SundaySacries: The Bold and The Unbelievable
Strange Facts You Wish Weren't True: Storytime
It’s crazy to think we’ve already made it to 2023! The passing of time has felt even more bizarre the last few years with the pandemic; at times moving at the speed of light, while simultaneously dragging on and on. Today’s spooky subject centres around the concept of time itself and takes place on Bold Street in Liverpool, UK. Sure, Liverpool has its fair share of urban legends, spooky tales and local myths - but perhaps none more puzzling than the ‘time slips’ of Bold Street. Bold street connects two Liverpool areas, Knowledge Quarter and Georgian Quarter to the main retail shopping area of the city. It boasts cute shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, culture, entertainment and a strange collection of time slip phenomena. Over the years, many people claim to have simply ‘slipped’ into another time period while walking along the central city street.
A ‘time slip’ is considered a paranormal experience where a person might accidentally find themselves in another period of time - temporarily that is - either in the future or the past. Unlike accounts of ‘missing time’, the person is aware of the supposed time travel, and is entirely unsure how they “slipped” through time. Bold Street, Liverpool, has a long standing reputation for being such a hot spot for such phenomena to occur. Today we will cover some of these strange stories including one from a thief, a police officer, a shopper and a cyclist.
The Vanishing Bookstore:
In July 1996, a couple Carol, and her police officer-husband Frank, were visiting Liverpool one Saturday to do some shopping. Once they arrived at Central Station, the couple split up to go about their respective errands. Carol headed to Dillons Bookshop on Bold Street to purchase a copy of Irvine Welch’s book, Trainspotting, while Frank went to browse a record store on Ranelagh Street. Once Frank was done looking at music, he headed back towards Bold Street intending to meet back up with his wife, when he noticed he had somehow entered a ‘dead spot’ of quietness (ahem…Oz Effect anyone?). Suddenly, a small vintage box-van with the name ‘Caplan’s’ on the side sped across his path, beeping its horn as Frank narrowly escaped. After recovering from his close-call, Frank then noticed that Dillons Bookstore was no longer there, but instead a store with the name ‘Cripps’ over its two entrances. The policeman was understandably confused. The bookstore’s window now was filled with women’s handbags and shoes. When he turned to observe the site around him, Frank noticed the cars driving past seemed to all be older vehicles like the ones people drove back in the ‘50s and ‘60’s while the people strolling along Bold Street were also dressed in older fashions. Men were wearing hats and long overcoats, and the women were dressed in headscarves and full skirts, gloves and sported hairstyles he associated with women wearing just after the war.
By this time, Frank was beginning to feel slightly freaked out. At that moment, he noticed a girl around the age of 20, dressed in clothes of a mid-1990s girl; hipsters and a lime-coloured sleeveless top, making her way towards him. She was carrying a bag from Miss Selfridges which reassured Frank he was in fact still in 1996. He smiled at the girl as she walked past him entering Cripps. Frank ran in behind her only to find that all was as it should be - he was back in the Dillons Bookstore. He found the girl by the entrance and asked her if she had noticed anything just then. She shook her head and said it was strange, she had come in thinking it was a new clothing shop but it was just a bookstore, laughed it off and left. Frank found his wife and explained everything to her. Despite Carol not having found anything out of ordinary of her time at the bookstore, Frank insists he was not hallucinating.
The interesting part about this account is that once the story came to light on the Billy Butler Show, people called in to explain that in the late 1950s and early 1960s there had been a store called Cripps in the exact location where Dillons (and later Waterstones) Bookshop now stands. Furthermore, there was also a Firm under the name of Caplan’s as seen on the van operating around the same time.
Now obviously this story could be entirely made up; people do play hoaxes on the media. However, this isn't the only report of a time slip occurring in the Bold Street area.
The Thief:
The second story today centres around a man named Sean who was caught shoplifting in the Bold Street area in 2006. Sean was noticed by a security guard and took off running down Hanover Street. Trying to shake the guard off, he turned into a dead end street called Brookes Alley. By this time, Sean was out of breath and started to get a tight sensation in his chest as he waited for the guard to come around the corner after him, never appearing. Thinking he must have succeeded in giving the guard the slip, he made his way back to Hanover street but soon realized something was very very unusual.
Sean noticed the road and pavement looked different. Like Frank, he noticed cars driving by that looked very old, the construction he had just passed was now gone, and the people around him were sporting older clothing styles. Crossing over to Bold Street, he also noticed that there were traffic lights where there hadn’t been before.
Sean continued down the street and soon began to feel that something was most definitely off and began to panic. He was starting to realize he had somehow stepped back in time and he didn’t know how to get back. He remembered his cell phone, taking it out of his pocket and trying to get a signal without any luck. The panic increased until he stumbled upon a newspaper kiosk where he clearly saw the Daily Post dated 18th May 1967.
Now, picking up his pace, he reached H. Samuel the Jewellers, and tried his phone once again. This time it worked! Sighing with relief, he looked around him and realized he was suddenly back in 2006. Strangely though, he could still see people walking around in 1967 just down at the end of the road. Having had enough of the strange experience, Sean jumped onto a bus and headed home. He was later interviewed by a local paper which recorded his bizarre account.
Now folks, this is where this story takes a little turn, cause one might think Sean was making the story up to escape the guard. However, the guard involved was also interviewed and stated a corroborating account from his own perspective. He remembers turning down the same dead-end street as Sean only to have found he had completely disappeared. The newspaper checked the facts, and found that everything Sean had described had been historically accurate.
Mother is Always Right:
Yet another account of a Bold Street time slip was reported by a young woman named Imogen. She and her sister had gone shopping to pick up a few things for her new baby. Upon arriving at the busy shopping district that's home to the Bold Street area, she was delighted to see a Mothercare store had opened up on the corner of Lord Street and Whitechapel.
Imogen was even more delighted to find that the prices in the store were so affordable! She wandered around the store and picked up a few baby items, such as cardigans, baby bibs, and gloves. Upon check-out, she tried to pay with her credit card. The clerk looked at her suspiciously, and left to retrieve the manager. The manager firmly told Imogen they didn’t accept cards. Disappointed, she returned the items as she wasn’t carrying any cash. When she returned home and told her mother what had happened. Her mother was surprised and puzzled, telling her, “That store closed years ago! There is a bank there now. In fact, that’s where I have my account.” Stubborn in disbelief, Imogen returned with her mother the next day to show her she was correct. Sure enough, the store wasn’t there. It was a bank just as her mother had told her.
The Cyclist:
Finally, our last and shortest time slip account today regards a cyclist. An Englishman was cycling down the street when he witnessed something out of the ordinary. He claimed, “I was cycling down a canal, about 9:30am, when I saw a young guy sitting on the lock gate in what looked like Victorian working-class clothes. He was smoking a pipe and staring into the water - he didn’t look up as I went past.” Could this have been a vision into the past, or simply a history enthusiast taking a break by the canal?
The subject of time has always intrigued us. When things go awry or abnormal, we tend to shake our heads and put it down to imagination. However, over the last few decades, something strange has been happening on Bold Street. These odd instances have not been merely glimpses of the past, but full immersion into the strange and mysterious world of English history - if only for a few moments at a time. Accounts like those from the Bold Street area have us questioning, “does time flow like a river? Or does it twist and turn, going forward and then sweeping back, picking up historic events and placing them down in front of you, if only for a few moments?”
Alas, one of the strangest parts about all the reported Bold Street time slip experiences are that mostly all of them occur within the same time period - that being somewhere between the 1950s-1960s. This is odd even considering that most time travel related accounts are reported to take the recipient back much further to periods such as the 18th or 19th century.
These stories are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many tales from around Liverpool that tell of ghosts, curses, timeslips and other strange phenomena. So what is going on here? Are these stories the result of real-life time slips, imagination, mass hallucination or are they purely tales that started out as fun but have turned into one of the greatest urban legends of all time? Perhaps the most difficult notion to contemplate is that these bizarre and mysterious accounts occurring around Bold Street might actually be true! Unfortunately, it is unlikely we will ever know for certain, but whatever is happening, I find I do enjoy the stories that emerge!
XOXO
SundayScaries
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