Wayfarers Arcade, Southport

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When Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade was fully occupied with active businesses, the band was playing three times a day under the glass cupola roof, and the arcade was the place to be out in your finest outfit, promenading, it must have been a spectacularly beautiful place to see. Even today, with barely a dozen of the almost 40 units being used, this arcade is an incredible sight.

The wrought iron entrance onto Lord Street is impressive in itself, there is a straight section with glass ceiling and ironwork above mahogany framed shopfronts, but then it opens out under that glass rotunda roof into a two storey arcade, with original tiling leading up the stairs to the upper level, and one side of the first floor shops protected within a further stained glass covered verandah, all looking down on the Red Rum racehorse sculpture below, and the ground floor shops and cafes.

The Southport Visiter newspaper called this arcade “the most splendid covered shopping avenue between Southport and Milan.” Its upper floor shopping was aimed at copying Chester’s Rows.

My favourite shop today

The Gentleman’s Emporium is a superb shop run by two great arcade enthusiasts. One is now on his third shop in Wayfarers Arcade and has been in or around the arcade for more than 13 years; the other has a story of his own to tell from when he rode a Harley Davidson through one of the Leeds arcades, but we’ll return to that story when we revisit Yorkshire…

My pick of the arcade’s past

A Miss Agnes St. Clair ran dance classes upstairs in the arcade in 1899, but had her application for public dancing turned down on the grounds that the building was not safe for large numbers to enter via the narrow staircase leading to her studio. Some argued in the hearing that dancing ‘in many instances led to immorality,’ although one of those witnesses admitted that he knew nothing about dancing, but based his views on ‘observations.’

A young man took the arcade caretaker to court in January 1903 for alleged assault. He claimed Mr Trainer told him and his friends that the arcade was ‘no place for loafers,’ and told them to clear out. Trainer, a Boer War veteran, had use his whip to strike the lad across the face but denied kicking the teenager when he fell to the floor. He said there had been a lot of unruly youths in the arcade that evening and his job was to maintain order. He was fined half a crown.

A statue of Grand National winner Red Rum was unveiled in the arcade in 1979, not without controversy, however, as connections to the horse had wanted a more prominent high street placement. A year later Red Rum himself came to visit his metallic self and, according to press reports of the occasion, simply snorted. The horse returned in 1982, still drawing large crowds almost 10 years after his first big race win. The statue sadly does not have crowds passing by these days.

These stories courtesy of www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk The British Library Board: 1) Langport & Somerton Herald, 11 November 1899; 2) Liverpool Evening Express, 8 February 1903, Reach PLC; 3) Liverpool Echo, 11 September 1980, Reach PLC.

This arcade in films or books

A 1986 comedy called Mr Love, starring Margaret Tyzack featured scenes in the Wayfarers Arcade.

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

Have you seen Wayfarers Arcade in any other film or book?

Is there a website for this arcade?

Wayfarers Arcade in Southport does have its own website. Click the link to view. It is also active on social media: Facebook, Instagram especially.

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