Smithdown Road is a historic street in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which now forms part of the

A562 The A562 is a road in England which runs from Liverpool to Warrington. Route Parliament Street At Liverpool, the road is known at first as Parliament Street. Upper Parliament Street to Speke Boulevard It then becomes Upper Parliament Street ...

. The area was previously known as Smithdown (Esmedune or Smeedon in Olde English) and dates back to 1086 when it was listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

. The causeway that actually became what is now Smithdown Road emerges in documentation around 1775. It is currently the location of

Toxteth Park Cemetery Toxteth Park Cemetery is a graveyard on Smithdown Road, Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was opened on Monday 9 June 1856. It was the responsibility of the Toxteth Park Burial Board, which had been established by at least 1855. The opening ceremon ...

, Wavertree Playground and was previously the location of Sefton General Hospital, known as the Smithdown Hospital and before that the ''Old Workhouse.''

Demographics

Smithdown Road, a long-established

student quarter A student quarter or a student ghetto is a residential area, usually in proximity to a college or university, that houses mostly students. Due to the youth and relative low income of the students, most of the housing is rented, with some cooperati ...

, is home to a large percentage of Liverpool's 55,000-plus university student population (alongside the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

and

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

). The upper part of the street separates Toxteth (L8) and Wavertree (L15), two of Liverpool's most ethnically diverse districts; Smithdown Road itself is the hub of Merseyside's

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

community. The area surrounding Smithdown Road is also home to a sizable

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

population, with a number of

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

s and

gurdwara A gurdwara (sometimes written as gurudwara) (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ''guradu'ārā'', meaning "Door to the Guru") is a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs. Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths ...

s being located in the area.

Commerce

Both sides of the entire length of Smithdown Road (approximately 1.7 miles) are populated by commercial buildings, such as shops, supermarkets, restaurants and bars.

Hattons Model Railways Hattons Model Railways is a British retailer and manufacturer of model railway paraphernalia founded in Liverpool, England in 1946 by Norman Hatton (1918-2005). After significant growth due to a move into online mail order the company relocated t ...

was founded here in 1946 taking up residence in several buildings for 70 years before relocating to

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

in 2016. In the 1960s, '70s and '80s it was residence to a small but vibrant craft trade consisting of tailors, watchmakers, wrought iron workers and even leather-smiths. The area saw huge decline in the 1980s as privatisation affected various areas of the UK and globalisation meant the migration of Britain's crafts and manufacturing to Asian countries such as India, China and Indonesia. Smithdown Road was one of the central areas where the 1981 Toxteth Riots occurred due to increasing poverty and the tensions between the multicultural communities in the area and the local police force. The troubles that afflicted the area meant a lot of shop owners moved out of the area and it has taken considerable time to re-establish the area. The road was also known for "The Smithdown Ten"

pub crawl A pub crawl (sometimes called a bar tour, bar crawl or bar-hopping) is the act of visiting multiple pubs or bars in a single session. Background Many European cities have public pub crawls that serve as social gatherings for local expatriates an ...

, particularly by the large student population that lived in the area, or used the road to journey into the centre from student halls further out. As there were more than ten pubs on the road, the specific ten venues chosen for a crawl could vary. In recent years commercial changes have reduced the number of pubs on Smithdown Road to far less than ten, resulting in the end of the tradition The upper part of Smithdown Road provides the official border line between the Liverpool districts of

Wavertree Wavertree is a district of Liverpool, England. It is a ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the 2011 census was 14,772. Located to the south and east of the city centre, it is bordered by various districts and suburbs such as ...

(L15) and

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area w ...

(L8) and these areas have seen tremendous growth, especially since 2008 when Liverpool won the European Capital of Culture award. The lower part of Smithdown Road provide borders between

(L15) and the Sefton Park (L17) and Mossley Hill (L18) districts of Liverpool.

Music

Penny Lane junction, the subject of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

song "

Penny Lane "Penny Lane" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released in February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Strawberry Fields Forever". It was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songw ...

", is situated at the junction of Smithdown Road, Smithdown Place and Penny Lane. A song called "Smithdown Road" appeared on the second album of Liverpool band

Tramp Attack Tramp Attack are an English rock band from Liverpool. History Tramp Attack formed in Liverpool in 2001 by Dave McCabe, Hollyoaks and Brookside actor Kristian Ealey, Matt Barton, drummer Ian Lane, bassist Scott Dulson and guitar player Tony D ...

, inspired by the band's experiences of living there after leaving home. Liverpool band The Vernons' 1989 album was entitled Smithdown Road. The Liverpool band The Christians recorded "Greenbank Drive" (junction of Ullet and Smithdown Roads) in 1990. It reached #63 in the UK charts. It is also home to the annual Smithdown Road Festival, with local bars and cafes hosting almost 200 bands every year.

Famous births

The Smithdown Hospital, later renamed the Sefton General Hospital, was at 126 Smithdown Road. *

Billy Fury Ronald Wycherley (17 April 1940 – 28 January 1983), better known as Billy Fury, was an English singer, musician, songwriter, and actor. An early star of rock and roll, he equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s and spent 332 week ...

Julian Lennon Julian Charles John Lennon (born John Charles Julian Lennon; 8 April 1963) is an English musician. He is the son of Beatles member John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia, and he is named after his paternal grandmother, Julia Lennon. Julian in ...

April Ashley April Ashley (29 April 1935 – 27 December 2021) was an English model. She was outed as a transgender woman by ''The Sunday People'' newspaper in 1961 and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery. Her ...

Bill Harry William Harry (born 17 September 1938) is the creator of '' Mersey Beat'', a newspaper of the early 1960s which focused on the Liverpool music scene. Harry had previously started various magazines and newspapers, such as ''Biped'' and ''Premier ...

Peter Sissons Peter George Sissons (17 July 1942 – 1 October 2019) was an English journalist and broadcaster. He was a newscaster for ITN, providing bulletins on ITV and Channel 4, before becoming the presenter of the BBC's ''Question Time'' between 1989 ...

References

External links

Smithdown Road: A History

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...

South Liverpool and ToxtethAllerton Oak

Liverpool 1578
Community Commerce Group {{coord, 53.39519, N, 2.93889, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Streets in Liverpool Student quarters