Mr Stephen Doherty and Mr Paul Askew with glasses half empty!! 

A good night had last thursday for Paul's 30 years at the Pass. 

The LFADF was a great weekend for meeting friends and tasting some great dishes and that was just for us grabbing time to have a look at all our neighbours. 

Here is a picture of Bernadette Bennett who has been our patisserie chef for many years and is now going solo with her own company 'Tiffin to You'.  Fortunatly for us - as her cake is divine - she joins us on special occasions and lets us taste her latest confections.

Joanne and Ellie have just completed a week of work experience with us at hope street hotel and The London Carriage Works.  Their final task was to write a blog all about their experiences, here it is!  

Joanne and Ellie’s Blog. 

hope street hotel.  Wow.  What an amazing week.  From two young girls from The Blue Coat School to fully fledged workers!  

This week we’ve experienced the history of the magnificent hope street, down to the soul of the hotel, the housekeeping department.  First day of work, we arrived 20 minutes early to ensure we could get stuck in straight away, but ended up spending the first 30 minutes of the day sitting in the book room, due to Mary’s (creative director) late arrival.  The first day consisted of a lot of exercise walking up and down hope street, retrieving very important information from local tourist attractions.  After lunch Mary let us loose on certain hotel rooms, we were like two kids in a sweet shop.  Although we got lost multiple times we found our way around, and took our first step into the room on the first floor *GASP*.  We had never seen anything so perfect, from the crisp white Egyptian cotton sheets, the mood setting lights, to the gorgeous hair and body products in the bathroom (which are complimentaryJ).  

Throughout the remainder of the week we typed up the minutes from a meeting, which was quite a challenge due to Sue Ainger’s (executive events manager) handwriting!  We watched and learned how to strip and clean a room too perfection, and had a grand tour of the staff room, the offices and the nationally famous kitchen of The London Carriage Works.  We were introduced to the brains behind the scenes, from receptionists and housekeepers, to Chef (Paul Askew), who not only were very friendly and treated us like VIP’s but also treated us like colleagues.  Even the scent of the hotel was divine and that immediate whiff as you walk through the glass doors makes you aware that you have just entered a very special place.  

We could not have wished for a better place to do our work experience, we have both learnt and enjoyed the time we have spent at hope street hotel, and will miss it and the fantastic staff.  We will be back to visit soon and to eat more croissants! Thank you!!

This weekend saw the fifth Wirral Food and Drink festival take place at Claremont Farm.  Part of Wirral Council’s Year of Food, this years festival boasted more than 100 producers and stalls and attracting around 30,000 visitors, the biggest and best so far.  

Exhibitors and stalls showcased the finest specialist foods from England and North Wales including crumbly cheese from Cheshire, delicious lamb from North Wales, Sarsaparilla from Lancashire, coffee from Birkenhead, homemade cakes from Burton, and locally brewed real ale.  Visitors were treated to chef demonstrations, a mini version of Wirral’s Farmer’s market, live music and cookery workshops.Our very own Paul Askew and the North West Young Chef of the Year Tom Lee demonstrated on Bank Holiday Monday. Paul cooked fillet of turbot with saffron and golden beetroot risotto, poached oysters and girolle.  Tom cooked Anglesey mussel and panchetta ravioli with leeks and micro salad.

Paul said “It was a great buzz to see all the foodies gathered together, well done Claremont Farm!” 

The Wirral Autistic Society is Hope Street Hotel’s nominated charity so we were delighted to help with their Ken Dodd Literary Lunch last Friday.  54 friends of the Wirral Autistic Society had a private lunch on the Fifth and a talk/joke session with the hilarious Ken Dodd.  With sides aching the group enjoyed a bespoke menu created by Paul Askew which even included a ‘jam butty’ pre dessert course in honor of Ken. The lunch along with a raffle and silent auction raised in excess of £2,500 which will all go towards the building of a respite centre at the Wirral Autistic Society in Raby Mere.   

Ken Dodd and Rick Myers (Fundraising Officer for the WAS) with the silent auction prize - a bronze bust of Ken Dodd created by Rick.

Paul Askew with Rick Myers

Ken Dodd with guests

We were approached buy the Alumni Relations Team at the University of Liverpool to see if we could help out with taking a London Carriage Works Afternoon Tea to a very special graduate of The University of Liverpool.  Colonel James Bryson is one of the University’s oldest graduates and celebrated his 97^th Birthday on February 4^th.

Colonel Bryson studied Law at the University of Liverpool at Graduated in 1932. Since Graduating he held positions including chairman of the Medical Appeal Tribunal, Senior District Registrar of the High Court of Justice and Liverpool Admiralty Registrar, president of the Liverpool Law Society, chairman of the Mayor's Poppy Fund, president of the North West Cancer Research Fund, organiser of the annual Remembrance Day commemorations at the Lime Street war memorial, and Commissioner of Taxes from 1968 to 1988.

One of his most startling stories was when he was presiding judge over a bankruptcy trial of infamous Liverpool nightclub owner George Wilkie in 1960. During the proceedings the accused took out a gun and shot at the Colonel several times injuring several people in the court and piercing the portrait hanging behind him. The Colonel was able to wrestle the assailant to the ground and for this act he received the Queens Commendation for Bravery.

Amongst memories he shared at his special ‘Afternoon Tea’ were his meeting with the Pope, and his many meetings with the Queen (two meetings of which ended in disaster, the first with a streaker barging between them and the second with floods at Buckingham Palace, after which he received a personal letter apologising for his bad luck and inviting him again to the palace), his personal connections to the University, and his work with many charities including presiding over the North West Cancer Research Fund, and working alongside Ken Dodd. Colonel Bryson is also a Papal Knight and a Knight of the Round Table. 

Of course we were delighted to help.  Our Pastry chef Bernie designed the menu for the Colonel and included one of her legendary Victoria sponge cakes which we know went down a treat. 

We’ve obviously done a bit of research and know that The London Carriage Works originally, as the name suggests, housed a coach builder, and since then the building has been home to various companies such as booksellers, telephone companies and more recently a furniture depositary.   

Some of our colleagues can remember the furniture store 'AJ Buckinghams', our Sue Ainger used to live nearby in the late 1980’s and said “I used to pass most days and barely even noticed the building, (which is quite shocking as it’s so beautiful), except for an overall impression of an abandoned space with a few dusty old card board cut outs on display in the windows”. 

We are wondering if any of our website visitors can remember the building before we moved in?  Do you have any interesting recollections or historical facts?  Please share your memories with us by clicking on the comments option below.

They’ve done it! Orla and Sarah were beautiful and brave all the way down; Dave was cool and sat on a ledge to wait for Mary who was petrified.  Sue, our Outside Catering Manager, and Bernie, our Patisserie Chef, were there to meet all the guys at the bottom.  They brought ice and glasses to make Negronis, (the tense and terrified Mary’s favourite aperitif), accompanied by Bernie’s famous and perfect Victoria and berry sponge! A fun day was had by all and the team has managed to raise around £600 for The Stroke Society.