Here’s a great old photo – not of a lost volcano but of Market Street, outside the old Kingsway Cinema (and now Home Bargains). Thanks to Hoylake Photographic Society for allowing me to republish it.
I am dating this photo as summer 1950. The advertised film Bomba & The Lost Volcano was released in 1950 according the the British Film Institute (see here) and starred some chap called Johnny Sheffield. Summer because it looks like it was nice sunny day and the little boy or girl looks to have a summer outfit on.
In the left of the photo must be the Blue Anchor pub? I’m not sure, but that building isn’t there (nor the adjacent Watsons store) anymore and there’s a ships anchor hanging outside. To the right of Watson’s is currently the fish mongers and then the 3 Sisters grocers. What was Watsons then?
Was that an old Woolworths in what is now the empty Jon David shop? The people sitting on the bench on the right are in front of what is now Hoylake Library. Oh, I like the old bus stop sign.
Great stuff 
Possible related posts (computer generated):
Was that an old Woolworths in what is now the empty Jon David shop?
Yes, it was a Woolworths
I remember my brother playing in a skiffle group called “The Kainites”. They played at the Kingsway cinema, not sure of exact date but must have been early 60′s. They were named after the lead singer. I was so proud sitting in the audience watching. I would have been about 12 or 13yrs. Michael Cooper, my brother, was about 22yrs. Others in the group were Colin Rimmer, Dave Rimmer, John Dalton and Les Kain, founder, who the group where named after. Sorry if I have missed anyone out, can’t quite remember who was in and who wasn’t.
What memories of my childhood.
The Kingsway Cinema, with 2 films a week, Tommy Knox as the manager. My best friend then was Elsie Dainty who was his niece and we were allowed in free, if there were spaces, on the balcony, to see the films.Either side of the Cinema were shops, Warbicks Electricians and Ann’s the Florist I think were the last before the cinema was demolished.
Before the The Anchor Pub which is opposite was Miss Ormesher,s Shop, then waste land and Kingsway Garage on the corner of Waverley Road.Next to the pub is Watson’s Bakery, then the Fish Shop which was part of Mills’s Greengrocers, then Coopers Grocers, then Woolworths and on the end Mackenzie’s Electrical Shop.
The waste land next to the Kingsway garage was at one time ‘Meadows Yard’ which was a collection of slum dwellings round a central yard with a cold tap in the middle to serve all the inhabitants. Little kids grubbing around and peeing whenever and wherever they felt like it. Too early for me but my mother, who was a librarian, remembered going there to try and retrieve library books. It was cleared probably before the war.
How uncanny that I should just have alighted on this page and your comments. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Newspaper Library in Colindale and was looking through old copies of the Hoylake News and Advertiser. The Kainites appeared at the Kingsway on Thursday 31st October, Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd November 1957, prior to the screening of The Tommy Steele Story. The members of the group were stated as Mike Cooper (banjo), Dave Rimmer (double bass), John Dalton (guitar), Derrick Roberts (drums), Rickkie Jones (guitar) and the leader Les Cain (guitar). There was a photo of them in the issue of the Advertiser on October 25th. The manager of the cinema, Ronald Horton (who had succeeded Tommy Knox sometime that year, I think), stated the following week : “The boys were great. Our takings soared on the three nights they performed and what a wonderful reception they got. It was a joy to see the audience so pleased”.
I would be interested to know if it is the same Dave Rimmer who was once a projectionist at the Kingsway and who worked in other Merseyside cinemas and who was, in fact, the last manager of the Winter Gardens (Hoylake Cinema). He was living in West Kirby when I last heard of him.
Charles Morris
The Dave Rimmer who was in the group with my brother, Mike Cooper is not the one you are talking about. Dave Rimmer in the group went, was from Groveland Avenue, Hoylake, had two brothers Noel, who lived in Chapel Road, until recently. Colin, who was the youngest, who unfortunately died a few years ago. Dave went to live in Australia, a few years later. I thought John Dalton played washboard, the double base was a tea chest. My memory is a bit hazy. If you are right with the date, I was 2 days off being 10, thought I was older than that. Michael would be have been 20 in the May of that year.
The shop on the corner next to Woolworths was a TV radio, record store
you could go in and have them play a single record you would put your head into a booth to listen to the music. I think Gail Rochford Gilchrist’s Mum worked in the shop
Yes, I bought my first 45 there – Lily the Pink by the Scaffold. I think the shop was MacKenzies!
That was Mckenzies, where we bought Beatle records, Del Shannon and the like for 6/4d. each. You went upstairs to the record dept.
I think the store past Woolworths was Haskins Sports, maybe someone else could verify? Great old photo.
Haskins was quite a bit further down, just beyond the Ship Inn, where “The Row” is now.
Charles Morris