0:00:03 > 0:00:07When we live in a house, we're just passing through.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09People have occupied it before us,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12others will take our place when we leave.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16100 human dramas played out in every room.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24Every house in Britain has a story to tell, but in this series, I'm
0:00:24 > 0:00:26going to uncover the secret life of just one -
0:00:26 > 0:00:30a single townhouse here in Liverpool...
0:00:30 > 0:00:32UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:35 > 0:00:39..a city that rivalled New York in the late 19th century,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43yet 100 years later was one of the poorest places in Europe.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49In many ways, 62 Falkner Street is an ordinary house.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51But as I'm going to show you,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54in reality it's an amazing treasure trove.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59He leaves them not just £100 but all also number 62 Falkner Street.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02In March 1885, again in this house,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05he grabbed her by the throat and assaulted her.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09The life that you can see recorded in these old documents is
0:01:09 > 0:01:12extraordinary. Delving into the archives,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15I'll use the personal histories of the residents of this house to
0:01:15 > 0:01:19reveal the story of Britain over almost 200 years...
0:01:21 > 0:01:24..a period of seismic social change,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28from the early years of Victoria's reign,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30right through to the present day.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36In this episode, the swinging '60s engulf Liverpool...
0:01:36 > 0:01:39..a famous neighbour arrives...
0:01:39 > 0:01:42The door burst open and the arrival of John Lennon, see.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47The residents witness riots, destruction,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49and the coming of an epidemic.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54And the very existence of our house hangs by a thread.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58And if the house is vacant, then it was at serious risk of
0:01:58 > 0:02:00being demolished.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I'm going on the ultimate detective hunt, to discover lives that haven't
0:02:04 > 0:02:07been recorded in the history books,
0:02:07 > 0:02:11but which can tell us a new version of our nation's past -
0:02:11 > 0:02:15a new history of Britain hidden within the walls of a single house.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Welcome to number 62 Falkner Street.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44This Georgian-style townhouse was built as a gentleman's residence
0:02:44 > 0:02:48in one of the Empire's great trading hubs - Liverpool.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52The area in which it sits,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56Liverpool 8, has gone from being a middle-class enclave to a mixed
0:02:56 > 0:02:59neighbourhood where people of different races,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02classes and religions live cheek by jowl.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08The house, too, has slid down the social scale.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14It's gone from smart, single dwelling house, to boarding house,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17to a series of cheap rented rooms.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20Its first resident - a Liverpool
0:03:20 > 0:03:23customs clerk, had moved in back in 1841,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28and since then, more than 50 people had called this house their home.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35I want to find out what happened to the house from the post-war years
0:03:35 > 0:03:37until today.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41As well as sifting through electoral rolls, directories
0:03:41 > 0:03:43and newspapers,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45for the first time, I'll meet some of the people
0:03:45 > 0:03:47who actually lived there.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53My search begins in the year 1945.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55The house has new occupants.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02The family living here are called the Stotts.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05There's Reynold, who's 48 - he's an electrician.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09His wife, Ada, who's 45 and a shorthand typist.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11And their daughter, Audrey.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Frustratingly, we've been able to find very little evidence with which
0:04:16 > 0:04:18to build up a picture of this, family.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21and we can't find any trace of any living relatives.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24But we've spoken to people who knew them at the time, and we do strongly
0:04:24 > 0:04:28believe that they were the owners of 62 Falkner Street.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33The family moved in in 1945,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37when Liverpool was picking up the pieces after the war.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42German bombs had left the city's docks in ruins,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45and 6,000 homes either destroyed or beyond repair.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52With a wave of service personnel returning from the war,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54the pressures on housing were intense.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Many young adults had no choice but to share with parents
0:04:58 > 0:05:00or grandparents.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Rental accommodation was in short supply.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07So it's no surprise that the Stotts decided to rent out rooms in
0:05:07 > 0:05:09their large house.
0:05:10 > 0:05:15The electoral roll reveals the names of their tenants.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19They are John and Beryl Quayle.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23And they move in in 1947, which is also the year that they get married.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27And 62 Falkner Street is their first home as a married couple.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33The Quayles were a typical young couple setting up their
0:05:33 > 0:05:34first home together.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38John was a returning serviceman.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42He'd spent the war with the RAF's Fleet Air Arm,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46repairing aircraft on a jungle airstrip in Sri Lanka.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50He'd come to Liverpool to get a job as a motor mechanic.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54His new wife, Beryl, was from the local area.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57She worked as a dress fitter in a ladies' fashion house in the centre
0:05:57 > 0:05:59of Liverpool.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05We know the couple rented the two attic rooms at the top of the house,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09originally used as children's bedrooms or servants' quarters.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15So this is the top floor.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19- Yeah.- This will have been your parents' flat.- Huh!
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Wow! Beautiful, big old house.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27We have a wealth of information about John and Beryl's life here,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30thanks to their son, Bill Quayle.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32Never been inside the building.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36I knew about it, anecdotal, from my parents, and they loved it here.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38They were very, very happy here.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40- And this is where it all began? - Oh, yeah.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45The Quayles moved in straight after their honeymoon.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Beryl was just 20, John 22.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53The accommodation was far from grand, but it was a big step up.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59This was the first time Beryl had lived away from her family home.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02It was brilliant for them,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05particularly for mother, cos she grew up with seven siblings in a
0:07:05 > 0:07:07semidetached house with three bedrooms,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10so she was used to sharing a room with four sisters.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13So this would be palatial for her, cos she had her own room.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Her and my dad for the bedroom, and then the front room is like,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19"Wow, we can actually stretch out in here and do what we want."
0:07:19 > 0:07:21For her, it was paradise.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24- So this was a really special place in your parents' life?- Yeah.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26- It was their first home together. - Yep.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29But not an easy place to live, I imagine?
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Well... Um, there was no water up here.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36So they had to get a bucket of water and bring it up the stairs to use
0:07:36 > 0:07:39for washing and stuff.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Cos they used to have a washstand in the bedroom.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45And they used to have a Primus stove in the living area,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48so they could actually make a cup of tea and do the cooking.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51But they had to bring all the water all the way up the stairs,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53and to go to the toilet, all the way down to the ground floor.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00How did your parents get together?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03The story I got told was the fact
0:08:03 > 0:08:08that my mother was persuaded to go to a dance organised by the Army.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10It was a TA dance.
0:08:10 > 0:08:121940s JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:08:14 > 0:08:17And my father was also persuaded to go, as well.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20So they both went to the dance, and that's where they met.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26They spent the whole evening dancing together.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28And they went on from there.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34It's a universal story -
0:08:34 > 0:08:37a young couple meet, fall in love, marry, and set up home.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43But what was different for the Quayles was that they were doing it
0:08:43 > 0:08:45amidst crippling austerity.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50The war effort had left the country with next to nothing -
0:08:50 > 0:08:53it was bombed-out, exhausted and drab.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56It's queue for everything.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59In fact, it's far worse now than it was during the war.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07One of the Quayles' biggest
0:09:07 > 0:09:09challenges was furnishing their new home.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14I think the thing that's interesting about John and Beryl
0:09:14 > 0:09:19setting up home in 1947 is that furniture was in very short supply,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23and it's restricted through the rationing system.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28The couple's choices were very limited.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32The production and supply of new furniture was tightly controlled by
0:09:32 > 0:09:36the Government under its utility scheme.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Even if it's utility furniture for priority customers only on the
0:09:40 > 0:09:43points system, we can all take it as a hint that peace production
0:09:43 > 0:09:45is on the way.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49The idea that peace and plenty would return together just wasn't true.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Beryl and John didn't go to a furniture showroom to choose the
0:09:54 > 0:09:58furniture, because the furniture showrooms weren't allowed to have
0:09:58 > 0:10:00any furniture on display.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05They would have chosen, probably, from this utility furniture catalogue.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09The local District Assistance Board would issue you 60 units
0:10:09 > 0:10:11to spend on furniture.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16Now you could only have these 60 units if you were bombed-out
0:10:16 > 0:10:17or newly married.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21And even then, there were restrictions placed on the kinds of
0:10:21 > 0:10:24things that you could buy. So if you wanted a sofa bed,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27you could only have a sofa bed if you lived in a bedsit.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30You couldn't have one if you lived in a house or a flat.
0:10:30 > 0:10:36So they were even able to control what the public were able to buy.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Despite the day-to-day hardships,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45John and Beryl loved their rented rooms in Falkner Street.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48But they didn't intend to be carrying pails of water upstairs
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and cooking on a Primus stove forever.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54They knew they wanted to start a family,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57but as far as bringing kids up, this was not an ideal place.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00So they knew they were going to be using this as a stepping stone
0:11:00 > 0:11:05to save up to be able to afford the deposit on a terraced house,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08because they wanted their own place.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12As you get a bit of money, you try and get yourself something with a bit of greenery.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Like many post-war couples, the Quayles wanted an escape
0:11:17 > 0:11:21from the grime and the bomb damage of the city centre.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Their aim was to buy a house in the suburbs.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29And their route out of Falkner Street was through hard work and careful saving.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31Beryl kept her job in retail,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34John worked his way up from mechanic to bus driver.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38And the man who has spent a lot of his life in uniform,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41he looks quite at ease in his bus driver's uniform.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Yeah, he used to iron his own shirts every morning.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Yeah. He wore a uniform most of his life.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52After saving for seven years,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56the Quayles had enough for a deposit on their first house.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58In 1954, they moved in.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Their new home had a separate kitchen,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08a proper bathroom and a spacious living room.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16It must have seemed unimaginably luxurious after life in Falkner Street.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19It's difficult for us to entirely remember, even though
0:12:19 > 0:12:21it's only 50, 60 years ago,
0:12:21 > 0:12:26but back then, millions of people regarded houses like this as relics.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Of an age that they wanted to escape from, not commemorate.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36A year after they moved in, Beryl gave birth to her son, Bill,
0:12:36 > 0:12:38the child she had always wanted.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48By fleeing the inner city, the Quayles were typical of the age.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54The buses that John drove connected Liverpool to a whole series
0:12:54 > 0:12:56of newly built settlements.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Housing developments were springing up in outlying towns
0:13:00 > 0:13:02like Speke, Kirkby and Halewood.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07New industrial estates provided jobs for their residents.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09According to a post-war survey,
0:13:09 > 0:13:1552% of women wanted to live in a suburb or small town.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18This is the Daily Mail Book Of Britain's Post-War Homes,
0:13:18 > 0:13:23based on the ideas and opinions of four-and-a-half million women.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25And there's a lovely quote here, it says,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29"Today, the women of the city are crying aloud, 'give us space,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33" 'space in which to breathe, space in which to bring up our children,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36" 'space in which to live, move and have our being.' "
0:13:39 > 0:13:43After John and Beryl Quayle's departure, the house was rented out
0:13:43 > 0:13:45to a succession of different people.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51The landlords changed too.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55When the Stott family left after 15 years in the house,
0:13:55 > 0:13:5962 Falkner Street was sold to a local investment company.
0:14:08 > 0:14:09Then came the '60s.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20There was an explosion of painting, music, poetry and counterculture
0:14:20 > 0:14:23from the coffee shops, pubs and art studios of Liverpool.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32How can we account for this great outburst of creativity
0:14:32 > 0:14:34in this city at that moment?
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Well, for a start, there were lots of young people in the population,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40thanks to the post-war baby boom.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44And Liverpool being a port town, had always had strong connections to the
0:14:44 > 0:14:48wider world and it absorbed lots of cultural influences.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53But more than that, Liverpool has always had a very strong sense of
0:14:53 > 0:14:55its own identity.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57A creative, nonconformist streak
0:14:57 > 0:15:01that's often found expression in the arts.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Not far from the house lives June Furlong.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13She has vivid memories of the neighbourhood at the time.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19If you walked that way, you get into all the art establishments.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23You walked that way, you get into the Liverpool University.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26And then you walked that way, and you got to the Rialto.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28So it was all going on.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32There were social clubs that were quite nice along there.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35You just go up here and turn left - Falkner Square...
0:15:35 > 0:15:37..and that Embassy Club...
0:15:37 > 0:15:40In the daytime, it was a sort of eating club, you know,
0:15:40 > 0:15:42dining club and all that.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44At night, it was changed completely.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46I'd go with a big group of artists
0:15:46 > 0:15:49because you could get a drink after hours.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57And the Gladray Club in Upper Parliament Street, oh, God.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01I mean, the things you'd see there, we'd only go in for a drink.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06That was all swinging.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09It was a very good scene, really, in the '60s.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14The nearby social clubs reflected the make-up of the neighbourhood.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19Decades of immigration had led to a fantastic diversity
0:16:19 > 0:16:20in the population.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24So there was the Nigerian Club,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26the Somali,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28the West Indian,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31the Polish and Mediterranean clubs,
0:16:31 > 0:16:32along with many others.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37They played the latest imported records -
0:16:37 > 0:16:39R&B, ska, jazz and calypso.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46In the hipster area of Falkner Street,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49there were some famous neighbours.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53John Lennon moved with his new wife, Cynthia, to number 36.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58June got to know Lennon when she was working as a life model
0:16:58 > 0:16:59at the art school.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04I remember sitting in the room where I had sat all my life,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08the door opened, burst open, and the arrival of John Lennon, you see.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11And he looked at me and said, "My name is John Lennon,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14"I'm enrolled to do a fine art degree here,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16"and I'll be drawing you.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19"Is that all right?" I said, "Well, that's all right, you know,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23"get yourself an easel, get a chair and sit down."
0:17:23 > 0:17:26He was very entertaining, but he used the place
0:17:26 > 0:17:28like a big cocktail party, you know.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32I mean, if I had kept all those letters that John Lennon,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35who came here regularly looking for me to go to parties,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37if I'd kept all those notes from him,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41I'd be in blooming South Kensington now, I wouldn't be sitting here.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46The street was at the centre of the city's social,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48cultural and intellectual scene.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52But the '60s didn't swing for everyone.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57In 1962, a family moved into the house.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01- Robert.- Hi, David.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04- Hi, nice to meet you. - And you.- And this is...
0:18:04 > 0:18:07- This is where you were born?- I was born in that very house, yeah.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14Robert Mercer Jr was born soon after his family moved into the house.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18He spent the first seven years of his life here.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22His father, Robert, did casual jobs,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24his mother, Dorothy, was a former nurse.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30He had three siblings, Trevor, Sandra and Jackie.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34And what about the community that lived here? What sort of people had come to Falkner Street
0:18:34 > 0:18:36- and the streets around? - Well, there was a mix, really.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40I mean, next door and around the corner in Bedford Street was a
0:18:40 > 0:18:42friend of my mother's - Alice and her husband.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45They were from Jamaica. He was a docker.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48It was a nice community, you know, no problems.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50It was really nice.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52A nice mix of the different people.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Different ages, as well.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58- Shall we go and see... - Certainly, yeah, let's go in. - ..what it looks like now?- Yeah.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Wow! It looks a lot smaller.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05- The house looks smaller?- Yeah, well, I was seven when I left, wasn't I.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07So, bound to be.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10Hey, look at that, original, still.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Still the same original staircase that was fitted here.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17The family rented two rooms and a landing on the first floor.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22This is where we slept, in here.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25The year after they moved in, Dorothy had a fifth child,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29and soon seven family members shared this space.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32- This was a bedroom? - Yeah, with a difference.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35It had a partition wall in.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40Up, along and then down, with a doorway about here.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Mum and Dad slept in a bed there, and all five kids slept in there.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51- Five siblings?- Yeah. So they could watch telly as well as us.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54- The television...- The television was about there, yeah.
0:19:54 > 0:19:55Where's the bathroom?
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Well, no bathroom. It's just a corridor,
0:19:57 > 0:19:59at the end of the corridor was a toilet.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01- Where did you wash? - Well, we'd wash in the sink.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04We were only little kids, so we would fit in the sink.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15The Mercers' situation was mirrored all over the neighbourhood.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17Families crammed into decaying,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21old houses with nothing but the most basic facilities.
0:20:21 > 0:20:2670% of the city's old housing was regarded as substandard.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33A massive slum clearance programme saw houses demolished and residents
0:20:33 > 0:20:37moved to new high-rise and overspill estates.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44But the speed of rebuilding utterly failed to keep pace with demolition.
0:20:44 > 0:20:4818,000 households remained on the list for council housing.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52And huge gaps began to appear in the once-elegant terraces
0:20:52 > 0:20:55around Falkner Street.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00I would sit on the field, we used to have bonfires.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03- When you say field, you mean an area that was bombed?- Bombed-out.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06- It's hardly countryside! - You mean a bomb site!
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Yeah, a bomb site, yeah. Opposite, there was a little
0:21:08 > 0:21:11corner shop, stood on its own.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13Tobacconist/sweet shop, you used to go in there for sweets.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Stood on its own cos everything else around you was bombed-out?
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Everything else, yeah. Stairs going up into the shop.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Certain things stick in your mind, don't they?
0:21:21 > 0:21:23I've got this picture, which is from the late '60s,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25taken in Liverpool.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Do you recognise these sort of conditions?
0:21:27 > 0:21:32Yeah. The oven there, the stove on the landing, just outside there.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34- Because there is no kitchen?- Yeah.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Exactly like that.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39We'd get tinned potatoes, meats, peas,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42put them all in the pan and make, like, a stew.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44And it's tinned food because I'm not seeing a fridge.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46No, never had a fridge.
0:21:47 > 0:21:48So...
0:21:48 > 0:21:51It was just them times, wasn't it, you know?
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Even though it wasn't the best conditions, was it fun being here as a kid?
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Oh, yeah. It's home, isn't it?
0:21:56 > 0:21:59If you didn't live here and then come here you'd think, "What a slum that is,"
0:21:59 > 0:22:02type thing, wouldn't you? No, it was fantastic. We loved it.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08In 1969, after seven years in the house,
0:22:08 > 0:22:10the family moved out to a new home,
0:22:10 > 0:22:1216 miles away in Runcorn.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20After years of casual work,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Robert's father had got a new job at a chemical works.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30The year that the Mercers left,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33a photographer was travelling around Britain.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38He'd been sent by the housing charity Shelter to all the most deprived parts of the country
0:22:38 > 0:22:41to take photographs of the conditions there.
0:22:41 > 0:22:42And perhaps, inevitably,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46that journey took him to Liverpool 8 and to Falkner Street,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50where he took a couple photographs, including this tragic image
0:22:50 > 0:22:53of a young girl and her baby sister.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56It looks like they got dressed up to have their photograph taken,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00and yet they're standing in appalling conditions.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Broken windows, damp running down the walls.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07These are the conditions of Falkner Street at the end of the 1960s
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and the beginning of the 1970s.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18This could be a Warsaw in 1944, but it isn't.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21It's my own city, Liverpool, in 1972.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26By the '70s, slum clearance schemes had moved 160,000 people
0:23:26 > 0:23:29out of central Liverpool.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Entire streets were now abandoned.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36This coincided with a downturn in the local economy.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41There were multiple factory closures, huge sectors of the docks,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44once the lifeblood of the city, were shut down.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48In Liverpool 8, the neighbourhood around Falkner Street,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50unemployment was rife.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54There's no jobs anyway.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56There is only them scheme jobs, and they're not...
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Are you resigned to the fact that you'll never get a job?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02- Yeah.- Really?
0:24:04 > 0:24:0762 Falkner Street in the midst of this blighted,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10forgotten neighbourhood was sold again.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15Another company, Rankmore Properties, bought it in 1971
0:24:15 > 0:24:17for £620.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Around two thirds of what it had cost back in the 1840s.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27As far as tenants go, there don't appear to have been any.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32On the electoral roll from the years 1970 to 1977,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35there is no listing for number 62.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38And if the house is vacant in those years in Liverpool,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42then it was at serious risk of being demolished.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46But there was hope for number 62.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Attitudes towards old Georgian and Victorian houses were beginning to
0:24:50 > 0:24:55change, because many of the new estates that had been built to replace the
0:24:55 > 0:24:59so-called slums had turned out even worse.
0:24:59 > 0:25:00They had been built in haste.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02They were unpleasant to live in.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Their residents felt isolated.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Have you any criticisms about the new sort of life you're living here?
0:25:08 > 0:25:10You come out onto the landing to come to the shops,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12you never speak to anyone.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15You know, I never see my neighbours at all.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18A few years ago, the architects and planners thought they'd got the
0:25:18 > 0:25:21answer to all the problems of urban deprivation.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25They roared their bulldozers up and down working-class streets,
0:25:25 > 0:25:27destroying the traditional communities.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33And now, while those architects are no doubt sitting at home planning their next project,
0:25:33 > 0:25:36people have to remain in what's left of their last experiment.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40It's not surprising some of the people get pretty angry about it,
0:25:40 > 0:25:42not surprising to find messages scrawled up on the wall,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45messages like, "Get us kids out of here".
0:25:50 > 0:25:53What did this all mean for 62 Falkner Street?
0:25:53 > 0:25:58I've unearthed a trail of evidence revealing what happened to it next.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Two events took place in the 1970s that were to save
0:26:02 > 0:26:04number 62 Falkner Street.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06The first took place in 1975,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10when an inspector from the Department of the Environment walked down the
0:26:10 > 0:26:14street and decided that all of the houses were of such architectural
0:26:14 > 0:26:16significance that they had to be saved,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19that they had to become listed buildings, Grade II.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23And here's the listing for number 62.
0:26:23 > 0:26:24There's not much here,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28a brief description of the basement window band,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31wedge lintels, the Doric doorcases,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34but what this listing meant was escape from the wrecking ball.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41The house was now protected in law for future generations.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Anyone altering or extending it without permission
0:26:44 > 0:26:48could incur a fine, even a prison sentence.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53The second event took place in 1976.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56I have uncovered a planning application,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58a proposal to turn 62 Falkner Street
0:26:58 > 0:27:02from a single dwelling house into three flats.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06It's been lodged by a social housing organisation called the
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Liverpool Housing Trust.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15During the '70s, the trust bought up hundreds of old empty houses in
0:27:15 > 0:27:19Liverpool 8 and refurbished them for rental to low-income tenants.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24And 62 Falkner Street was one such house,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27which they bought for just £400.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32I've tracked down their former director.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38What happened was a recognition that actually investing money in existing
0:27:38 > 0:27:41housing could save it,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45and so Liverpool Housing Trust ended up buying
0:27:45 > 0:27:51about 150 of these large properties, which made about 400 flats,
0:27:51 > 0:27:56and, all told, the whole area was systematically tackled
0:27:56 > 0:27:58over a period of about ten years.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04These are the plans that were produced by the Liverpool Housing Trust
0:28:04 > 0:28:08for the conversion of 62 Falkner Street.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12Each floor is to become a self-contained, one-bedroom flat,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14with its own bathroom and its own kitchen.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21The basement, where the kitchen and scullery used to be,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23was sealed up and used for storage.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28The ground floor, originally the dining room and morning room,
0:28:28 > 0:28:30became Flat 1.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38The first floor, designed as a drawing room and master bedroom,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40became Flat 2.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48And the small attic bedrooms became Flat 3.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Now what's of course lost in all of this are the original features,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00the ceiling rose, the cornicing, the panelled doors,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04all the things that really mattered to the first Victorian owners
0:29:04 > 0:29:06of this house are, I'm sad to say,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10stripped out, put in a skip and thrown away.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Of course, now we value period features and houses,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27so we might think of it as cultural vandalism,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30but I think if we see it through the lens of the time,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33it was about looking forwards.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37And of course, lots of the kinds of furniture that people were now using
0:29:37 > 0:29:40were a bit incompatible with these older houses.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50What we wanted to do is put in these lovely, tall, fitted units,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55and then the focal point of the room really changed, as well.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02The family would no longer sit around the fireplace,
0:30:02 > 0:30:06they would be much more likely to all crowd around the television as
0:30:06 > 0:30:11the focal point. So maybe there was no longer the need for this kind of
0:30:11 > 0:30:13decorative focus in the room.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27By 1979, the conversion was complete.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33The most radical transformation in the house's 130-year history.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36The first tenants moved in.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42An elderly railway engineer lived in Flat 1 on the ground floor.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47A single woman, remembered only as Miss French,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49lived in Flat 2 on the first floor.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54And on the top floor lived Brian Nicholson,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57who worked as a printer for the local paper.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03We tracked Brian down, and his ex-partner, Gale Ewart,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05who still live locally.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08So what first brought you to Falkner Street?
0:31:08 > 0:31:12I was lucky enough to get a flat, the offer of a flat,
0:31:12 > 0:31:16from Liverpool Housing Trust, which was 62 Falkner Street.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20So I moved in. That would probably be '79, somewhere around there,
0:31:20 > 0:31:22so I would be about 28 at the time.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24It was a nice place.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27And then, sometime later, you moved in with me, didn't you?
0:31:27 > 0:31:31Yeah, I moved in in about 1980, when I was 19.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34I lived about half a mile away in the centre of Toxteth.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37I eventually moved into that flat from home.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40So this period in your life was the beginning of your time together as a
0:31:40 > 0:31:44- couple.- Mm-hm.- We lived our lives, and then I got pregnant,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47and we had a daughter there, which was fabulous, wasn't it?
0:31:49 > 0:31:53In 1981, Brian and Gale brought their baby daughter, Kerry, home
0:31:53 > 0:31:56to their tiny one-bedroom flat.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04So this is Brian and I at the time, with our daughter in the bath.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07And so this is her with our gorgeous fireplace.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10It's amazing to see the inside of the house from that period.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15- It was a nice flat. It was a happy place.- Yeah.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20A new chapter in Brian and Gale's life was just beginning.
0:32:23 > 0:32:24But outside their front door,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28the area still faced desperate social problems.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33One commentator said that a pall of defeat hung more heavily over the
0:32:33 > 0:32:37neighbourhood than any place he'd ever visited.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Unemployment was running at nearly 40%,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45and the local black community faced discrimination and harassment.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52In July 1981, a few minutes' walk from Falkner Street,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55the arrest of one young black man led to a scuffle
0:32:55 > 0:32:58between police and the public.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03This sparked a sequence of events that became known
0:33:03 > 0:33:05as the Toxteth Riots.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09# Babylon's burning
0:33:10 > 0:33:12# You're burning the street
0:33:13 > 0:33:15# You're burning your houses... #
0:33:15 > 0:33:18'More than 100 white and coloured youths fought a pitched battle
0:33:18 > 0:33:20'against the police.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24'Ammunition was all around in derelict sites and empty houses.
0:33:24 > 0:33:30'Police faced a hail of stones, bottles, iron bars and petrol bombs.'
0:33:30 > 0:33:31What can you remember of that?
0:33:33 > 0:33:37- Do you remember we were sitting in The Clock pub?- Yeah.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39We were sitting in the pub, and we were looking out,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42and there was a line of policemen with shields one side,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45and a gang of young men the other side, sort of attacking them.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48The police lines were shoved further and further back.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53I can recall at one point bricks and things coming back over the police
0:33:53 > 0:33:56line, they were actually throwing bricks back at the people who were throwing them at them.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58A very strange night.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00# ..with anxiety
0:34:00 > 0:34:02# Babylon's burning
0:34:02 > 0:34:04# Babylon's burning... #
0:34:04 > 0:34:08The next morning, when you woke up, what did Toxteth look like?
0:34:08 > 0:34:10It was the smell you noticed first before you actually came out,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14you could actually smell burnt rubber, you know, that strange smell.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17And there were cars and things dotted around.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21The tarmac was just all burnt on Parliament Street,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23and the buses had stopped running that way.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25It was a main road through.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27I remember the milk floats.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30A dairy was broken into, and you know the electric milk floats,
0:34:30 > 0:34:32they were actually driven at the police.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35There were tensions the whole time, you know, my whole life as a child,
0:34:35 > 0:34:40so I understood, we both understood why the riots at the time happened,
0:34:40 > 0:34:44because of the way people were treated, and the way
0:34:44 > 0:34:48society had sort of left local people behind.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52It was not a good time to be young and black, I don't think,
0:34:52 > 0:34:54in the early '80s.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59So we understood, and we were sort of very aware of what was happening.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04After the first four days of rioting,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07much of the main battle ground on Upper Parliament Street
0:35:07 > 0:35:09was in ruins.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15150 buildings had been burnt down.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Shops looted.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24And injuries sustained, on both sides.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33The causes of this mass uprising would be debated for months to come.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Members of the community were in no doubt about why it had happened.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Jimi Jagne was just 17 at the time.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46What were the difficulties facing people living around here and in
0:35:46 > 0:35:49Liverpool 8 in the years leading up to the riots?
0:35:49 > 0:35:51There was no desire by the authorities
0:35:51 > 0:35:54to assist people in breaking out of the community
0:35:54 > 0:35:56and, in fact, on a social level,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00whenever young black people tried to venture outside,
0:36:00 > 0:36:04the racism that they'd encounter in surrounding districts was such that,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07you know, you yearn for home, sweet home.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11So you'd find yourself pushed back to Liverpool 8 because the
0:36:11 > 0:36:13- welcome outside wasn't exactly warm? - It was not good at all.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19The biggest problem was the relationship between
0:36:19 > 0:36:21the black community and the police.
0:36:21 > 0:36:27The police in this city were practically masters of their own universe.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33They were a very powerful police force.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36They felt untouchable. We knew that they had a problem with us as black youths,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38because they saw us basically as troublemakers.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45How had things got that bad between the police and the black community?
0:36:45 > 0:36:47It had always been bad for as long as I remember,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50but growing up as a kid during the '70s,
0:36:50 > 0:36:54it was obvious that there was a difficult situation with the police around here.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56Their presence was felt all the time,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58they'd be driving around in vehicles,
0:36:58 > 0:37:03and you'd always hear stories of kids and teenagers and older people
0:37:03 > 0:37:05being stopped on the streets by the police.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09The Merseyside Police force had these problems,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12now not all officers saw black people as criminals,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15and not all the people who were living in L8 were black,
0:37:15 > 0:37:17so this was a mixed community, wasn't it?
0:37:17 > 0:37:20That's right, it was a very mixed community.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23In terms of race, we were living really comfortably here,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27everybody seemed to understand what the issues were for the next person,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31and in fact those same issues more than likely impacted on yourself,
0:37:31 > 0:37:32if not someone else in your family.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34So there was no reason, really,
0:37:34 > 0:37:40why there had to be any troubles here between people of different races.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42We got along just great.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47The disturbances of that summer, not just in Liverpool 8
0:37:47 > 0:37:50but in Brixton, Moss Side and elsewhere,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54were the result of years of simmering frustration and anger.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00What we had was a system that seemed to rail against us so completely
0:38:00 > 0:38:04that we had no outlets. There was no way that we could express ourselves,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06outside of this particular situation.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10There were no guarantees that all that we were going to fix or remedy
0:38:10 > 0:38:13our problem, but you had to die trying.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15Looking back now, 35 years later,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18what was the significance of those events?
0:38:18 > 0:38:21Although this neighbourhood suffered for so many years as a consequence
0:38:21 > 0:38:25of those riots, it was a pivotal point in race relations in this country.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28It was brought to the attention of the whole country that we had problems here.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36The riots of 1981 were a low point in the relationship between the
0:38:36 > 0:38:39police and the Liverpool black community.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43But they also marked perhaps the lowest point in the decline of
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Liverpool as a city, because in the aftermath of the riots,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51a programme of urban regeneration and renewal was put in place.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58There was no overnight transformation in Liverpool 8.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01Social problems persist to the present day,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03but the recovery had begun.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07Money flowed into Liverpool to tackle infrastructure,
0:39:07 > 0:39:09housing and employment.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15More than 850 acres of dockland,
0:39:15 > 0:39:17most of which had been closed for years,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20was restored and reopened.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23The city's famous Albert Dock began to trade again,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27though the money came now from tourism, not shipping.
0:39:30 > 0:39:3562 Falkner Street continued its existence as social housing.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42The tenants during the late '80s describe it as a happy place.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Life followed familiar routines.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48Visits from family, nights at the pub.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00In the early '90s, I moved to Liverpool to study history at the university.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04At that time, the area around Falkner Street was run-down,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07but it was regarded as exciting, diverse and Bohemian.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12So the next wave of people who were drawn to the area came not just
0:40:12 > 0:40:16because of the cheap rents, but because of its vibrant culture.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19And they weren't labourers and bus drivers, they were sculptors,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21musicians and poets.
0:40:25 > 0:40:31Among these new tenants was Jeff Young, who moved in in 1992.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33Of all the people I've traced,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37he was the easiest to find because he's an acclaimed playwright
0:40:37 > 0:40:38and screenwriter.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42What drew you to living in this part of Liverpool?
0:40:42 > 0:40:45I just always wanted to live in Liverpool 8,
0:40:45 > 0:40:46from when I was a kid.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50I was drawn to it romantically, physically, architecturally.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53The life on the streets, the whole West Indian feel to it, you know.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56But many people outside of Liverpool would have thought that's where the
0:40:56 > 0:41:01- riots were.- Yeah, to me, the riots kind of fed into that atmosphere,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05you know. You could feel the energy of the riots was still there.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09A romantic, poetic, kind of Bohemian beatnik thing,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11a little bit edgy, you know, after dark.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15You know, but that's exciting, you know.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17So this is you back in the '90s?
0:41:17 > 0:41:22This is me probably in the mid-'90s, slightly wild.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26Wild-eyed, glassy-eyed, I think.
0:41:26 > 0:41:27And which flat did you live in?
0:41:27 > 0:41:29I lived in flat two, on the first floor.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31I've been looking trying to find some photographs.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33These were both in the living room.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35- That's me and my... - You and your cats?
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Cats and my dad. My reluctant father in the photo.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43Then, if you looked at the front of the house, it was intact as a
0:41:43 > 0:41:45Georgian facade, as a Georgian building.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Inside, it was like living in cardboard boxes, you know?
0:41:48 > 0:41:51The, kind of, dividing walls were paper-thin,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54and it was almost like the identikit structure that they slotted into the
0:41:54 > 0:41:56inside of the buildings, you know?
0:41:59 > 0:42:02As a freelance writer, the flat was Jeff's office,
0:42:02 > 0:42:05the neighbourhood was where he found his inspiration.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08So yeah, I was working as a writer.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10I was working as a stand-up poet,
0:42:10 > 0:42:12and then I got into theatre pretty quickly.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15But it was the hanging-outness of it.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18You'd get up late, you'd get some breakfast together, and then when it
0:42:18 > 0:42:21seemed like a sensible enough time, you go to the pub.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23You know, and you'd meet other people in the pub.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26And you'd be sitting with a painter, or a musician and you'd talk.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29And so, that was it. That was the height of the dream for me.
0:42:30 > 0:42:31I was a deadbeat.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Can you remember the other sort of people who were living in the flats
0:42:34 > 0:42:38- in Falkner Street?- Yeah, you know, it's fluid, it changed all the time.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42Upstairs was a musician and his daughter.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46And downstairs was a guy who ran a tapas joint
0:42:46 > 0:42:49up in the business quarter.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51And he would play the organ in the evenings.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55So quite often we would hear the music coming up from the...
0:42:55 > 0:42:57Through the cardboard floors, you know.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03He was very separate, he was very self-contained.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05You would hardly ever see him.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07But... I didn't get to know him.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14I start a search for the mystery musical neighbour
0:43:14 > 0:43:16from the ground-floor flat.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22The electoral roll reveals his name, Mark Merino.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26A native of Merseyside, of dual English and Spanish Basque heritage.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32Although it's listed in an old phone directory from 1993,
0:43:32 > 0:43:34Mark's restaurant no longer exists.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39But then, I track down Mark's younger sister, Miranda,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42who agrees to meet me.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45My brother spent a bit of time living down in London
0:43:45 > 0:43:49in the early '80s, and then he moved back up to Liverpool -
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Falkner Street... and started the tapas bar.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Oh, it was just fabulous, the food, the atmosphere.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03All the chefs were Basque.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05Mark made a lot of effort.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09You know, he would be up early in the mornings to go to the fish market, you know.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13And he drove all the way to Valencia in Spain
0:44:13 > 0:44:16to get the jamon serrano on the bone, you know,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20because that is proper, proper, proper food.
0:44:20 > 0:44:27And he'd put on flamenco evenings or piano evenings,
0:44:27 > 0:44:29great musicians would come and play.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32He was extreme and extravagant...
0:44:34 > 0:44:37..but all in really good ways.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45Mark's restaurant operated out of this building in central Liverpool.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49His old friend Kath Charters used to visit back in the '90s.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57So what was this place like when it was Mark's tapas bar?
0:44:57 > 0:45:01Oh, it was really, really amazing because it was kind of a beautiful
0:45:01 > 0:45:05spot in amongst a lot of not-quite-so-beautiful spots.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11And it was, as well as being the first tapas bar,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13it was part of the gay scene in Liverpool.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15It was part of the gay scene in Liverpool,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19I mean, all the piano players were gay, all the staff were gay,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23and it was a place where people could go and be fed beautifully,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26maybe have a little bit of quiet time, also have a little bit of fun time.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29It was enjoyable and it was creative.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32And what was the gay scene like in Liverpool in those days?
0:45:32 > 0:45:34It was very joyous and very raucous.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39I mean, there's always been and still is a camaraderie
0:45:39 > 0:45:41in the gay community in Liverpool
0:45:41 > 0:45:44that I don't personally experience anywhere else.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50But in 1993, while the restaurant thrived,
0:45:50 > 0:45:55Liverpool's gay community was in the grip of the HIV epidemic.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59From just a handful of cases a decade earlier,
0:45:59 > 0:46:04there were now around 150 new diagnoses every year.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Many of the people in Liverpool most affected by the virus lived within a
0:46:09 > 0:46:11short distance of the house.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18What was the impact of HIV on the gay community here in Liverpool?
0:46:18 > 0:46:22It was very devastating, as it was in lots of places.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25I mean, where I lived and where Mark lived,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28there was maybe, like, five to seven streets around that area
0:46:28 > 0:46:33where numbers of gay men lived, and you would just kind of begin
0:46:33 > 0:46:37to be aware that you weren't seeing that person on the street any more.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41There were just people, young men, dying all the time.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45We were literally attending a funeral every couple of weeks,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49if not weekly. And there was that sense of desperation at the time
0:46:49 > 0:46:52that people were not going to recover from this.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Kath worked for a local HIV charity supporting people
0:47:00 > 0:47:02living with the virus.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07We had a very big therapeutic
0:47:07 > 0:47:09team at that time.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13And the people used to go and assist people with their shopping.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17Maybe assist people cleaning, decorating the house.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Those kind of tasks that people may no longer be able to do.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24But equally, that family members might be afraid to do.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29Because people, even relatives, didn't want to go near their...
0:47:29 > 0:47:32- Anyone who had HIV.- Yeah, and there was that whole thing...
0:47:32 > 0:47:36- And touch them.- Yeah, or you might share cups with them, and that kind of thing.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40This was thought to be a route of transmission, in those days,
0:47:40 > 0:47:42by, you know, the outside world really.
0:47:47 > 0:47:52In 1994, Kath came to 62 Falkner Street to support a new client.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Mark himself had contracted HIV.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Mark was someone you had known from this bar, from his restaurant.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05- Yeah.- Then you got to know him in a different way, through your work.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Then I got to know him in a different way, yeah.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11I was going out with one of the woman here in the bar.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15I know the people who were actually associated with the bar would go
0:48:15 > 0:48:18around to Mark's house when he was getting ill and we would cook and
0:48:18 > 0:48:20talk to him and, you know, kind of be with him.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28Mark got increasingly frail and he wanted to eat particular things
0:48:28 > 0:48:34cos his big thing was to feed himself and food was his medicine.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38So, we really spent a lot of time with him at home.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42He didn't particularly want to be in hospital,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45had a bit of an aversion to hospitals. He wanted to be at home.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49So he was determined to spend his... What time he had left in Falkner Street?
0:48:49 > 0:48:51Yeah, he wanted to be there.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54- So you would sit in front of those big sash windows and...- Yeah, yeah.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58- And eat and talk? - Yeah, we talked a lot.
0:49:00 > 0:49:06At that time, in the early '90s, HIV treatments were largely ineffective.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11The majority of people diagnosed went on to develop AIDS-related illnesses.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14Mark's health went into rapid decline.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20He was living in Falkner Street and he was just getting progressively
0:49:20 > 0:49:24more ill. His stints in hospital would be longer,
0:49:24 > 0:49:26and then the time out in between
0:49:26 > 0:49:31when he went back into hospital would be less and less.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34He started deteriorating quite rapidly.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42The end was very, very unpleasant and very painful for him.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46And for the observers as well.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49It was tragic.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56We didn't waste time in being morbid.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02We made every single moment
0:50:02 > 0:50:05that we could spend together...
0:50:06 > 0:50:08..as wonderful as possible.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Because it was going to have to last me a long time, those memories.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17Yeah.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Mark died in November 1994.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25He was 36.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40Mark was not the first resident of 62 Falkner Street
0:50:40 > 0:50:45to have had his life cut short by an epidemic disease.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49But somehow, when such a death happens in the Victorian Age it
0:50:49 > 0:50:51comes as no surprise to us.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56And that's perhaps what was so shocking and disorienting about
0:50:56 > 0:51:02AIDS and HIV, was that it took place at a time and to a generation
0:51:02 > 0:51:07who had got used to the idea that medicine would always have an answer.
0:51:07 > 0:51:12We had grown accustomed to the idea that it was other people,
0:51:12 > 0:51:13at other times in the past,
0:51:13 > 0:51:18who lived under the shadow of epidemic disease and not us.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21And it makes it very real to me
0:51:21 > 0:51:23to think that when I was a student living in this city,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26my bus between university and home went down the bottom
0:51:26 > 0:51:32of the street, that Mark was in this room facing the reality
0:51:32 > 0:51:34of what HIV and AIDS meant.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37I watched it on the news, I worried about the reports,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40for him it was all too real.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50In the new millennium, 62 Falkner Street was home
0:51:50 > 0:51:53to a new crop of tenants.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58The house was now one of 16,000 properties owned
0:51:58 > 0:52:00by the Liverpool Housing Trust.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04But when their funding began to dwindle,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08the trust took the decision to sell off their most valuable houses.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13After 25 years as rented flats,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16plans were drawn up to convert 62 Falkner Street
0:52:16 > 0:52:18back into a single dwelling.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24The basement became two bedrooms and a bathroom.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31The ground floor became a family kitchen and reception room.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37The first floor, a play room and second sitting room.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42And the top floor, three bedrooms.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49The Falkner Street of today is unrecognisable from the place it was
0:52:49 > 0:52:51in previous decades.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56Liverpool's Georgian and Victorian terraces are now amongst the most
0:52:56 > 0:52:58desirable properties in the city.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04Liverpool historian John Belchem lives in such a house himself.
0:53:04 > 0:53:09Falkner Street, or at least the parts of it that survive, look today
0:53:09 > 0:53:11as beautiful as they must've done when it was first built.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15This has been, has it not, an amazing story of regeneration?
0:53:15 > 0:53:18It is a very successful story of regeneration
0:53:18 > 0:53:21and an area of regeneration to a city centre.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Yes, as tastes have changed and people have come to appreciate
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Georgian, early-Victorian architecture, a lot of care has gone
0:53:28 > 0:53:31into restoring them and making people realise that
0:53:31 > 0:53:33the architectural aesthetics of this really do
0:53:33 > 0:53:36make a lovely area in which to live.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40It's hard to imagine that these beautiful houses were ever seen as
0:53:40 > 0:53:43- not having enormous value, but they were.- Indeed so,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47because they were sort of in the wrong place at the wrong time, as it were.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49But in a strange way it has come back full circle,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52because that's what it was built to be.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54Precisely, this was built to be exclusive.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56I mean, it looks as if we might be going back that way.
0:53:56 > 0:54:01So it is becoming more monocultural, and I think that is the downside
0:54:01 > 0:54:04of what otherwise is a wonderful process.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07So the sorts of people who can buy a house on Falkner Street today,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11they are the modern equivalents of the Victorian merchants for whom
0:54:11 > 0:54:14- these houses were first built. - That is absolutely true.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Today, number 62 Falkner Street is home to Gaynor.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26She lives here with her two children.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30- Hello.- Hello.- How are you doing?
0:54:30 > 0:54:32- All right, thank you. Come in. - Nice to see you again.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34So, tell me, how long have you lived here?
0:54:34 > 0:54:37About seven-and-a-half years now.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40We lived a little bit further out of Liverpool city centre but we
0:54:40 > 0:54:42wanted to move into the city.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Just the character of the area, the space of the house,
0:54:46 > 0:54:51so we could have friends and be hospitable and have lots of people around.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54How much do know about the history of this house?
0:54:54 > 0:54:56I don't really know much.
0:54:56 > 0:55:02I know that the houses will have been very grand
0:55:02 > 0:55:04when they were built.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06And I know little bits because of what neighbours have said.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08Erm...
0:55:08 > 0:55:09But I don't really know.
0:55:09 > 0:55:14So, shall we meet some of your forebears who have called this house their home?
0:55:14 > 0:55:16- Yes, please.- OK.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22This house is almost 180 years old.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25And the first resident moved in in November 1840,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28and his name was Richard Glenton.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31And this is a copy of the lease.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33Oh, my goodness.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37- So this is the first owner to live here.- Gosh.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39That is interesting.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45132 people have lived in this house
0:55:45 > 0:55:48from the year 1840 until now.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52There may be more, who never appeared in the records.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Customs clerk Richard Glenton walked through this front door
0:55:57 > 0:55:59when the house was brand-new.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05Then came James and Ann Orr, former servants who made a fortune.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09Wilfred Steele,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13the cotton broker who deserted his family for a new life in America.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20Widowed Elizabeth Bowes rented rooms to Danish immigrant Edward Lublin.
0:56:24 > 0:56:25Ann Robinson,
0:56:25 > 0:56:29the wife of the drowned watchmaker Alfred, gazed out of these windows.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39The Snewing children slept in these rooms at the turn of the 20th century.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44In the 1940s, Jack Greenall would have climbed these stairs
0:56:44 > 0:56:46after a hard day at the docks.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52And John and Beryl Quayle would have collected coal for their fire from
0:56:52 > 0:56:54this basement.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Does this make you feel like you are part of a story?
0:56:57 > 0:57:00Because you are one of these people that we have traced?
0:57:00 > 0:57:02You are the latest chapter.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06The history has been put here right in front of me.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10And it is not until you hear stories like these folk here
0:57:10 > 0:57:13that you realise that actually the variety of people that lived in the
0:57:13 > 0:57:17house because of the changing times.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20And actually it makes you think about the situations that they found
0:57:20 > 0:57:22themselves in and how they went about their life,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25and how they conducted themselves.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27And what they thought was important.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31You can empathize with the situations that they were in.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34And that's, that's quite special.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40It's the end of my time at 62 Falkner Street
0:57:40 > 0:57:43uncovering the extraordinary life of this house
0:57:43 > 0:57:46and the people who called it home.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53Just like us, the residents of 62 Falkner Street lived in uncertain times.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58They had no idea what events lay ahead of them and their lives were
0:57:58 > 0:58:02gloriously messy and unpredictable.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07But if you stand back and you look at this long chain of people spanning two centuries,
0:58:07 > 0:58:12they are far more than just a random collection of individual stories.
0:58:12 > 0:58:18The life of each resident is a chapter in a bigger historical story.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22One that links the history of this house to Liverpool,
0:58:22 > 0:58:24to Britain and the wider world.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27And all of this told from behind one front door.