Bridge Street back in the days before Tyrers (From St Helens Star)

Bridge Street back in the days before Tyrers

9:14am Thursday 2nd August 2012 in Coffey Time

KATH McKechnie rang me with the following interesting riddle to which I did not know the answer and to which I put to you Coffey Time fans: “You know Tyrers on Bridge Street. What was there before they moved from Liverpool Road?“ This is the best picture I have since found, which may jog some memories with you. I didn’t really come to this town till around 1977. Before that I lived in Newton which, like many local townships, was dumped into St Helens to help create “Merseyside” in 1974 by those people in Whitehall.

I have more old photos showing the very top end of Bridge Street, or pointing to the other side for the trolley buses, the old market, or the Savoy, but not that spot now occupied by Tyrers.

Opposite the side of Tyrers is the Citadel. I was coming back from a sunny Sunday in Liverpool and got off the 10A at Westfield Street. I headed towards Water Street and that took me past the Citadel.

It warmed the cockles of my heart (and no, no one really knows the origin of that phrase) to see it basking in the sunshine without the scaffolding. I whipped out my camera and took the picture top right of our hidden gem.