A 'legendary' social club and football pitches that "everybody loved" is still missed in Liverpool today.
The Liverpool ECHO recently took a look back at the Edinburgh Park Dockers' Club, off Townsend Lane, which has had a relic of its past saved. For more than 60 years, the site was a proud hub, not just for the surrounding Anfield and Clubmoor community, but for the city.
Beginning life as a brickworks and clay pit, the site later became the home of Breck Park Stadium, a Greyhound track, in April 1927. But the greyhound track closed after a fire swept through the stadium.
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The grounds later hosted sports and social activities for Merseyside dock workers, their families and the wider community from 1949. And in April 1953, The Duke of Edinburgh famously opened the Merseyside dockers' sports stadium and it was named Edinburgh Park.
More recently it was the home of grassroots and amateur football in Liverpool and thousands graced its pitches while its bars and halls were a popular social venue. A number of ECHO readers have since taken to social media to share their memories of the now lost Dockers Club.
Lyndsay Styles said: "My Grandad was a Docker. I remember my Nana taking me to see The Duke of Edinburgh planting a tree and breaking ground on that day. Amazing to see this picture." Karen Marie said: "My dad was a docker and I remember having Christmas parties at the Dockers club x."
Maureen Hooton wrote: "I was born right opposite the dockers club. As a young kid we played for hours in the hills behind it. There used to be a fair that came and set up there once a year such Happy memories. My mum worked in the BRS in the canteen x."
Stan Roberts wrote: "Always be associated with grassroots football Waterloo Dock ,Canada ,Seaforth, Ayone ,and many other teams Jimmy Davies. And Larry Dowling being stalwarts along with many others who give a lot to grassroots football. Some knighthoods should have gone down that route."
Jackie Green commented: "My mum loved this club she went every Saturday night and Thursday afternoon we had many great night in the Dockers xx barmaids we’re Debbie and Lyn and Dezzy was compare x." Graham Foy said: "Played against Edgehill BC there and Botanic Rovers."
Paul Gallagher said: "Winning the cup with the Brunel on the dockers back in the day, first taste of alcohol. Loved playing there." Remember Me - Dementia day care centre said: "We talk about the Dockers Club often, it always brings up fond memories for all within our centre."
Antony Boden wrote: "Yep remember going with my grandad in 1970s." Chrissy-Arth James wrote: "My Dad was a Docker great club had some good nights there !!!."
Paul Peers commented: "Bloody shame, I played there for years on a Saturday in a good standard of football, great people, very sad it’s gone." Lee Burns commented: "I Boxed at The Dockers club when I Boxed for the Rotunda on the Rotunda show 1988."
Gavin Adderley wrote: "Legendary dockers club.played there for years for the Royal Seaforth in the county comb. My dad Roy an Robbie Athertons team. Some great games over the years. Waterloo Dock aswell always had great sides."
Paul Maguire said: "The best stage in Liverpool. Many happy nights performing at THE DOCKERS with my best mate and compere Des Flanagan x." Karen Bray wrote: "My dad did key ring photography in there for years.. Great place."
Michelle Dowlan wrote: "My dad was the manager of this when I was a kid." Ethan Wrennall said: "My favourite car park on a match day."
Tay Parr said: "My mum worked behind the bar here for years. Was a lovely little club shame to see it go x." Alan Joseph Peel commented: "I remember it well, growing up around there in the late 70's early 80's."
Johnny Everton Todd wrote: "Ah. The old turkey bingo at Xmas. We would have starved if my mum hadn’t had her lucky dabber !." And Paul Bigley said: "Miss the dockers club."
What are your memories of the Dockers' Club? Let us know in the comments section below.
By 2010, the Dockers Club still had 12 local amateur teams using the pitches as well as university teams, local schools, a junior goalkeeping school, a retired members bowls team and a pigeon racing club. But a few years after, its entirety, including the football pitches, were fenced off and excluded from public access following the 2013/14 football season.
Speaking to the ECHO when the club closed, the trustees said the closure of the club was the "end of an era" but that it had been making a loss for several years and couldn’t survive. After its closure, the site became a hotspot for anti-social behaviour, including numerous fires.
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A number of plans for the site did not materialise, including overhauling the club to retain it as a community asset. And Tesco also planned to create a superstore on the site.
In 2018 the land became the subject of a planning application by one of the UK’s largest housebuilders with Persimmon Homes revealing proposals to build 232 homes on the site. But despite the demolition of the once loved social club, part of its history lives on.
Terry O'Callaghan has fond memories of visiting the site, climbing its gates a child and enjoying his first pint at the social club. In more recent years, Terry, with permission to enter the site, has documented and uncovered what was left behind before demolition was complete. But now the gates he once used to climb as a kid, that the late Duke of Edinburgh famously drove through upon opening the Park's Sports Ground, have been restored and have found a new home.
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Persimmon Homes have restored the original gates from the Dockers'Club in Anfield and donated them to the Seascope Maritime Training centre in Fazakerley. Taking six weeks to complete, the team have spent £3,000 to sandblast and coat the cast iron gates to match their original colour as much as possible. On Friday, February 3, Dan Carden MP, Ian Byrne MP, councillors and dockers joined the teams at Seascope for the official unveiling of the gates with a plaque ceremony.
To find out more about the Seascope Maritime Training centre in Fazakerley, click here.
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