Historic Liverpool Dwellings - Glen Huntley

 

Glen Huntley was probably built in the late 18th or early 19th Century, as part of the premises appears on Jonathon Bennisons map of 1835 and some time between 1835 and 1845 the house was enlarged to the West (Heron House shops).
The House 'Glen Huntley' and the neighbouring buildings were in St Micheal’s in The Hamlet and occupied the site on Aigburth Road now spanned by Home Bargains on the corner of St Michael’s Road to the 'High Street Solicitors' (the old Roughley’s newsagent). The Home Bargains store stands on the site of the old Mayfair Cinema which opened in 1937 on the site of Glen Huntley. The impressive art deco Mayfair lasted from 1937 to 1973 to meet the sad fate of so many cinemas, becoming a Mecca bingo hall. Later this was demolished to make way for a Kwik Save and finally the Home Bargains store. A couple of streets away on the current site of Belgrave Road, in an area once known as 'Dempseys Hollow', stood Laurel Mount and Laurel Grove. Laurel Mount Farm, together with some out-buildings, connected with Grove House, which stood on the main road in front of it, just about where Belgrave Road now stands, and were built by Mr. G. Dempsey. It was the dip in Aigburth Road at this time that was known as 'Dempsey's Hollow'. The initial record is for the houses, Grove House and Laurel Mount, owned by James Dempsey, Timber Merchant, land owner and friend of John Sothern of The Priory. The land these houses occupied spanned Belgrave Road to Alwyn Street but James Dempsey, who died around 1846, also owned Barn Hey. He was also a ship owner and partner in Dempsey & Pickard & Co with James Pickard and in another partnership with Richard Hall.

Glen Toxteth, 1916, courtesy of Geraldine Owens.

 

The first record for the occupant of the house Glen Huntley was Thomas Irvine J.P. (1818-1907). He was head of the Liverpool stockbrokers firm in Liverpool, T. and T.G. Irvine in India Buildings and was a Justice of the Peace. He was buried at St Micheal in the Hamlet, Aigburth on the 26th of October 1907. The house pictured above, Glen Toxteth was on the same site but it is believed it may have been a later name for the same building. It had earlier been a much grander affair with stables and cottages dotted around it – outbuildings in the vicinity of Mr Roughley’s paper shop pre-dating the building of Thirlstane street. Also there was extensive stables and a grooms cottage where the Mayfair cinema was. The Frontage was similar to the rear entrance of Sudley House, set back from the road with double gates and a drive, it was built in yellow stone, lowish/two-storey but wide with a caretaker lodge to the left hand side. Inside was a wide hall, a sweeping staircase with an office to right, lounge, living room, kitchen, a ballroom to rear with two French windows leading onto a bowling green, with overgrown open ground to the rear of that. There were lots of upstairs rooms including two large bedrooms, a bathroom, and internal door into the big entrance hall. In 1962 the house was demolished to make way for the Heron House block of shops, which included a Tesco, a Wimpy and a Chemist. Aigburth Road was later widened around 1964 to become a dual carriageway. In a photo of the Mayfair you can just make out Glen Huntly/ Glen Toxteth in the background on the right. In archives for Edmund Kirby held by the Liverpool Record Office from 1936, a year before opening, the planning application is for 'Glen Cinema', a reference to Glen Huntly.

 

A stone gate post still exists next to the solicitors (the old newsagents) and on close inspection the name 'Glen Huntley' can still be made out. This wall connected to this post used to run the length of the building but has been rather crudely cut in half to make way for windows. In his book 'The History of the Royal and Ancient Park of Toxteth', Robert Griffiths mentions a bell on the roof of Glen Huntley to warn villagers of the presence of robbers, there was a rise in crime due to the Corn Laws (1815 – 1846) and Liverpool’s Police Force wasn't formed until 1836. As Toxteth Park was thinly populated with only a few good houses in it, occupied by highly respectable families, large and sonorous bells were put up on the tops of the houses, so that on the first alarm of thieves, the bells might be rung to arouse the neighbours.

 For more detailed information on this area visit - https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/robert-griffiths-toxteth-park-glen-huntly-glen-toxteth-and-dempseys-hollow/

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/08/historic-liverpool-dwellings-speke-hall.html