Mr George Quarlass and his story, great reading!!How long have you been living in Chinatown? My name is George Quarless I was born on August 21.08.1921 I was born in 14 Kent Street which has been renamed Frederick Street now. I am the youngest of, I am not quite sure now; I think it was a family of twelve and then I am the only one left now. My father was Chief Steward and we had our own property in Kent Street and I have always been connected with St Michaels Church which I am now as well. I have never lived out of the area. We moved form 14 Kent Street to Nile Street in 1939 the day before War was declared on the Sunday; no we moved up on the Monday, War was declared on the Sunday. 30 Nile Street that is the farthest I have been in the area so I think I am the oldest in the area that has never moved out of it. All my relatives lived in the area all around about, aunties and cousins whatever. If you go back to my school days though one of the aspects of that was we used to see immigrants coming up from the Pier Head and some of them used to walk up in groups you know and they used to have an old fashioned charabanc with no hood on, some of them would be in that and that was driven by a Mr Skeleskie he used to live in Pitt Street opposite our St Michael’s Church the old church, the church that was bombed in the May blitz in 1941 and he was the driver and he used to take them up to St George’s Square to the houses further on from the Doctor’s where the Medical Centre is now and do you see the façade that is still up there now? Well them big houses he used to put them in there. They came from Poland and all around there, some were from Germany and they put them in there and they would leave them in there for a couple of weeks until they moved on to America and then they would put another load in. None of them could speak English and we used to go up there and they would be arguing and things like that and they all had their fancy dress and the women had long dresses and scarves on and the kids used to wear the big hats and they just hang around on the doorstep even in this weather and I swear it used to be crowded all around there. Further up there used to be a Ships Outfitters for you know oil skins and things like that there were always Jewish shops and it was predominately a Jewish area then, all the way up Parliament Street up Granby Street, Smithdown Road in 1933 but even before that they must have been coming over before then because America wanted people to go there, to open the land up you know, open America up and these were the people to do it and they just came over in droves. All poor people and they had no suitcases then just a bundle. You didn’t see many Chinese then either but what you did see if you were down this end though they had the families in Pitt Street but all around that area it was predominately Jewish. They just disappeared as the area got built up and then the Chinese came over when the War was on with the Blue Funnel Line and that was like another chapter but it is not like now this used to be bustling with business. If you go up Park Lane now you don’t see any people of a day time but you couldn’t move in Park Lane at one time especially dinner time people coming out of work and going to the chippy and things like that and it was good that and you weren’t frightened of walking anywhere; even in the blackout, no one would mug you or things like that but it has changed now like you know. The community as such well it was a different era then because the people were concerned with the area and as much would take part in what was happening in the area as they do now. Well not so much now but if you go back about twenty years ago and people were just getting in to it, taking part, being consulted, why is this happening? We want to do it this way, and that is how it is now and that is how it should be anyway. Do you both feel like you belong here? Like this is your area? Do you feel safe? Oh Yeah we feel safe JL. Nobody knows but when the old King was coroneted nobody knows the way it was decorated around here, they come from all over to see it. GQ. In them days no one thought about the future about keeping a record, they thought about taking a casket and they would bury it and then it would be opened in a hundred years to give a picture but it won’t be a true picture it will all be scattered. There are pictures in the Library but mainly pictures of the courts. We had a little one in Frederick Street and there was one further up just after St Vinny’s they had them in Roscoe Lane, Parr Street, you know, communal toilets, one toilet between ten families it was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting and people used to live like that or families living in two bedroomed houses. JL. You never heard them moaning though did yer? You never heard them moaning and this was one of the biggest cosmopolitan cities at that time wasn’t it? GQ. Oh yeah and I always say the only nationality I had never seen was an Eskimo! JL. It is true that. That Swedish church look how long that has been in Park Lane here I think the central heating is about 100 years old it is beautiful inside. Were you going to say something about the docks? JL. Going back before containerisation the shipping era was unbelievable the amount of ships here and we had the Overhead Railway and once the docks started closing and they started to containerise at Seaforth I was on one of the first ships that opened that terminal and it should have been The Columbia Star that opened it but I was on a little shuttle container and we got in first and we were on the television at that time. But, that Overhead Railway should never have been knocked down it went from Seaforth right across past Speke airport it could have killed all of this traffic, this city was never meant for a one way system. The Overhead Railway was the Docker’s Umbrella, it served the Liverpool people and it served the Docks when the Docks were booming and the likes of general cargoes and meat grain carriers, logs that they used to bring from Africa, it was amazing man, the Overhead Railway was eight miles it used to go from Dingle right through to Seaforth and Litherland and when it rained they called it the Dockers Umbrella because you could walk right under it. GQ. The Dockers Umbrella you could go right along it just cost four-pence you know, four pennies Do you remember the David Lewis Dispensary? Yes we used to go there. GQ. Yes it cost one penny (to see a doctor) JL. David Lewis was more or less, like how can I put it, a hostel but we use to go there they had a Cinema and snooker rooms and everything. The community down here at that time from the other side of Great Georgies Street we were all like one community everybody knew everybody else but it was fascinating to see Liverpool in its hay-day you know. The David Lewis Dispensary people used to queue up to see a doctor GQ. Oh yes but it was only for people who could not afford because you had to pay for your doctor then you know. If people could not afford it, it may have only been two shillings but it only cost a penny the David Lewis. But the David Lewis that was part of Lewis’s store which was started by the Cohen family and they had the David Lewis theatre, that was a proper theatre you know, like the Empire and I was in the social club that was attached to it and it was a very good club, very organised by the people who run it and we had our own committee and things like that but we didn’t interfere with the running of the David Lewis because that was done by the governing body of Lewis’s store and a trust fund you know and that was done up to the time when they decided to re-develop Great George’s Street and the David Lewis was in that and we are talking about the Pier Head being demolished you know. That place should never have been demolished either. JL. No GQ. It should have been kept as something that will stand out from the days of the past. From the time it was built to the time it was demolished there was no other Theatre like it and for what it was used for in the community. What happened later was the University used to use it for examinations and the likes of accountants and they used to hire it for the vital examinations for when they are passing out. We have had some good people there you know. JL. Do you remember Hughie Green? He was there one time you know GQ. That is one of the discoveries isn’t it! He was there one time. It was a really good well a notable building that should have been kept in the area. You know when you look at the Cathedral like and all the buildings around it they are kept because they go back hundreds of years and the David Lewis should have been kept but when they decided to develop right along Great George’s Street that was in the demolition. Do you think it will be like that again? JL. I won’t be here to see that GQ. Them days are finished, they never come back they gone on Was it because of the bombing people of all cultures moved out of Chinatown? JL. It could be. When the bombing started everybody had to get out or to get habitation somewhere and the Council where just putting people anywhere not where they wanted to go you know. They practically wiped out Pitt Street here to St Michael’s church. GQ. Everything was hit what did they call it once Johnny? JL. ‘Aerial bombing’ it was. If you could see the moon we had to go into the shelter. They hit the whole town in the May from the docks to here everything was hit. Is that when the Chinese business moved in to Nelson Street? JL. The Blue Funnel more or less deported a lot of them when the war was finished. There was quite a few of them who were torpedoed on the English Channel and they were left with no clothes or anything and they put them up and then as soon as they were alright they sent them back. One particular bloke that I knew he could not speak English and he had nothing but a pair of trousers and what we call Japanese willies, flip flops and that and all his clothes were lost and as soon as the war was over they sent them back then. GQ. I remember my brother telling me about the Spanish people who lived around here. They mixed with us you know they went to St Peter’s school we didn’t get many at St Michaels their religion was Catholic. They all lived coming up from the Lane to the bottom of Pitt Street here and they all disappeared and what we have got now maybe is remnants of families you can only go by the name though. They were the only people who taught their children their mother language. They were the only people I know that ever done that.
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 14:57:31 +0000
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