The ECHO has taken a look at life on the Dingle's Elswick Street, immortalised in 1980s sitcom Bread as the home of a close-knit working class community.
Carla Lane's popular sitcom aired on the BBC from 1986 to 1991 and centred on the Boswell family. Almost four decades on from the first episode of Bread hitting screens across the country, community spirit is at an all time high, driven by once in a generation challenges such as a global pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.
The Victorian terraces on Elswick Street are now populated by a wide demographic of people; doctors, teachers, company directors, NHS workers, young families and retirees, and are in high demand.
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Jo Derbyshire lives in the house that was home to grandad on Bread, played by Kenneth Waller. The property has also been used as an art gallery in the past.
Jo, a founding member of The Bread Streets Group, told the ECHO: "We started to tidy up the area. I grew up around here and people were always house proud. In the 90s, it took a bit of a dip."
She thinks the popularity of the area has grown since the rise of the Baltic Triangle, although its location has always proved popular, with great rail links and within a 40 minute walk of the city centre.
Jo added: "These houses always sell. They're only ever up for a couple of weeks, if that. I've found since the Baltic Triangle, people who can't get on the property ladder are knocking on your door asking if you're selling.
"I think austerity since the Tories came in has forced people to look at different areas."
Jean Smith is chair of the Bread Streets Residents Association and has lived in the area for 20 years. She told the ECHO it has a "village temperament" and has "changed a lot" in two decades.
"The community is very close," Jean added. "Most people know each other; you just meet anybody and everybody, we're lucky. Up until covid came along I don't think people realised how kind people are."
While Jean has been grounded of late, she's vowed to continue campaigning in 2023. One of her main achievements was getting lighting installed on Grafton Street, which runs from the Bread streets to Brunswick railway station.
"We got it done and people feel a lot happier and safer. It was so dark and dismal. The councillors were very involved with that." She added that the transformation of land at Park Hill into an allotment has also "been a revelation".
Wendy moved to Elswick Street seven years ago from Birkenhead, where she lived for 15 years but 'never knew her neighbours'. She also admires how people have "tidied up the place" including taking care of the planters and voluntarily installing dog mess bag holders along Grafton Street.
MP for Liverpool's Riverside Kim Johnson said they have faced anti-social behaviour, just like other "working class area deprived of resources" although issues are "much reduced from a decade ago".
Kim puts this down to support and campaigning from the community and local councillors for the likes of new lighting and CCTV.
She added: "There have been lots of community initiatives to beautify their area, involving an increasing number of residents old and new and a community garden and allotment at the top of the streets.
"And who would not want to live in an area with such amazing views over the River Mersey, and the famous Dockers Steps giving access to the waterfront. A restoration of local government funding could do so much more, but the Bread Streets is a proud community in the heart of Dingle."
However, Kim thinks there could be hard times ahead for the streets and her constituency as a whole: "Large parts of the Dingle are in some of the poorest neighbourhoods in my constituency and the city as a whole, with residents facing increasing hardship as prices of food and energy rocket and that is, of course, a major concern.
"But the Dingle community has pulled together - as it did magnificently throughout the Covid pandemic - and there are food pantries and foodbanks to support those in desperate need. Thanks to the likes of incredible local organisations such as The Florrie, Riverview Development Trust, Wheel Meet Again and Team Oasis, the support is there for the community."
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