When one of our staff members came across this picture of 'old Liverpool life' it was a reminder of a time I lived through that is now hard to imagine. The photograph is from 1981, nearly 30 years ago. It illustrates a black and white world which has now entirely vanished. The tower block in the background survived the Toxteth riots but not the demolition contractors of the 1990s. The Rialto cinema, once a dance hall and finally a second hand furniture store, did not fare so well in the riots as the photograph shows. In the foreground is a Portakabin, lay on the pavement drab and bare. That installation arrived at the beginning on August 1981 and was removed late February 1982 when we found new premises on Princes Road. 

I remember that Portakabin very well for it was my office during one of the coldest winters in living memory. Jackson Canter's former office was in the Rialto just behind the Portakabin and on 6th July 1981 it burned to the ground along with everything in the office, including all of the paper upon which we entirely relied. Office accommodation was in short supply in Toxteth so the council granted us temporary permission to place our Portakabin as shown. It had no running water and the unit on the far left of the picture was a tin box in which we placed all of our files, dictation machines, type writers and stationary every night as the cabin itself was not secure. 

For six months we survived in these rudimentary conditions, dispensing legal work to the local community. We even secured a mention in a Times article complaining that an enterprising legal practice had sought to take advantage of the tense atmosphere in Toxteth by opening a temporary office in its midst. In vain, we sought an apology for the defamatory comments. As well as this, about a week after we opened our Portakabin, a fortunately incompetent individual tried to set fire to the unit with limited success. These were exciting times!

At the time our clients were from the local community, mainly Liverpool-born black families who were living in what was effectively a ghetto in the Granby triangle. They had no stake in the economic life of the city and relationships between that community and the police became untenable. When the riots came, they were unbelievably destructive with vast swathes of the neighborhood torched to the ground and outsiders came from other communities to join in the destruction. 

Looking back, the riots had a huge effect on Liverpool, this was the bottom of the curve in the decline of the city. It is quite amazing to see the transformation that has taken place. Liverpool is a desirable place to visit and we now have an economy where citizens of all ethnic backgrounds can play their part. That is not to say that poverty and racism have been defeated, Liverpool still has both. However, we have moved forward and continue to progress. Jackson Lees has played its part by ensuring that those who are worse off can combat discrimination, remedy atrocious housing conditions and also challenge those who have misused their powers. 

So the photograph represents an important part of our history. We too have moved on a long way from those days and through the energy and commitment of our wonderful staff, I am sure we still have a lot more history to write about making a positive difference.