These stunning photos show what growing up in 1980s Liverpool was really like 

I miss the community. As a kid we used to have a street party every year. They were always awesome.

My advice on leaving school was, "get your NI number from the Careers Office in Great Crosshall Street and sign-on at your nearest dole." It took me out of civilisation and into the wrong for almost 20 years. I watched good people turn bad almost overnight. The lessons I learned about people were sometimes shocking but I wouldn't have missed those days for anything. The ingenuity of people under the cosh is a sight to behold. We would do ANYTHING just to make a buck. We had nothing but we certainly didn't take it lying down. My only regret was heroin arriving in Liverpool. The weak who sought oblivion in the needle tore apart our communities and proved Thatcher was right when she said "There is no such thing as society." The 80's in Liverpool was a free-for-all and the weakest got shit all over.

The buses. Getting the 82 into town, the 61 to and from Eggy Vale. The 147 and you know you're in heaven....

Let's not forget, part of the resurgence and interest in Liverpool came from it's vibrant music culture with bands from Liverpool dominating the charts. (Frankie, China Crisis, the Bunnymen, the Christians, the list goes on and on) Liverpool was a hard place to live in, in the 1980's but we still managed to do ourselves proud.

I left the docklands of Liverpool in 1977 to go to Australia. Best thing I ever did to be honest. But, having said that, my upbringing in the 50s is as clear in my memory as ever. As I got older so I came to appreciate that the values I was taught living in that community are the values I still hold important, they are still who I am and I will until my dying day be grateful that I grew up there. Watching the UK of 2024, I find myself looking at a country that is not the GB I grew up in, the values I took on board from my era and its people were sewn into me and looking at what the country has become, I feel sad and even angry that it has beel allowed to become the current melting pot, so full of hatred for British values it's heart breaking. On retiring 6 years ago, I unexpectedly found myself no longer with any living relatives after my son died and I did consider returning to the UK but with all that had changed and the current make up and divisions that exist, it seemed I would have been walking into some other country, one I did not like the look of. Sad really.

For me their are two things that shaped LIverpool as it is now that came out the 1980's, and they bookend it... The Toxteth Riots and Hillsborough. Both showed just how little support we would ever get from outside the city, regardless of the government in place, and that we had to stand up as a city and fight to be counted. And while Toxteth was more to do with strained relations between the black community and the authorities, there weren't many in Liverpool that couldn't relate to the underlying poverty issues that existed there. Hillsborough and it's aftermath showed the attitude of the government and the media to the people of Liverpool. And while there are some outside Liverpool who talk about a victim mentality, I always say, read the reports, all written by educated people who reviewed every aspect, then tell me we aren't right to feel that.

I was living in Toxteth during the riots...

I was born in 1965, my family lived on The Childwall Valley Estate opposite (The now gone Coronation pup) "now a Lidl" I will tell you what I do not miss ... no repairs to council estates ever growing unemployment from the late 1970s Signing on at The Bell Vale dole office, silly Youth Training - Youth Opportunities Programme "Should have been called Slave Labour Work! Going to The Bell Vale Shopping Centre for Everything ... We did have a very good buss service then (what ever happened to the 79A ???)

My family left Bootle in 1985, with no work left, we went to New Zealand. I have fond memories of my Bootle childhood, especially those long summer evenings.

Didn’t know Prince George grew up in 80s liverpool

Ian Rush on pitch

Hi

Hello

It's was also from a Tory who went to the Conservative leader with an idea to put Liverpool back on the map. So thanks to the Conservative government of the time and not a Labour in the last 50yrs Liverpool has prospered. It was also a Liberal city Council who paved the way for Liverpool to get capital of culture again not Labour. When will scousers realise having a Labour Council is no good for this great city

Agh

lpool is in wales .........not England

Daddy

So football was the opium of the scausers😅

I hated it.