The Liverpool Chinatown Oral History
A telephone conversation with Marilyn Faulkner, Office Junior (1966), Blue Funnel Shipping Line Chinese office, Nelson Street, Liverpool.
Recorded by The Sound Agents
John Campbell and Moira Kenny-Campbell August 2025.
MF – Marilyn Faulner MKC – Moira Kenny-Campbell JC – John Campbell
MKC. When did you start working in the Blue Funnel Office and how did you get the job?
MF. It was 1966, I had just left school, my parents had gone over-seas, and I went to live with my aunt and uncle in Kirby.
I cannot honestly remember, I know I went for an interview in the India Buildings Office, I think it was for an office junior, and they offered me the job in the Blue Funnel Office in Nelson Street.
MKC. What were your thoughts when you first went to the office? What was the office like?
MF. Well, it was interesting, you went through the front door and on the left, as I remember, was the Sergeant’s office. He was like the concierge.
On the first floor, as best as I remember, we had two typists who used to type out the shipping letter which was nine pages long. That was the old days, with carbon paper in-between.
There was an English guy called Mr Ian Laing and a switchboard. I was on the switchboard.
MKC. Could you speak Chinese, and did you see the Chinese seafarers?
MF. We didn’t see a lot of Chinese sailors coming in but there were a lot of Chinese people who worked.
MKC. Do you remember a man called Sing Zhay Woo?
MF. I don’t remember a Mr Woo, there was Peter, who spoke multiple dialects. There was Jimmy, who used to bring the sailors to and fro. Sung and Wong who were on the top floor in the tea-room.
MKC. Walk us through the building as you can remember it.
MF. Okay so first of all, there were offices, the typists and one of the bosses and my little switchboard. The next floor up was where the comptometer operators were. There were two of them, Dianne and Sheila
MKC. What did they actually do?
MF. In the olden days they were basically adding up figures on machines.
The next floor up was our tea-room, for a few pennies one would make us tea, coffee and toast. There was another floor, I can’t remember if it was the same floor as the tea-room, where all the records were kept.
MKC. Was there a social club or was that over the pub?
MF. It wasn’t there in my day no.
I worked on an old fashioned switch board, it had buttons on it, where you pushed the number down and dialled and then turned the handle around to get through to which ever phone you wanted to get through to. It was only a small office
MKC. What was Nelson Street like in 1966?
MF. Basically, lots of Chinese restaurants, there was one occasion when we were going back to the office after lunch and there were two lads taking photographs and they asked us to please move as they had told their friends they were going to Hong Kong on holiday!
There was a big restaurant opposite where the bosses used to get Siu Mai and things for lunch and occasionally, we would get taken there for a meal which was brilliant because it was so different to the then, Chinese restaurants in the city. It was totally different, it was like Chop Suey and Chow Mein I the restaurants in the city in those days, whereas this was proper Chinese food.
It was mostly restaurants; there were shops and there were lots of Mahjong places where they had a curtain over the door, if it was open, you could see them playing Mahjong inside.
MKC. Did it feel like a Chinatown?
MF. Well, it was my first job, I had never had another job. One of the best parts about it was, because it wasn’t in the city, we didn’t have to start work until half past nine. So, we could go in half an hour later than the others! No, it was just where we worked basically.
MKC. The pub must have been open at that time, what was that like?
MF. The Nook, yes. I don’t think we ever went in it. We were not old enough although that didn’t stop us normally, but I don’t think we ever went in The Nook
The Sergeant who was on the desk he used to go in there sometimes and he would also put bets on horses if we wanted to put a bet on.
MKC. It sounds like a fun place to work!
MF. It was, I loved it actually. When one of the typists left, one of the typists was pregnant, they sent me to a sight and sound typing school so I could learn how to type and then I got promoted to ‘typist’.
My parents were overseas, and my dad got posted to the Caribbean and they happened to have a job in his office for an English National who wasn’t in the Foreign Office, and I went to work there. Otherwise, I would have probably stayed a lot longer
I know I left in May when City won the FA Cup, I think it was 1969. I only know that because it was on whilst I was travelling. Yes, it must have been ’69 because I actually worked in a pub for a while as well before I left, and I couldn’t have done that until ’68. Yes, it was ‘69
MKC. Did anybody talk about when the Chinese seamen were repatriated in 1946?
MF. You won’t believe this, but my next door neighbour is from Liverpool and her dad worked for Blue Funnel and he was one of the people that was, I can’t say repatriated, I’ll say ‘sent away’ and she has since then been to Singapore and met the family that he had when he went to Singapore.
It is such a coincidence as she used to go to the office with her dad to collect his money and she remembers them playing Mahjong in the office. I don’t but I think that was before my time.
She said somebody helped her find her father, somebody who was doing the same in Liverpool, she thinks his name is Peter, but I don’t think it is the same Peter who worked in the office when I was there.
MKC. No, I think it is probably Peter Foo
MF. Yes, yes. The Peter that worked in the office was one of the interpreters because he could speak so many different Chinese dialects. He was very, very clever.
MKC. When you were doing the typing, what were you typing?
MF. Basically, the names of the sailors on the ships
MKC. I know people have tried to find lists of Chinese sailors and none exist.
MF. Oh right, because I can remember, and I was an absolutely useless typist and I can remember I had to rub out nine layers every time I made a mistake I used to do the ships name say it was the Agamemnon they all had that sort of name.
I am sure we used to type out all of the names as the names were all very similar and if you made one mistake you had to go back to it all.
I don’t know where it all went because we had very little contact with India Buildings I used to go once a month down there to pick up the luncheon vouchers, because we were given luncheon vouchers in those days, but that is about the only contact we had with them. We were just somewhere that they had put somewhere else!
MKC. When we recorded a man called Sing Zhay Woo, he told us that he absolutely hated working in India Buildings and the Chinese workers wanted to be in Chinatown, so that they could carry on doing things that they did in Chinatown. His brother Too Pay had an important job because he taught lifeboat skills, then he got TB so Mr Woo took over and taught the lifeboat skills. He then caught TB and was in hospital for five years.
MF. Oh my goodness, when was that?
MKC. Mr Woo came to Liverpool after 1946 so it must have been early 1950’s
MF. The office was established for quite some time then before I started working there in 1966.
We all loved working up there, there were two others my age and we just thought it was great.
MKC. Did you have to wear a uniform, or could you wear your own clothes?
MF. We wore our own clothes, but we had an overall we wore. I can’t remember if we wore it all the time or just when we used to skive off, well not skive off, we used to go up to the records, to get the records out because we were allowed to smoke up there. In those days people smoked at work.
We had gingham overalls, and we put them on over our own clothes, it wasn’t a uniform as such.
We had another English boss; I am not sure if his name was Mr Norman or Norman something. I think it was Mr Norman
MKC. I have heard of a Mr Smith but that was probably before you worked there.
MF. Unless he was Norman Smith? It could have been. There was another man called Ralph, but I think he was killed in an accident while he was on holiday.
I can’t remember the name of the other typist; one was called Mary and the other one I can’t Cynthia! Isn’t that weird it just came to me! Mary and Cynthia were the two typists. So, in our office we had the two typing offices, two desks and then we had my little corner
MKC. In Great George Square, where there still boarding houses there in 1966?
MF. Yes
MKC. Did you see people going in and out of them?
MF. No, we didn’t there was a man, I think his name was Jimmy and he would bring the sailors up from the ships and bring them to the offices, but we didn’t take much notice. They would come and collect their money and then they would go off again.
We just went to the office and then went home; we weren’t there in the evenings or anything. So, we didn’t really pay much attention to what was going on if you didn’t walk past it.
MKC. Have you got any photographs of when you were 16 or 17?
MF. No, no. I can picture other people who were there but no, I don’t have any photos at all of that time.
JC. Was there any signage at that time on the street of the offices, did it say Blue Funnel on the street, or did you just go in through the door?
MF. It was just a door; there was nothing there at all
JC. The office was on the corner
MF. Yes, there was a green area next to it.
JC. That is correct, you were saying maybe it had four floors?
MF. I can’t remember, the tearoom was definitely on the third floor but when we used to go up to where all the records where, if that was on the other side of the tearoom or if there was another floor above it.
JC. We heard of a chap called Mr Smith who was the main man of that period in that office, you mention another man?
MF. Yes, there was Mr Laing, and I can’t remember if there was a man called Mr Norman or Norman Smith.
JC. Right, so it could be him then, yes.
MF. And they were obviously much older than we were, so we didn’t have much to do with them. Then, there were bosses as well.
JC. Yes, we met another lady who worked in the office didn’t we Moira, Margaret Williams was her name, but we don’t know what period she worked in the office.
MF. I did see that on Facebook, but she was before my time, I think. I know there was Dianne, Sheila, Mary, Cynthia and me.
JC. You know your luncheon vouchers; did you ever go to the Central?
MF. No, the only restaurant we ever went to, was the one opposite. Occasionally, they used to take us out in the evening after work
JC. What was that called?
MF. The Wah Yuen
JC. We heard that right at the top opposite the old big Methodist church now called The Black-E, there used to be the Central Café that a lot of people went to.
MF. No, not that one. Our luncheon vouchers we used to just use at lunch time or save them up until it was worth having a proper meal with them. I think it was five shillings a day or something like that.
The only restaurant they used to take us to and who would deliver siu mai and bits and pieces was the one immediately opposite.
When we were in Liverpool a few years ago we went to the office. We were looking for a Chinese restaurant and I hadn’t realised that it was my old office.
JC. The New Capital Restaurant
MF. Yes, we went in, and I got chatting to the guy and he was quite interested. I said, ‘I used to work here’ and he was saying ‘What was this room? What was that room?
But it has changed so much, so much, I wouldn’t have probably recognised even without the plaque on the outside. I would have recognised the building because of the green at the side of it.
JC. Yes, the position of the building
MF. It is interesting anyway
MKC. We put the plaque up because we like to put blue plaques up with little stories on
MF. Yes, exactly. My brother and sister went to Liverpool last year and they wandered up to find the plaque as well. We stayed in Liverpool with the grandchildren, gosh, about three years ago now. We were staying just behind the bombed out church in an air b&b and we went along, and I showed them my old office, and we showed them the plaque as well.
MKC. That is really nice!
MF. We don’t get back that often as our family is spread all over the place and there is nobody left up there apart from a cousin in Southport. There are lots of other places to visit but we did love it when we came back last time.
MKC. It is exceptionally windy here today; we have just been for a walk by the river!
MF. Thanks’ so much, it’s been lovely chatting
Bye now.
MKC, JC. Bye now.
© Moira Kenny-Campbell, John Campbell 2025 Thesoundagents@gmx.co.uk
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