The Places

“The cry of “Support The Miners” echoed through Church Street... a cold wind blowing chip papers across a run down city centre... afternoons spent sipping cups of tea in greasy spoon cafes and flicking through records in Probe”.

Probe Records (c) Nancy Ostrander

This was Nancy Ostrander’s Liverpool. It was the 1980s and no one had even heard of the Capital Of Culture.

Drawn to the city by a love of Echo and the Bunnymen and an obsession with The Beatles, Nancy was an American student studying History at the University of Liverpool.

“I thought it was fantastic, so many good bands to see, pubs to go to and places to explore.

“The people I met for the most part were very warm and welcoming – if a bit confused as to why I would want to live there for 9 months!

Probe Records building today

“The city was a little run down and I was vaguely aware of what was going on politically but none of that really bothered me... being a student I was living in a kind of bubble.”

During this time Nancy and her friends, John and Norman, would spend hours taking photos of the city - snapshots of everyday life as a student, unaware of how they were capturing the city during its bleakest time.

The grainy images were taken mainly on a basic 110 camera and seem to somehow reflect the mood of the 1980s.

Old Pierhead Bus Station (c) Nancy Ostrander

“We used to go all over the city snapping pictures of seemingly mundane stuff... I love the black and white photo of the old sheds at Princes Dock in the snow, with the Liverbird peeking out in the background.

“It wasn’t until later that I learned that there used to be a train station there, which was the last stop for all those thousands of people boarding ships for America.

And now its all gone, so I’m glad I took the time to snap some photos.”

Brians Snack Bar (c) Nancy Ostrander

Nancy moved back to America in 1985, now living in Seattle she continues to takes photographs, still favouring the use of vintage cameras and film. With the help of Flickr, the internet photo sharing website, she posts her photographs online continuing to document her travels.

Her photos old and new and an extensive collection of photos entitled ‘Eighties Liverpool’ can be found on her Flickr pages under the username ‘nancyo23’.

“I thought they helped tell the story of the city and should be seen rather than collecting dust in a box.

My old pictures were taken just to document where I was, I don’t think they were meant to be anything more than that. I certainly didn’t think that anyone would be interested in them 20 or 25 years in the future.”