Merseyside Biography Pages
Bob Dylan in Dublin Street
The Beatles were photographed in Dublin Street Liverpool in 1962. The location was easily identified as Dublin Street due to the distinctive warehouses and a glimpse of the 'Three Ugly Sisters' in the background in at least one photo. The 'Three Ugly Sisters' was a nickname given to the chimneys of the Clarence Dock power station. The power station was demolished in 1994. Perhaps it was no coincidence then that Bob Dylan four years later found himself on a photo shoot in Dublin Street on the day of his Liverpool show? Unlike The Beatles photo shoot none of the Bob Dylan photographs saw the light of day for many years. The photographer, Barry Feinstein, published the first photo from the shoot when he published his 'Early Dylan' book in 1999. Since then there has been a lot of interest in the shoot, the kids with Bob Dylan and the location chosen by both The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Local Dylan fan, Chris Hockenhall, appeared in the Sally Williams TV documentary made for BBC North West's 'Inside Out' programme broadcast in 2006 where he was shown reuniting most of the kids from the photos and getting them to pose in a re-enactment of the most famous image from the shoot. Like that TV documentary this page will focus more on the kids than Bob Dylan himself. Barry Feinstein described the kids as looking like 'waifs' and said, "They weren't your Beverley Hills kids." So what were these kids doing down by the docks and where did they live?
Chris Hockenhall's first contact in the documentary was Bernadette Gill. I struggled to find a Gill family in the local area on the electoral registers that would be a good match so assumed Gill was Bernadette's married name. I was able to find a maiden name from a marriage that matched a child born to one of the local families and found that Bernadette was Bernadette Hoey and she lived at 21b Saltney Street. Five of the children came from one family, four brothers and one sister with the surname Meadows. I had read in a comments section that they also lived in Saltney Street. The electoral registers gave their address as 16a Saltney Street. Another child with the surname Williams could link to a family living at 66 Dublin Street. At first I was confused by there being four properties on Dublin Street that didn't appear on maps. This mystery was solved when I noticed that in some photos you can see prefabs (prefabricated homes built after the Second World War to help address the UK's housing shortage). There looks to have been four prefabs and these were numbered 60, 62, 64 & 66 Dublin Street. So what were the kids doing down by the docks? The answer is they lived there. They were the last residents of an old community and the streets around Dublin Street was their playground.
Chris Hockenhall's first contact in the documentary was Bernadette Gill. I struggled to find a Gill family in the local area on the electoral registers that would be a good match so assumed Gill was Bernadette's married name. I was able to find a maiden name from a marriage that matched a child born to one of the local families and found that Bernadette was Bernadette Hoey and she lived at 21b Saltney Street. Five of the children came from one family, four brothers and one sister with the surname Meadows. I had read in a comments section that they also lived in Saltney Street. The electoral registers gave their address as 16a Saltney Street. Another child with the surname Williams could link to a family living at 66 Dublin Street. At first I was confused by there being four properties on Dublin Street that didn't appear on maps. This mystery was solved when I noticed that in some photos you can see prefabs (prefabricated homes built after the Second World War to help address the UK's housing shortage). There looks to have been four prefabs and these were numbered 60, 62, 64 & 66 Dublin Street. So what were the kids doing down by the docks? The answer is they lived there. They were the last residents of an old community and the streets around Dublin Street was their playground.