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 in North Liverpool. Home to most of Liverpool's migrant communities, Scotland Road was almost "a city within a city". Scotland Road had four main migrant communities; Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian—not to mention the native Lancastarian community and pockets of German and Polish—meaning Scotland Road was a cultural melting pot. 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.

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. People moved to Kirkby, Croxteth, Norris Green, Huyton, and Stockbridge Village to new modern housing, leaving Scotland Road in a state of steady decline.

Famous "Scottie Roaders"

*Cilla Black - singer and television personality.
*Tom Baker - actor (Dr Who)
*Rt Rev Thomas Anthony Williams - Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool
*Thomas Cecil Gray

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

* [http://www.scottiepress.org.uk Scottie Press]