Over the past five months, I’ve been working on a monthly page in Bodge, the Liverpool Arts Lab magazine, called Ley Lines for Fun and Profit. As part of this, I began plotting strange and interesting points in Liverpool and looking for alignments between then using GIS software.
Even with only ~30 points, there are already promising alignments emerging, such as these two which run between Eleanor Rigby’s grave and the Mathew Street Manhole, via Calderstone’s park. I’ve put an interactive map online.
One of my favourite things about ley lines is that the arrangements have been shown to be a statistical quirk. While a lot of people have dismissed the idea for this reason, it makes me more excited. A surprisingly small number of points can produce some fascinating alignments. Alignments of random points are inevitable, particularly at the threshold of 4-5 points used to make a ‘classic’ ley line. Given the power of modern Geographic information Systems it should be possible to find some incredible geographical coincidences.
A few years back, I generated the alignments between Brighton pubs. During lockdown, I followed the most interesting of these with Ben Graham and found that it included some fascinating resonances. It would be easy to believe that there is real significance to these lines, even if they are only examples of apophonia.
Since Bodge is produced by the Liverpool Arts Lab, I thought it would be interesting to try to find a Liverpool ley line. I’ve been plotting points related to the Beatles and Cosmic Trigger. I’ve added some items from Atlas Obscura. I am hoping to find some items related to Julian Cope as well as Courtney Love’s time in Liverpool. I’m listing the ones I’ve found here, and I’d be grateful for any suggestions, which you can add at this link.
(I recently received a great suggestion, Liverpool’s Bold Street, which is the site of a time slip).
So far, I’ve gathered about 35 points. I’ve yet to find a truly convincing ley, but I’m starting to see possible candidates. Hopefully, as I add more places of interesting, something all emerge that tells an amazing story. I’m visiting Liverpool at the end of the month, and I hope to trace one of these lines and see what I find on the ground.
I think you mean bold street, not Bond Street
Thank you for the correction, Jean! That’s now been updated.
Did you manage to find anything about Bold Street?
Hi there, just thought I’d Share the experience i had there. . .. I remember going into town with a friend one day.. It was 1983 , I was about 15 yrs old then, and we were by the bombed out church. I wanted to go to shop on Bold Street so I crossed over, leaving my friend to wait for me ..I entered a little shop, thinking it was the Deli, but as I walked in , i thought I’d
got the wrong shop, as people were dressed in old fashioned clothes, chatting away, and the shop was old too. I loved it and just thought it was a gimmick.. so I opened the door to call my friend in..
but when I got outside..everything else was different too. The cars, and lorries, the shops looked like they were from the 30s … I realised I must have gone back in time somehow!.. it was so surreal..I was shaking with both excitement and fear. So after about 10 minutes walking down Bold St in awe.. I thought I better go back to the shop.. so I went back in . but this time, as I opened its door, everything had changed again, back to normal inside.. and out.. thank God.. only thing was, my friend had gone.. I was only gone 15 minutes or so .. but when I looked up at the clock and checked my watch , I had lost 2 hours! …Weird or what? I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my parents what had happened. Thats if they believe me first!. Thankfully they did. My dad had read about it in a book ! …I know I’ll never ever forget it…my trip back in time..
Jeni
I had a time slip in bold street
A store called Cripps
I’d love to hear more about this. What happened?
Aargh the rabbit holes, I happen to know that Smithdown road is on a ley line. And ants live on them and cats love to bath there too. and sit on them. So despairing as we are of ants is good.
St James’s gardens by the spring has incredible energy and a even more incredible history. Catherine (“Kitty”) Wilkinson (24 October 1785–1860)[2][3] was an Irish migrant and “wife of a labourer”, who became known as the ‘Saint of the Slums’ due to her pioneering the public wash house movement.[2] In 1832, during a cholera epidemic, she had the only boiler in her neighbourhood, so she invited those with infected clothes or linens to use it, thus saving many lives.[4] This was the first public washhouse in Liverpool. Ten years later with public funds her efforts resulted in the opening of a combined washhouse and public baths, the first in the United Kingdom.
If you ever come back to Liverpool I’ll take you to some of them.
Sorry for the slow reply – I definitely need to do a tour of Liverpool again soon. It will probably be next year, but I will try to remember to give you a shout. Thank you for the comment!