Rosemarie Eberjer mum and her friends went to “every café you can imagine”
A day out in their own right, a number of lost Liverpool department stores are still fondly remembered by generations. Places you could find everything under one roof, some also boasted their own cafe’s and restaurants to rival the ones scattered across the city.
Before the popular venues we know today cropped up, these were the places, alongside the well-known cafe’s that dominated our high streets, that you’d get to go to for a treat or even get dressed up to visit. Rosemarie Eberjer, now 68, grew up in the city and later West Kirby and has fond memories of visiting Lewis’s and George Henry Lees as a child where her mum, also called Rosemarie, worked in the 70s.
Moving from Germany to Liverpool, Rosemarie said her mum went to night school to learn English before working in sales and beauty with a number of big name brands. Around this time, Rosemarie would also take advantage of working in the city centre by dressing up and venturing to numerous cafes with her close friends to find “the best afternoon tea.”
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As part of the Liverpool ECHO’s How It Used To Be series, Rosemarie shares her memories of growing up in Liverpool, 70s fashion and her mum’s “glamorous” days out with her friends. Around the age of 12, Rosemarie remembers visiting her mum when she worked on a counter in Lewis’s basement.
Now living in Germany, Rosemarie told the ECHO: “My mum, she used to work Saturday’s. I was at a loose end one Saturday, so very nervously I thought, I wonder if I could hop on a bus, because the bus went straight to Central Station.
“I got off there and Lewis’s was right next door. Things were different then – but it was an adventure for me. Mum used to have her lunch breaks by the time I sort of got there, so meeting became a regular thing.
“Then I used to hang around town so that’s one of the reasons I got to know the town a bit at an early age. Lewis’s – it was heaven. I mean, it had all these floors plus the basement selling just everything.”
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Rosemarie remembers her mum working on a Guerlain counter and later for various other brands in department stores such as Binns, formerly Henderson’s, and George Henry Lee’s. Rosemarie said: “She’s worked in a few places as a beautician, as a beauty consultant with various big firms.
“The others I remember were Faberge and Chanel, all in Liverpool. Mum was that good she was quite sought after.”
As well as a talent for sales, Rosemarie’s mum also worked as a model, known back then as “mannequins,” as part of Patricia Platt’s modelling agency in Bold Street. Rosemarie believes this led her to making friends with three women who she’d grow up knowing as “aunty Lilly, aunty Elsie and aunty Helene.”
The group would often dress up and go out for afternoon tea at venues across the city. Rosemarie said: “She and aunty Lilly, aunty Elsie and aunty Helene used to meet up for afternoon tea nearly every day and when the occasion allowed it, I went along too for many years.
“They sort of went to each and every café I think you can imagine. They went all over the place. If there was a café, they tried it to see which was the best.
“They never went out without the hats and gloves and handbags and they all had to match, even the shoes. And it was even better when it was summer because they didn’t have to wear coats and would wear all the lovely sticky out dresses with the petticoats.”
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Rosemarie said the group would go everywhere from The Bluecoat Chambers to The Adelphi hotel, George Henry Lee’s, The Playhouse and more. As a child, Rosemarie remembers attending meet-ups with the group at one famous Liverpool café brand that once dominated our high streets.
She said: “They used to go to a place in Bold Street, Reece’s. In the café, mum once said what would you like and I said well can I have a Coca Cola. She said no, no Coco Cola and I said oh go on mum and she eventually gave in and I could try a glass.
“I also remember having my first Welsh rarebit. When I got older, I used to join them on occasions because I used to work myself in Liverpool city centre.
“They used to find the most extraordinary places to have their afternoon tea.” A fan of photography, Rosemarie’s mum documented much of her life and the fashions she wore on Merseyside, as seen in these beautiful images shared with the ECHO.
But there is one other image in particular that sparked memories for Rosemarie. Previously shared in a Liverpool ECHO gallery, Rosemarie contacted the ECHO after she spotted a 1970s photograph from our archive, Mirrorpix, which features her aunty Lilly.
Known to many around the city centre as “Lilly of the Valley,” Rosemarie said it was amazing to see the photo decades on from when her family lived in the Liverpool. She said: “She used to love green, lilac and pink.
“But mainly it was a hat and gloves and her handbag that matched. When I saw the photo I thought, oh, that’s unmistakably aunty Lilly.
“I always wondered why aunty Helene called her ‘Lilly of the Valley’ and she said, it’s because of where she lives. I’ve been racking my mind to think of where aunty Lilly could have lived for her to be called Lilly of the Valley.
“The only thing I’ve come up with is Everton Valley. I mean, there is Childwall Valley, but I would have known Childwall Valley because it was on my way home on the bus.”
It’s now been decades since Rosemarie lived in Merseyside, but she says she still has fond memories of how “friendly” the city was and the times her mum and her friends had, which live on in incredible photographs. She said: “They were all smartly dressed and as I say, everything had to match.
“Even without mobile phones they were all able to meet up. I don’t know how they did it, to be honest. I think they used to make the arrangement the day before or the week before. They would always meet, come rain or shine.”
