Galkoff’s butcher’s shop today – behind protective hoarding. Image courtesy of LSTM
The Galkoff’s and the Secret Life of Pembroke Place project team, along with 24 volunteers have been delving into the history of this well-known Liverpool Street. The focus has been on two key heritage sites: Galkoff’s Jewish butcher shop and Watkinson Terrace, Liverpool’s last surviving example of court housing.
The project team have been running a series of engagement activities across the city in order to creatively capture memories associated with the area. These have ranged from geophysical surveys to community presentations.
Children from the Little Georgian Day Nursery have been involved in our community consultation
Activities around Pembroke Place itself have included 12 court housing tours with 136 participants and a workshop at the Little Georgian Day Nursery, where, drawing inspiration from the Zoological Gardens found on the 1835 Gage map (formerly located on the site of today’s Dental Hospital), a group of 3-4 year olds made animal masks before locating them on historic maps.
We have also worked closely with Liverpool’s Jewish community, including Stapely Care Residential and Nursing Home where a series of workshops took place. These included a Yiddish Poetry workshop on the subject of food, in partnership with The Reader Organisation and a House of Memories ‘Memory Suitcase’ consultation.
Illustration by Sophie Herxheimer
In January artist and poet Sophie Herxheimer visited the Museum of Liverpool and ran a series of workshops collecting stories live in ink. Sophie worked with the Jewish Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade, Merseyside Jewish Community Care’s Lunch Club at Rex Cohen sheltered housing, Stapely Care, the projects volunteers and families of past Galkoff employees. These workshops produced beautiful one of a kind ink drawings, linking the project to the wider stories of Liverpool’s immigrant communities.
Illustration by Sophie Herxheimer
Between October 2016 and January 2017, 558 participants ranging from 3 to 93 years of age have engaged with the project, including over 125 members of Liverpool’s Jewish community. It’s through the support of community groups, individuals and volunteers that the project team have managed to capture such varied and invaluable memories of Pembroke Place and Liverpool life over the past 200 years.
This Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Museum of Liverpool partnership project is currently seeking further funding to enable us to create a display about Pembroke Place at the Museum of Liverpool in 2018.