The quality of Mersey...
QUESTION I recently heard comedian Alexei Sayle reminiscing about Henderson’s department store in Liverpool. My mum used to do the same. What became of it? William HENDERSON first established a drapery business at 24 Church Street, liverpool, in 1829. By 1924, William Henderson & Sons was registered as a private limited company, with William and Edward Henderson, grandsons of the original proprietor as directors. it was now known as ‘the Harrods of the North’, occupying 9-15 Church Street.
in 1949, it was purchased by Harrods before Harrods itself was acquired by House of Fraser in 1959. On June 22, 1960, the liverpool store was destroyed by fire, with 11 lives lost. But it was rebuilt in 1962 and continued to trade under the William Henderson & Sons ltd name until 1975 when became part of the Binns brand.
in June 1976, this store and Binns’s premises in Newcastle-upon-Tyne were put on the market as part of House of Fraser’s strategy to finance its enlarged capital expenditure programme.
Jim Lees Formby, Lancs. HENDERSON’S was considered the poshest of the main liverpool department stores, in competition with George Henry lee, a branch of John lewis.
No lady (or girl) would enter without being smartly dressed with gloves, hat and stockings. it had a wonderful perfume and make-up department on the ground floor and sold expensive glass and china, menswear, ladies wear and other smart items.
The small cafe upstairs was considered way ahead of its time as the waitress would stand inside the circular Formica table top and make tea and coffee, toasted cheese sandwiches and toasted tea cakes within sight of the clientele.
in the terrible fire in 1960, several people died, either from smoke inhalation or jumping from the higher-floor windows. The store never really recovered, even though it was refurbished. it continued trading until 1976, when it closed and the property was taken over by various individual shop units.
There was always a chemist incorporated into the ground floor, Timothy Whites, which is now Boots. H&m now stands on the corner of Church Street and Williamson Street where Henderson’s used to be.
Henderson’s backed onto properties in Whitechapel, one of which was NEMS (North End music Stores), owned by the father of Brian Epstein, who became The Beatles’s manager. The young Brian opened a record department at the back of the store, and the rest is history.
The area of Whitechapel behind Henderson’s is now a busy area for fashion, including the met Quarter and the upmarket designer opticians, Silverberg’s, which provides eyewear to footballers and the stars.
Stella Sternberg, London.
QUESTION Did Gustav Mahler have an equally talented older brother? OTTO MAHLER (June 18, 1873 - February 6, 1895) was the 12th of 14 children born to Bernard and marie mahler.
He was born in Jihlava, now in the Czech Republic, and like his elder brother, second-born Gustav (1860-1911), displayed a precocious talent for music.
Otto joined the Vienna Conservatory, but was melancholic and lazy. after a term studying harmony and counterpoint with anton Bruckner and piano with Ernst ludwig, Otto’s marks declined, and his first year report shows he took no final exam in composition. He left the conservatory in april 1892 without a diploma.
Gustav was furious when he learned of his brother’s failure. in a letter to his sister Justine, he wrote: ‘about Otto, i am now absolutely at my wits’ end! it’s an awful shame about the boor! incompetent, ignorant and respectful of no one! What is there to do? The “lash” in the military might perhaps do it! i give up! i know about his wanton thought, laziness as well, and also that he strikes such a presumptuous tone in his letters to me, and — despite him denying it — is so insincere towards me, that i am very angry about it all.’
Despite his anger, Gustav’s letter showed he cared a great deal for his brother’s welfare and that he was sufficiently convinced of Otto’s talent to obtain him positions in two musical theatres. yet neither, in Bremen or leipzig, was successful and by the end of 1894 the situation was becoming desperate.
in Vienna on February 6, 1895, Otto shot himself with a revolver while in the house of his and mahler’s friend, Nina Hoffmannmatscheko. according to Gustav’s widow, alma, Otto’s suicide note stated that life no longer pleased him so he ‘handed back his ticket’.
We’ll never know how good a composer he was. a trunk containing Otto’s effects, including his compositions and, perhaps, mahler’s letters to him, was destroyed when towards the end of World War ii a bomb hit the house the mahlers had lived in. according to alma, Gustav mahler had always been afraid to open it.
Mrs Justine Barron, oxford.
QUESTION Was the rail service from Blackpool to York via Burnley, re-introduced in the Eighties, started at the behest of a building society? THE Calder Valley line was opened by the manchester and leeds Railway (later l&yR) on November 12, 1849.
The section between Rose Grove, on the line from Preston to Colne, and Todmorden, an offshoot of the Calder Valley railway described on the Ordnance Survey as Burnley Branch, was popularly known as the Copy Pit Route, a name derived from the small colliery, signal box and line summit about midway between Rose Grove and Todmorden.
The Rose Grove/Todmorden local service closed in 1965, and thereafter the only passenger service was a daily leeds/ Blackpool train. By 1982, this route was being served by just one train daily from immingham to Preston, with the expectation of closure shortly afterwards.
However, an unexpected turn of events saw a regular passenger service return to the Copy Pit Route in 1984.
Burnley Building Society had merged with the Bradford- based Provincial Building Society to form the National & Provincial Building Society, and staff were required to travel between the offices in Bradford and Burnley.
So an arrangement was made with British Rail whereby funding would be provided to support a daily train carrying building society staff and internal mail between Preston, Rose Grove and Bradford interchange.
The train, which also carried members of the public, ran for the first time on may 14, 1984. By may 1988, the service had been increased to eight trains a day and proved something of a renaissance for this former l&yR line.