Queen's Drive, before there was a Queen.

Stuck as I am for the next three days, sans camera and sans family, I find I have an incredible amount of time to do ridiculous things that slightly interest me. 

I have, of late, been a little more interested in older photos, and so was happy to come across this gem. For those that know Liverpool - or indeed that carbuncle of a thoroughfare that connects the south of the city to the northern edges, via the M62 and The Rocket - this picture might take a bit of placing. It took me a while, and I lived here for nearly 20 years.

First off, I didn't take this photo, just tidied it up a little. It is dated 1910, and shows Queen's Drive from the Fiveways (see extra photo for today's version, although I should add that on today's version, the sun is shining and there is basically NO TRAFFIC - normally it takes upwards of 15 minutes to get around this roundabout). It is astounding.

Liverpool at this time was still very much the second city of the Empire (story about this at the end). It shocks me that so much of what is now urban sprawl, hideous urban sprawl at that, was once... well, beautiful. You always know it, of course, it must have been like that. But to actually see it, is something else.

No wonder so many of the elderly get nostalgic. Things really were better in some respects back then.

Right, true story.

Back in the 1970s, for some reason, the Home Office wanted to give the official designation of "Second City" to a city in the UK. So they sent out surveys to residents of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and one other city whose name I can't remember. Might have been Bristol. Anyway, the results came in and, for the most part, were pretty predictable. Most cities felt they should be the second city and were deserving of the honour, such as it was. 

So, Birmingham said the official second city should be Birmingham, Edinburgh said Edinburgh, Manchester said Manchester and Bristol said Bristol. Only Liverpool's results raised an eyebrow. 

Liverpool said "London".

True story. Only slightly apocryphal.