On the Street Where They Lived

Famous buildings in Liverpool are too numerous to mention, but these have no claim to fame other than being the family homes of former offshore DJs

On a visit to Liverpool in 2010, our friend Keith Gunson took us on a 'grand tour.' We'd already been taken to all the Beatle sites, but Keith was particularly interested to establish the locations of the premises where some of the offshore DJs lived when not on board ship. He had already found the house at 14 Hereford Road, Seaforth, where Kenny Everett was born as Maurice Cole to Tom and Elizabeth in 1944.

We knew that Caroline North DJ Mike Ahern had lived only a short distance away from Kenny in Roman Street, because they'd both attended the same school, although in different classes as Mike was two years older. Keith had a 1956 edition of the Liverpool A-Z to assist us and after some additional net research, we eventually discovered that the premises in Roman Street have since been demolished. We still had no house number for the Ahern family.

Above, Seaforth map from 1956

George Hare then gave us a list of employee contact information that he been required to keep on file when he was Caroline's on-shore agent. All members of staff and crew had to give George both an onshore address and emergency contact details. From this, we established that Mike's folks had lived at #24 Roman Street.

Right, Mike with George in 2007

In addition to his parents' place, Mike listed 57A Grasmere Rd, Blackpool, as his leave address, so it sounds as if he had a flat (or maybe a relative or girlfriend) there.

Bob Stewart's emergency contact address was Mr C Gabler, 79 Acanthus Road, Stoneycroft and his onshore address was 389A East Prescot Rd. We located both premises on the old A-Z and and found that they were near the Alder Hay hospital and very close to each other.

Keith has since photographed the former Stewart addresses and found them both still standing. He says, "It's a shame that the sun was in the shot a bit too much. My poor photography you see - not up to DLT's standard! However, I knocked on the door of 389A East Prescot Road and spoke to a woman who said she bought the property from Bob's two sisters, who by all accounts took over the house around 1967 when he went to Luxembourg. The sisters lived there for some time, until they sold it to the current owners - who gave me permission to take photographs of the outside."

79 Acanthus Road	389A East Prescot Road