Liverpool city centre's streets wouldn't be the same without the great, often eccentric, characters that are guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
As well as being Liverpool's main shopping district, the city centre also a place where you're likely to bump into colourful characters who can make you do a double take. While some of these famous faces may no longer be a fixture in the city, their nicknames and faces will forever be etched into our collective memories.
Some of these big characters have shot to fame in the last decade, often helped with by the popularity of social media. While others we just remember spotting around town in the 1980s and 1990s.
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From buskers to impromptu street dancers, rollerbladers to lone crusaders, they've all become synonymous with areas of the city centre. Below we've listed seven of some of Liverpool's best remembered street characters.
Jacko (Plinky Plink)
His tongue-in-cheek guitar playing has won the hearts of shoppers in Liverpool city centre for years. The man known as Jacko (real name Jackson Nesbitt) or Plinky Plink due to the cardboard guitar he pretended to play.
So renowned on the streets of Liverpool, there was even a Facebook group dedicated to him. Thousands of members of the group swapped anecdotes about seeing the legendary busker and even bickered over what his correct nickname is.
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Many championed “plinky plink” while other members of the group maintained his nick-name was “banjo”. He was normally spotted in Williamson Square and at weekends took up a spot on Mathew Street.
At Christmas Jacko wore a Santa hat and sometimes swapped his trademark cardboard guitar for a tennis racket. After a video of him playing his cardboard guitar was shared on YouTube, one commenter remembered: "Jacko!! My cousin worked in Flanagans years ago, she told me one day Jacko asked her for a lend of a felt tip 'cos he’d broke a string on the banjo!!!!! Priceless!!!"
Lecky Legs
Back in 2016, a man known as 'Lecky Legs' became a viral dancing sensation. Real name Mike Campbell, he became famous for regularly showing off his amazing dancing skills at Smokie Mo's and other city pubs.
Jeff Ollerhead is one of Lecky's good friends. He said: "I first met him a year ago and thought he was brilliant. The way he dances is just mesmerising, he's such a genuine bloke."
Shortly after finding fame, Lecky Legs appeared on stage wowing the crowds at Bongo's Bingo. He has also been spotted upstaging street performers with his own moves on Church Street.
No Smoking Man
Known only as the 'No Smoking Man', he used to ride from South Liverpool to Southport everyday with 'ban the bomb' and 'no smoking' signs all over his clothes and his bike. When not in Liverpool, he could often be found sitting outside Waterstones book shop on Lord Street in Southport.
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For years he became an object of fascination with his seemingly personal crusade against smoking. In 2006, an artist called Leonardo Constantino decided to immortalize him in a painting.
Leandro had become friendly with the eccentric cyclist and used to buy him fish and chips. He believed No Smoking Man may have originally been Russian or from Czechoslovakia.
Rollerblading Pensioner
A Rollerblading pensioner was a jaw-dropping sight on Church Street for a time after he was banned from Southport town centre.
Geoff Dornan from Ormskirk hit the headlines in 2009 when he was banned from rollerblading in Southport’s Chapel Street by magistrates. Despite the ban, he didn't hang up his skates and instead became a regular sight in Liverpool.
He was captured on film skating round in circles on Liverpool’s Church Street. Geoff was handed a £2,000 bill by magistrates for skating in Chapel Street, Southport, after accusations that he was “a hazard” to pedestrians in the town’s centre.
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In 2011 Geoff, who gained an army of supporters after his court battle, set up charitable trust, Get Your Skates On. Defending his behaviour and claiming that he was "safe skating" Mr Dornan told the court that many people misunderstood the threat he posed to shoppers.
He said: "It's said I weave in and out of people - I don't say that's a bad thing. I try where possible to go behind people so that I don't get in their way."
Liverpool's 'cheeriest' Homeless Man
Now better known as 60-year-old Brian Phillips, he become famous in Liverpool city centre for being the cheery homeless man who lived in an alcove of a fire escape outside the old Liverpool Echo building on Old Hall Street. Top hat wearing Brian even put up decorations at Christmas and was known for his cheery attitude and love of a good chat.
In 2017, Brian was asked by the ECHO if he needed people to bring him anything to get him through the winter, he simply said: “Smiles. Loads of smiles and loads of hugs. That’s all I want. I don’t want for nothing.”
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A council source said Brian had ended up on the streets after becoming a victim of the Government's benefit sanctions. Since then, he has managed to turn his life around after finding a flat to live in the city centre while he now helps the homeless at the Cotton Street Project.
Guitar Hero Greg
Unfortunately no photo but we've all seen him right? Singing into a toy microphone and sometimes playing a Guitar Hero PlayStation controller.
He could usually be found close to the McDonalds on Lord Street. Despite the weather he always seems to be enjoying himself, which puts everyone else in a good mood, anyway.
Cherry Blossom
Another Liverpool character going back to the 1980s and 1990s was Cherry Blossom. He was a man of a certain age who got his name for being seen around town with what appeared from a distance to be a full head of dark black hair. It was in fact shoe polish painted on his head to look like hair.
He could sometimes be seen frequenting the betting shops around the Temple Court area. One person posting on Reddit remembered he used to wear a "pure white suit" and when it rained the polish would run down his head down onto it.
