A "quiet" Georgian street where houses are rarely up for sale is "like living in EastEnders".
The row of mainly two-bedroom houses with basements in the Georgian Quarter were "derelict", with only "Victorian toilets" out back, when Cathy Price moved here as a 19-year-old in 1971. The retired mental health support worker said: "There was only one car. That was Mr O'Connor in number 20, he had a car. Now, some of them have got three."
In the 1980s, Cathy said the street's residents grouped together to install Victorian lamp posts, painted black to match the railings. Cathy, who sent her kids to the now abandoned St Margaret of Antioch School just two streets over, would love to buy her housing association house. But, she said: "We got it done up and then we outpriced ourselves out of the market."
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Egerton Street, just off Catharine Street near the junction with Upper Parliament Street, is just a 20-minute walk from the city centre. Half the street still has the original Georgian townhouses, home to a mix of owner occupiers, renters and housing association tenants, some of whom have lived here for decades. One resident joked their neighbour had "probably lived in every house on the street".
These houses, with multicoloured doors of black, red or yellow, are rarely for sale. When they are, they're snapped up "in a week". Prices "have increased dramatically" since Cathy first arrived. The only house on the street up for sale is on the market for offers in the region of £375,000, reflecting changing perceptions of this area.
Now seen as desirable, the houses, some of which are Grade II listed, are increasingly home to "professionals" like doctors and pharmacists with kids. Nicky Kayode, a medical practitioner who's lived here for 22 years, said: "There's just so much character. Sometimes this street is so quiet you'd think it was set back, but it's not. It's set in the middle of busy main roads. I'd never move."
Chatting to a friend outside, she described it as "friendly, welcoming and safe", saying the "vibe, atmosphere and community spirit" make living on the "gorgeous" street feel "like a holiday every day". Neighbours stay in touch through a street WhatsApp group, and residents who spoke to the ECHO said they could text each other if they need help. Nicky said: "We look after each other and make sure everyone's okay."
Nicky said her grandparents owned "all the property" around the parallel Huskisson Street and Falkner Square, so since then she's "known nothing else" other than this area since she was a kid. Cathy has "seen a lot of children grow up" here, and many of them stay local, creating a multigenerational community around Egerton Street.
A man in his 80s visits the street every weekend, according to Nicky, who said: "He always stands and looks through the window. One day, I went up to him and I said to you, 'Are you okay? I noticed that you stand here every Sunday. He said, 'I was born in that front room, I either sit in the pub or I come and reminisce about my childhood'."
With the Grade II listed building of Peter Kavanagh's pub at one end, "it's like living in EastEnders", according to Nicky, who said, "specially on a nice warm day, everybody comes out". Cathy called over to friends Jean McShane and Martin Edwards as they walked in the afternoon sun from Sandon Street for a twice weekly trip to the pub.
Martin, in his 70s, said he's got to know the street's residents, telling the ECHO "there are just nice people around, that's the nice thing about the area, it's just a nice place to live". Jean, 75, said people are helpful and "community oriented", joking: "I know if anything happened, I could just scream and someone would come."
People were sat on a bench outside the pub as the sun moved down the redbrick walls of neighbouring houses. Previously owned by the eccentric John Meakin, dubbed "the Admiral" for wearing naval uniform, Peter Kavanagh's is now run by 83-year-old Rita Smith, who grew up two bus stops away at Hope Place. She has "no bl***y idea" how she came to be its landlady 30 years ago, saying she feels more like a "caretaker here to look after it" than its owner.
It's been "a rollercoaster" since she took over when she "needed something to do" after retiring from her job as a cleaner. Its loyal punters are mostly local, but some come from as far as Ormskirk and Maghull. Rita said she's "got dead people as well in the pub", pointing to containers on the wall by the bar.
The ceiling is full of items, like transistor radios, musical instruments, and a broom labelled 'Rita's stretch limo', serving as conversation starters. But among the eclectic mix are the remains of customers and friends she wanted to keep close.
In a wooden box are the ashes of her childhood friend Norman, while his mum, who died shortly after him, is in a Tupperware box, both items matching their interests, according to Rita. Her "longest customer" Frank, kept in a Russian doll, is also among the people who "wanted to be left in the pub", a sign of the community Rita's fostered around it.
She said: "Hopefully it's a pub where people are not afraid of coming in, women can come in on their own, and maybe start a conversation off with somebody without people thinking, 'What are they after?'. That's what the pub is really all about. It's about community."
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