Annie Garvey was known for selling “fruit, cakes and sweets” on the waterfront
A “famous Liverpool character” known by generations in the city once lived in a “little wooden hut” at the Pier Head. The city centre as we know it has changed massively overtime, but well over a century ago many came to know the humble story of Annie Garvey.
Living on the waterfront for most of her life, Annie and her mother are said to have occupied a shanty on the north side of the now lost floating bridge, the site of which at that time was a dock basin, according to reports from the early 20th century. But when the bridge was built, the pair had to move.
The mum and daughter proceeded to the piece of waste land on the south side and pitched their home – but other reports suggest Annie decided to move to her new location when the old Liverpool Landing Stage was destroyed by fire that same year in 1874.
Annie is said to have regularly attended St. Mary’s Church on Highfield Street and took an interest in both her physical and spiritual welfare, but was once described as a “woman of great strength of mind and tenacity of purpose,” the Liverpool ECHO previously reported.
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On June 4, 1914, the Liverpool ECHO reported: “She had some good friends, however, who saw to it that she did not suffer the pinch of hunger. They made repeated efforts to get the old lady into home, but she resolutely refused to leave her little wooden hut, for it was scarcely more than that, and the Dock Board were no more successful when they threatened her with ejection.
“She just “sat tight,’ and with the help of her friends managed, finally, to weather the storm. The Dock Board bowed the inevitable, and Annie continued live and sleep, and, occasionally, sell things in her shanty.”
Through the years, Annie’s story has been shared through the generations and every decade or so, it has reappeared in the Liverpool ECHO. A postcard with an image of Annie Garvey also shows the hut and a number of goods can be seen from the window.
In 1967, reader John Blackham told the ECHO that she was known for selling “fruit, cakes, sweets and more to workmen building the floating road way.” He also claimed: “The story runs that her voyage from Ireland (en route to America) was so terrifying that having landed her, she vowed never to move and she kept her word for 80 years or more.”
In 1978, an ECHO article also described her as a “famous Liverpool character” and that she was not the only one living and selling goods on the Pier Head. In the article, Derek Whale wrote: “Annie was the older of the two women who ran similar stalls.
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“The other, whose name I do not know, had her stall on Mann Island. When her mother died and Annie began to age, friends saw to it that she did not go short of food.
“But she refused to leave her little wooden hut at the top of the floating bridge. Once, at the beginning of the century, an important visitor was due to arrive at the landing stage and a great crowd milled around.
“When some Indian soldiers climbed on to Annie’s hut to get a better view, she came out with a broom and drove them off.” In June 1914, Annie, who was believed by many to be a centenarian, died after collapsing in the street on the way to pick up her pension.
At the time, the ECHO reported: “Annie Garvey, the landing-stage “squatter,” died today at the Brownlow Hill Hospital. One day last week, while going to draw her old-age pension, she collapsed in the street, and was removed to the Northern Hospital in an unconscious state, the result of heart trouble.
“This gave rise to the report that she was dead. She was subsequently removed to the Brownlow Hill infirmary, and although she rallied slightly, it was seen that the end was near.”
The article continued: “Many of the police and other officials at the landing-stage knew her well, and among these the view was held that she was not as old as she was represented, or as she represented herself to be. She was commonly supposed be a centenarian, but on her admission to the workhouse infirmary she gave her age as 86.”
