where the McDonald’s is now. It had distinctive squeaky wooden floors and had a side entrance down the entry which brought you out on Hardshaw Street.
4. Dave’s.
The place for a bargain, whether on the market stall on Tontine Street or in the 70s and 80s in the building on Tolver Street, at the back of the Town Hall. Everyone snapped up a bargain a Dave’s – whether that was clothes, bedding or crockery.
5. Magpies Nest.
The term ‘second hand shop’ just doesn’t do the ‘Maggie’s Nest’ on North Road justice.
A cross between an antique shop and a junk shop, it was an absolute treasure trove and paradise for moochers.
They sold everything – fishing tackle to jewellery, LP records to brass ornaments, musical instruments to bikes.
A place you could get lost in for hours and come away with something that you had never had any intention buying.
6. Rothery Radio.
Sometimes you think you are imagining that places like this existed, such is the way that world has changed – especially with how we now download and listen to music.
A world away from clicking Spotify on your smart phone - Rothery Radio, on the corner of North John Street and Ormskirk Street, was a wondrous place with booths where you could have a sneak listen to a vinyl LP or single before you bought it.
It is where the bookmakers is now, roughly opposite where Crystals nightclub would later set up.
7. Lievesley’s Bakers.
St Helens has lost may a baker over the years, and some will have their favourites – and ones they miss most. (And feel free to tell us your favourite.) But Lievesley’s was a classic local baker with a small corner shop in Charles Street and another on Windleshaw Road.
Their pork and meat pies were magnificent, and for a long time they would sell slabs of loose best butter wrapped up in greaseproof paper.
8. Cindy’s.
The biggest nightclub in St Helens, that had previously been the Plaza and then became Lowies.
The Duke Street venue, and former Oxford picture house, was the starting point of so many relationships in St Helens – some longer than others.
9. Knowsley Road.
Saints’ home of 120 years – and the place where many of us worshipped the true greats of St Helens – from Tom van Vollenhoven, Vinty Karalius and Alex Murphy through to Paul Sculthorpe and Keiron Cunningham.
It was sad day when the wrecking ball got to work on the old girl at the end of 2010 and Saints moved on.
10. Pilkington Fountain.
Once the centrepiece of Church Square, and often the focus of pranksters with a cheap bottle of washing up liquid from Lennon’s, Nevin’s, Money Save or Fine Fare….but the fountain is a big miss.
This celebration if the glassmaking industry was removed some time in the 1990s, maybe even later, but has never returned – just like the KES.
Maybe that was symbolic in a way given the town has radically reduced much of its glass making capacity and the jobs that go with it. But town still is noted for its glassmaking - and this, although very of its time, a celebration of that industry.
Let us know your memories of any of the above St Helens institutions or fixtures…and send us in the places you wish was still here.
Email: mike.critchley@sthelensstar.co.uk with your thoughts and missing favourites for a possible follow up article.
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