Scotland Road
Scotland Road or "Scottie Road" is the A59 and is situated near the docks in the Vauxhall area of north Liverpool, England.
History
Scotland Road was created in the 1770s as a turnpike road to Preston via Walton and Burscough. It became part of a stagecoach route to Scotland, hence its name. It was partly widened in 1803 and streets of working class housing laid out either side as Liverpool expanded. Many were demolished as slums in the 1930s, to be replaced with corporation flats. In Victorian times the area had over 200 public houses, mostly now closed.
Scotland Road was the centre of working class life for the people of the surrounding areas of Everton, Vauxhall and Islington. Home to most of Liverpool's migrant communities, Scotland Road was almost "a city within a city". Scotland Road was an area dominated by Irish catholic immigration following the massive influx of thousands of starving Irish paupers in the 1840s. It was a place close to both the back end of the city centre and the docks. It could be a place of both romantic nostalgia and brutal hardship. Community was at the centre of Scotland Road and one's faith often dictated which community one belonged to.
The Liverpool Scotland UK Parliament constituency was represented by an Irish Nationalist until 1929.
Decline
Scotland Road was often the centre of sectarian divisions in the past, something that has existed since the community formed right up until the war and the re-housing to various parts of the city. With the demolition of slums after the Second World War ended in 1945, families were rehoused to new council houses in areas like Kirkby, Croxteth, Norris Green, Huyton and Stockbridge Village to new modern housing, leaving Scotland Road in a state of steady decline.
Scotland Road Free School
The Scotland Road Free School was a short-lived example of democratic education established 1970 by two local teachers. It was based at Major Street, just off Scotland Road. A related project, Liverpool Community Transport was established in a disused transport depot in nearby Leeds Street.
Liverpool John Moores University
At its southern end, Scotland Road becomes Byrom Street, the location of the largest campus of Liverpool John Moores University.[1]
Famous "Scottie Roaders"
- Cilla Black - singer and television personality.
- Tom Baker - actor (best known for playing the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who)
- Rt Rev Thomas Anthony Williams - Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool
- Thomas Cecil Gray
- David Cowley Lord Mayor of Liverpool
- Holly Johnson - singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Other uses
Scotland Road can also be used as a slang reference to a corridor or passageway which allows crew access to the length of a vehicle. On board the RMS Titanic, a lower-deck corridor which ran the length of the ship was referred to as "Scotland Road". There is also a play entitled Scotland Road by Jeffrey Hatcher which refers to the lower-deck corridor of the RMS Titanic.
External links
References
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