Fascinating photographs unseen for years capture life at a lost Liverpool city centre shop that became a popular Liverpool pub. Earlier this week, the ECHO took a look back at gentleman’s outfitters and tailoring specialists Norman Simmons that was once “one of the top names” in Liverpool.
Located on the corner of North John Street and Cook Street, the store opened in the late 1960s and was started by Norman Simmons, a Savile Row cutter who came to Liverpool from London. Selling everything from suits to shirts, trousers, ties and more, generations will still remember working or shopping there in its time.
But by the late 90s, it was an end of an era for Norman Simmons in the city after over 30 years. In 1997, the Liverpool Daily Post reported how one of “Liverpool’s best-known” gentlemen’s outfitters was to become a pub – after being sold to Whitbread’s for £1m.
The site later opened as the Hog’s Head and by 2010, it became the William Gladstone pub. In August last year, the Liverpool ECHO reported how the William Gladstone pub was to reopen as cocktail bar and nightlife spot Be At One.
It’s now been over 30 years since we said goodbye to Norman Simmons -but these rare photos, courtesy of our archive, Mirrorpix, offer a window into the past. Taken in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you can see everything pedestrians passing outside Norman Simmons to staff inside and fashions on offer at the time.
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