Mossley Hill

Mossley Hill was made famous in 1967 thanks to the Beatles' song "Penny Lane", written about a Mossley Hill street of the same name. The street runs between Allerton Road and Greenbank Road and is on the routes of various tour buses, with thousands of tourists visiting annually. In July 2006, the city council discussed renaming certain streets because their names were linked to Liverpool's role in the slave trade, with Penny Lane possibly being named after 18th-century slave trader James Penny. On 10 July 2006, officials said they would modify the proposal to exclude Penny Lane as it was generally accepted that most people associate the street with the Beatles rather than the slave trade.[3]

During the 2020 George Floyd protests in the UK, which formed part of the international Black Lives Matter movement, Penny Lane's street signs were defaced due to the name's alleged association with the slave trade. Unlike similar incidents in the UK during the protests, the action was widely condemned and quickly reversed, primarily due to the aforementioned lack of evidence linking the street's name to the slave trade.[4][5]

• Kim Cattrall, actress, born in Mossley Hill and raised there for three months[6]
• J. Bruce Ismay, director of the White Star Line and Titanic survivor[7]
• Charles Lawrence, Chairman of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, lived in Carnatic Hall
• Danielle Lloyd, model and former Miss Great Britain, raised on Penny Lane
• Freddie Mercury, singer, lived in the flat above the Dovedale Towers pub for a short period in 1969; he was still known as Farrokh Bulsara at the time and was in local band Ibex[8][9]
• Derek Nimmo, actor, sang in the local parish church choir
• Steven Pienaar, former footballer for Everton
• The Rathbone family, shipowners
• Russell Pritchard, musician, bassist of The Zutons and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

The suburb is home to Dovedale Primary School. This was the school of notable Liverpudlians George Harrison, John Lennon, Peter Sissons, Jimmy Tarbuck and John Power. Calderstones School (which Lennon attended in its previous incarnation, Quarry Bank) is located on nearby Harthill Road. In turn, this is located near the city's police horse training centre, just north of Mossley Hill's main residential area. Liverpool College (which was until 2013 a fee-paying independent school) is also located within the area, and Liverpool's only grammar school the Liverpool Blue Coat School is also nearby.

The area is also home to the Greenbank Halls of Residence and now closed Carnatic Halls of Residence student accommodation complexes (belonging to the University of Liverpool). The Greenbank Village complex consists of redeveloped Halls including Derby and Rathbone Hall and Roscoe and Gladstone Hall: commonly known as D&R and R&G. The former Carnatic Halls site at Mossley Hill on Elmswood Road was the largest of the University of Liverpool's accommodation complexes: Morton House, Lady Mountford House, Lichen Grove, McNair Hall, Salisbury Hall and Rankin Hall. Dale Hall was demolished in 2019 and now is redeveloped as a housing complex.

Mossley Hill is home to Greenbank Park, one of the most popular parks in Liverpool. Two more of the city's most popular parks, Sefton Park and Calderstones Park, are also nearby.

Sudley House is one of seven museums and art galleries run by National Museums Liverpool, displaying paintings by Gainsborough and Turner, among others.

Mossley Hill railway station on Rose Lane offers regular services to Liverpool city centre (an approx 11 minute journey time), Warrington (27 minute journey) and Manchester Oxford Road (a 57-minute journey). There are connections to Birmingham via Liverpool South Parkway.

Buses outside the railway station route as follows:-

• 61 - Aigburth and Bootle
• 80A - Liverpool city centre or Speke and Liverpool John Lennon Airport
• 201 Royal Liverpool Hospital or Speke

Buses from Penny Lane / Allerton Road route as follows:-

• 62 to Bootle
• 68 from Aigburth to Bootle
• 75 and 76 from the city centre to Halewood
• 80 and 80A
• 86 and 86A from the city centre to Garston and Liverpool Airport

Services 80A and 86A are the only bus services that connect Mossley Hill with the airport.[10]

The district lies on the border of two Parliamentary constituencies; Liverpool, Riverside and Liverpool Wavertree. It is represented on Liverpool City Council by councillors from Mossley Hill ward itself and it is in parts of Greenbank and Church wards.

Spire Hospital Liverpool (formerly Lourdes Hospital) on Greenbank Road is Liverpool's first private hospital. The hospital faces Greenbank Park.[11][12]

Mossley Hill Athletic Club are a voluntary multi sports club. They offer facilities for archery, crown green bowling, cricket, football, rugby, hockey, running and tennis.[13]

The district has a women's football team, Mossley Hill L.F.C., who play in the Northern Combination Women's Football League.

Penny Lane Wine Bar is a pub on Penny Lane. The area of Rose Lane and Allerton Road contains a large number of wine bars, bistros, and restaurants. These two streets are the area's principal centres for retail, hosting numerous shops and offices.

The Dovedale Towers pub stands on the corner of Dovedale Road and Penny Lane. It was closed for business in 2010 and reopened in 2012.

The area is mostly residential with a few local businesses scattered around the district. Housing is mainly semi-detached, with occasional detached and numerous terraced streets. The area around Sefton Park has many large Victorian villas.

Most of the churches in Mossley Hill are members of "Churches Together in Mossley Hill", a covenanted group of churches. This group was known as "The Nine Churches of Mossley Hill" until it reformed with one new member under the new membership covenant in 1994.

The original nine member churches comprised three Anglican parishes: St Matthew and St James, St Barnabas, and All Hallows, Allerton; two Roman Catholic parishes: Our Lady of the Annunciation, Bishop Eton and St Anthony of Padua and four Free Churches: Dovedale Baptist Church, Allerton United Reformed, Elm Hall Drive Methodist and Bethel Presbyterian Church in Wales. The tenth church was Dove Community Church, which ceased to exist in 2006 and at the same time was replaced in membership of Churches Together by Wavertree Christian Fellowship.

There is at least one more church in Mossley Hill not in membership of Churches Together: Ramilies Road Chapel. There is also a mosque in the area, the Islamic Institute on Cramond Avenue.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mossley Hill.

• 2006 Liverpool City Council, Ward Profile: Mossley Hill
• Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 18