On a hot and humid Friday afternoon, Lawrence Road feels like its usual bustling self.
Groups of friends stand on every other corner chatting, people bob in and out of international food markets, convenience stores and specialist clothing shops. Cars, bikes and scooters narrowly avoid each other as they navigate the hectic road space.
Lawrence Road is one of Liverpool's cultural melting pots. It is a place where you can pass an Asian supermarket, an African barber shop and a Romanian convenience store in a matter of minutes.
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Running parallel with the student heartland of Smithdown Road and its lively bars and restaurants, Lawrence Road is better known for its independent shops and businesses and a broad mixture of cultures that represent Liverpool's proud history as a city that has welcomed different waves of immigration from all the corners of the world.
But behind the hustle and bustle of this famously lively Liverpool street, people are really starting to feel the strain of the country's continually gloomy economic outlook.
This week's news that inflation has remained at its hefty level of 8.7% and the subsequent decision by the Bank of England to raise interest rates for the thirteenth consecutive time provided just the latest chapter in the seemingly endless story of the UK's cost of living crisis.
On Lawrence Road, where small, independent businesses are king - the sun may be shining but the economic storm clouds have been hovering for some time now.
Javed Gill is sat inside the barber shop business that he has run for 15 years. Next to him are two empty barber's chairs, a scene that has become all too familiar in recent months.
"This is the hardest it has been in 15 years," says Javed, who is 52.
"My electricity bill used to be £60 a month, but in the last winter it was £186 a month. Even now it's still over £100."
Like many business owners, Javed is facing a perfect storm of rising energy bills, increased rents from landlords passing on interest rate pain and a dwindling customer base as everyone feels the pinch.
"Customers are cutting back on things. Maybe they used to come for a haircut every two weeks, now it is every six weeks because inflation means they have less money. Most people who do come in are telling me how worried they are about bills, food prices, Council Tax and everything else."
Javed is not the only barber on Lawrence Road. In fact there are quite a number, including 32-year-old Paul Ndkyiaba who runs Destiny Barbers with his cousin.
The business declares itself as the 'King of the Fade', but it is fading custom that Paul is currently worried about.
"People have got less money," he explains, "everyone's bills have gone up so they have less money, but our bills and rent has gone up to."
Paul explains that in better times he was able employ staff in his business, but that's not possible right now because there are simply not enough customers to go around.
He says students living locally make up a lot of his client base, meaning the summer period is particularly difficult for the business. "We just have to keep trying, keep pushing, keep surviving until September when the students come back," he adds.
On the street outside the shop, a little further up Lawrence Road, 68-year-old Barbara Mousley is heading to the shops with a friend.
She's lived in the area around this busy hub for more than two decades and has seen plenty of change as different communities have arrived to make their mark on the area.
As a pensioner on a fixed income, Barbara says soaring food and energy prices have become a real challenge.
"I'm always heading out to top up the leccy card," she says.
"It's tight, you have to watch the pennies. You don't have feel it right now," she adds. "In the shops you see things that were £1.50 are now £1.80 or more and it all adds up. I've noticed vodka and tonic has really gone up," she adds with a smile.
Alcohol prices are also a concern for the owners and punters inside the Ashdale Inn. On Friday afternoon there are just three regulars inside the Lawrence Road boozer.
"It's a lot quieter in here these days," says Pam as she tucks into a fresh pint of Carling.
"People have less money so they come out to the pub less don't they. You go to the shop and things have gone up by 50p or 80p. My energy bills have gone up but my housing benefit has gone down."
The pub's licensee explains that a lot of her regular customers are self-employed, adding: "If those people aren't working, then they don't have money, then they don't come in here."
Everywhere you look on Lawrence Road, people are struggling. Many of the people living and working here have known difficult times but right now it feels like everything is everyone at once. Local people have less cash in their pockets and are spending less in the local businesses where inflation is putting prices up.
Those businesses are suffering from that lack of custom, while their own bills and rent are on the rise. It's a vicious circle and an existential challenge to unique and energetic Liverpool street.
On the way out of Lawrence Road, three men are stood around chatting. Asked about the cost of living crisis, one of the men has a simple message: "It's tough for everyone around here, many of us have had to scrap to keep going - it's just about survival."
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