It is a crisp Friday morning and businesses on Woolton Road are gearing up for the day.
With the feel of a compact high street, the stretch of the road between Queens Drive and Green Lane is lined by a number of independent shops, restaurants and cafes. One one side, a row of trees and a grass bank separates the shopfronts and their outside seating from the busy road.
As cars pass between Childwall and Woolton along the road, people begin to head into cafe-bistro Neighbourhood for breakfast, while others pop into a range of shops, including a number of hairdressers, a health store and the florist. Later in the day, the Halfway House pub will welcome people toasting the end of the working week, while restaurants Cucina di Vincenzo , El Nido and Eton Place serve food from across Europe.
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As the ECHO arrives on Woolton Road, two people sit outside boulangerie Artisane, drinking a coffee in the welcome Autumn sunshine. Inside, owner Anne-Louise Bouffard-Roupe and her team work to produce an extensive range of pastries, cakes and sandwiches.
Anne-Louise, who opened Artisane in 2016, spoke to the ECHO about working on Woolton Road and the feeling of community among the road's businesses.
She said: "It’s got a great vibe. It’s very tight-knit. Everyone really looks out for each other, we’ve got a WhatsApp group, an Instagram group - if there’s ever an issue or if anything happens at all, we flag it with each other.
"We all use each other’s businesses as well. You could spend a whole day here, you could go for breakfast here or at Neighbourhood, you can have lunch and then go and have a pint after work at the Halfway House.
"The beauty of South Liverpool overall is that I can’t remember the last time I went into town. I think we’ve got everything here, haven’t we? Nice pubs, bakeries, shops and gift shops, we’ve got everything.
"I think t he pandemic changed something with attitudes. A lot of our customers would say in the past that they’d got to Tesco, as you do, but during the pandemic they discovered us. The amount of customers who discovered us in lockdown and still come to us today is incredible.
As Anne-Louise spoke to the ECHO, a regular customer walked into Artisane to collect his week's worth of baked goods. He stops to speak to her about his recent holiday to Porto and his frustration at not being able to buy Avanti train tickets for a forthcoming trip to London.
Afterwards, Anne-Louise said: "That chat really sums it up". The feeling of community among the road's businesses and a close relationship with shoppers are both central to her view of it.
Added to that is a welcome serenity, despite the road being "bustling". Anne-Louise explained: “The perfect summary for me, is that it’s a quiet, leafy suburb, but it’s bustling at the same time. There’s a lot of life here but it maintains a quietness. You don’t feel like it’s fast-paced, but you get that it’s bustling.
"It’s both old-school, but it has kept up with the times. I guess it would be lovely to have a butcher here or a cheese shop and then you could literally get everything you wanted from here.
"Pretty much everything here is independent and most have been here for a long time. It doesn’t chop and change quickly, people stay here. We use each other’s businesses. We’re going over the road tonight for dinner with our daughters.
"Woolton Road is both serene and bustling. Every day there’s something different going on, it’s great, there’s a lovely vibe to it."
Across the road from Artisane, florists Flowerbug have been in business in South Liverpool for more than two decades. Its shop, nestled between the aforementioned restaurants El Nido and Cucina di Vincenzo, was taken over by two long-standing customers in 2016.
Flowerbug's manager Thomas Mcguirk and delivery driver Liam Scullion also spoke to the ECHO about working on Woolton Road. Like Anne-Louise, Thomas, from Anfield, cited the strong sense of community and the prevalence of independent business as the street's main assets.
He said: "It’s very distinctive, this row of shops. They’re unique people, they’re lovely and it's lovely here, it’s got a family-owned feel. Everything is made, nothing is brought in or is processed.
"All the businesses here stick together. If there’s something going on, we speak in the WhatsApp chat, we do things together, we just help each other out. If we go into one of their businesses, we’ll be looked after, which is nice. There’s a very strong community spirit and people are very family-driven".
Liam added: "I’d say we’re very close knit, but it’s very inclusive of people coming to visit the area. It’s not close knit in the sense that you wouldn’t feel welcome if you came, it’s not hostile to visitors. People want you to experience what it’s like.
"You’ll get a lot of people who have travelled from outside the city. They’re coming to visit Liverpool in general, because Woolton has a lot of Beatles history behind it, you get a lot of people who come through this road who are passing through and off to see the sights. They almost accidentally stumble into this little part of the city.
For Liam, the row of shops is distinctive and a rare example of such a street that still exists. However, he believes that maintaining a freshness has allowed it to thrive.
He said: "Not many stretches of shops like these exist any more really. It’s quite unique. You don’t get this very often.
"The stretch of road has the kind of old-school feel where you can spend a day here if you wanted to. You can pop into the flower shop, you can go for lunch, you can wander down and get your hair done over the road.
"It’s like its own little biome, it’s very individual. I think the best way to put it is that it's got an ‘old school Liverpool vibe’ preserved, while still being modern."
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