Found – that’s me in the photo!
Silver Jubilee street party, June 1977, Old Swan, Liverpool
Julie Howard recognised herself when she spotted our appeal to trace the people in this fantastic photograph in our former exhibition, ‘Growing up in the city: in photographs’ which was at the Museum of Liverpool from 2015 until 2017.
The photograph was taken during celebrations for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, June 1977, in Old Swan, by local photographer Harold Douglas Avington. Julie, 55, was thrilled and honoured to see the photograph, which brought back many happy memories. Julie, then aged 16, was snapped with her two young nephews at their street party in Ulster Road.
Julie Howard next to the photograph of her in our exhibition.
She tells us more –
“I remember the photograph being taken as it was not very often a professional photographer asked could they take your photograph! It was taken outside 11 Ulster Road, where I lived with my parents - they had lived there since about 1950. I was 16 at the time and the two boys are my nephews Lee and Shaun Deens. They lived at 4 Munster Road (the next road) with my sister Jean and her husband Terry. They came to the Ulster Road party as they knew everyone in the street, as Jean had previously lived there for over 20 years. All the houses in the street were decked with rosettes, flags, posters and home-made decorations, mainly made from crepe paper - red blue and white of course. Lots of people were dressed in red, white and blue also, and nearly all wore a hat. Everybody joined in and were so enthusiastic about it. There was much planning and preparation before-hand, all done in a neighbourly and fun fashion. The residents collected money each week towards the food and drink. There were weekly bingo sessions and raffles to raise money held in resident’s houses, which they took turns to host. The prizes were usually a tin of peas or whatever had been donated, they were great fun I always went to them. There were tables set up down the middle of the road for the children. The women prepared the food and drinks and set the table etc. This went on throughout the day and into the evening. People were in and out of houses, music was playing, I was dancing with everyone, my friend had joined me in the evening and it was so much fun. I have great memories of life in Ulster Road, everybody knew each other and when the weather was nice the ladies were always to be seen sitting out on window sills chatting with each other. My uncles, cousins and godmother also lived in Ulster Road and my parents and I were friends with many others. There was great community spirit; everyone looked out for each other. I have been happily married for 32 years to Chris, and we have 2 daughters Kate who is 28 and Beth who is 26. I work for the NHS in Telecommunications. Lee and Shaun still live in Liverpool".
Many thanks to Julie for sharing her memories with us and bringing the photo to life.
Another photo of the Silver Jubilee party in Ulster Road by Harold Douglas Avington