My Memory of:

Walking past the burnt out stores of Lewis's and Blacklers with just the steel girders standing. Access to the other stores which were lucky enough to be open was on wooden planks, beneath which were lead water pipes and gas pipes.

The pavements had suffered bomb damage, any remaining pieces had been ripped up to allow repairs to be carried out to the pipework.

After the war (WW2) was over they were rebuilt in a very short space of time. Apart from several vacant but, cleared bombed sites the city centre seemed to arise quickly from the ashes, just like the proverbial phoenix.

The cost of things...

My Memory of:

Seeing troopships such as the Mauretania anchored in the Mersey.

The ferry boats which sailed every twenty minutes had lots of families, relatives and girl friends shuttling to and fro' across the river waving and shouting to the Liverpool lads on The Mauritania stuck in the middle of the river.

Unsubstantiated rumours said that some soldiers dived off the ship to swim ashore.

My Memory of:

The Fish Market in Roe Street was like a small community on its own, with horse drawn carts mixing with motorised vehicles, delivering and despatching throughout Liverpool and Wirral fish of a high standard.

Huge blocks of ice were constantly available to the fish merchants, as the fish was sold in returnable wooden boxes, whole gutted or filleted fish were layered with ice and a final layer on top before a wooden lid was nailed on.

Before and during W.War 2 all the fish landed and put on sale were much larger than today.

I especially remember the large cod and haddock also halibut big enough to fill a wheel barrow. The selling of whole fish was phased out and the fish became more available as fillets

I remember when I saw Cod @ 3/6 per stone wholesale. The high price up to June 2002 was £48 per sty Haddock £52 per stone. What a difference time makes!