Pier Head

Liverpool 1989

Photographs by Rob Bremner

Rob Bremner’s black and white photographs from his series documenting Liverpool’s Pier Head Bus Station and Cafe in 1989.

Aside from his well-known colour photography, Rob Bremner built a significant body of black-and-white photography work. These images were shot in and around Liverpool’s Pier Head, documenting the bus station and cafe. At that time, it was a run-down and grim place for some. However, it was also an essential social outlet for many people, including the city’s elder working-class communities, who would spend many hours drinking tea and catching up with familiar faces.

"Liverpool's Pier Head, at that time, was just a dilapidated bus station where people went to catch the ferries across the Mersey. It was the last stop for most buses, and older people with their free bus passes would alight there. There was a café, and the staff were friendly; you could sit there all day sipping the same cup of tea without being asked to leave. It was cheaper than heating a home. Danny, who used to run the burger stand, would give me free burgers."

- Rob Bremner

"Peter had been made redundant from the factory where he had worked some months earlier, and is looking worried. He sadly died not long after I took this photo. I often wonder what happened to his son."

- Rob Bremner

"There was a little hatch in the wall through which the cafe sold tea and coffee to taxi drivers 24/7. A solitary, very tough old lady tended the hatch. She was known simply as Sugar because that was all she ever said in a very loud, high-pitched voice, "Sugar??!!"

- Richie O'Brien

READ OUR FULL FEATURE WITH ROB BREMNER