In pictures: Bootle through the years in photos from the Echo archive
Looking back at the seaside hamlet that became a sea-going powerhouse
Originally a small hamlet built near the ‘sand hills’ of the river estuary, it is hard to believe Bootle began to grow as a bathing resort for the wealthy residents of Liverpool in the early 19th century.
For the arrival of the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway in the 1840s and the construction of the docks, reshaped its future entirely.
Bootle - mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as ‘Botelai’ - became heavily industrialised.
Bootle through the years, from the Liverpool Echo archivesIn the last quarter of the 19th century, its population grew, boosted by Irish immigration and the attraction of work on the docks. The skilled workers lived in terraced houses in the east of the town, while the casual labourers lived in cramped, dwellings near the dockside.
Unfortunately, there were three streets which became rather too well known: Raleigh Street, Dundas Street and Lyons Street. The last was the scene of a crime dubbed ‘The Teapot Murder’ and was so notorious it was renamed Beresford Street shortly before the Great War.
But there were more positive claims to fame too.
Bootle was the first borough to elect its own school board, after the Education Act of 1870 and, in 1872 Dr R.J. Sprakeling was appointed the first Medical Officer of Health, and was instrumental in improving sanitary conditions in the town.
The Metropole Theatre on Stanley Road played host to stars such as music hall singer Marie Lloyd, local groups and communities thrived and the Bootle May Day carnival and the crowning of the May Queen were highlights of the social year.
The docks made Bootle a target for Nazi German Luftwaffe bombers during the Liverpool Blitz of the Second World War, gaining it the rather unwanted distinction of being the most heavily-bombed borough in the UK.
It did share in the post-war boom though, and was redeveloped in the late 1960s, but that was also the time the docks declined in importance and Bootle suffered high unemployment.
The establishment of large government office blocks and the National Girobank provided employment for the town which was absorbed into the new local authority of Sefton following reorganisation in the 70s.
Bootle is now undergoing a massive regeneration project, which has already begun with the new HSE buildings and the new-look Strand Road. It is perhaps in this spirit of optimism that banners have appeared with the Latin motto of the former borough: ‘Respice, Aspice, Prospice’ which means ‘Look backwards, look around, look forward’...
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