They like their modernstatues in Liverpool, 20th century icons you can walk round, stand beside and take a selfie with. The best-known to rail travellers are this pair at the entrance to Lime Street station.
These are comedian Ken Dodd and MP Bessie Braddock. He lived in Knotty Ash and she was the MP for Liverpool Exchange. He's holding a tickling stick while Dicky Mint the Diddyman pokes out from his bag. She's holding an egg because she was the politician responsible for putting the lion standard mark on British eggs. The double statue is called Chance Meeting - apparently the pair sometimes travelled down to London on the train together. It's by Tom Murphy and was unveiled by Ken on 11 June 2009.
This is another Tom Murphy double statue and can be found outside Primark on Church Street. The rotund pair are brothers John and Cecil Moores, of whom Sir John is the best known. In the 1920s he and two friends founded Littlewoods football pools, which made him a millionaire, followed by an empire of mail order catalogues and department stores which made him richer still. In 1960 he became chairman of Everton football club and handed the reins of Littlewoods to Cecil (who had long been managing the Pools side of the business). The statue was unveiled by their sons in 1996... outside Littlewoods, of course.
This chap is Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, and was unveiled in 2022 on the 55th anniversary of his death. It's located on Whitechapel, the street where the Brian was the manager of a record shop called NEMS when he signed the group after seeing them perform at the Cavern Club. The shop's long gone, one of several buildings demolished to create a larger store for American retailer Forever 21 (now occupied by Next). Head up Mathew Street to the site of The Cavern and you'll also find statues of John Lennon and Cilla Black, but I only had time for a 20 minute walkabout between trains so didn't get that far, nor to the Fab Four themselves down at the Pier Head, sorry.
