Chris Cannon

GUIDED TOURS

Lifestyle chats to Chris Cannon of Hidden Liverpool

Tell us about Hidden Liverpool?

Hidden Liverpool is my vehicle to give guided tours and educate people on the lesser-known aspects of the city’s history. As well as my own tours and educational talks, I also guide on the Liverpool City Explorer open-top busses and have worked on a contract basis for Liverpool City Council as a tour guide for St George’s Hall, which, at times, required me to dress up as a Georgian Footman. Last month, I worked with Liverpool ONE to promote their new Heritage Trail – for that I was dressed as an 18th Century privateer! I try to make my tours a little different than most by mixing up ‘old’ history with more contemporary stuff and little quirks of architecture or the like. Also, if I’m feeling cocky, I’ve been known to say to people “If you don’t learn something that you didn’t know already, I’ll give you your money back!”. I’ve never had to give a refund yet! When did you set it up? I officially launched Hidden Liverpool in 2016, but it had been in planning for some time.

What do you offer? I give guided walking talks around the city as well as offering local history talks to schools and local groups.

What do you love about the city?

Wow. That is a tough one to narrow down. There’s lots of things… When I was younger, most of my weekends were spent clubbing in the city, it was probably the best night-life in the Northwest, if not the country at the time. Some would say it still is, I’m sure. Now that I’m ‘more mature(!)’ I have come to appreciate the subtleties of the place that you tend to miss when you’re younger. The friendliness of strangers and the willingness of people to help others is like no other place that I have been to. Also, the fact that you can walk into a pub by yourself and end up chatting to a random person without an issue. That’s something that I miss when I’m elsewhere. I’ve met so many interesting people in pubs around the city, it’s astonishing. And how can I not mention what the tourists all say. When you speak to people who have never been here before, they are always amazed by the incredible buildings we have. That’s something that every now and again even I take for granted because, as far as I’m concerned, they’ve always been there.

How long have you studied the

city? I’ve had an interest in history of Liverpool ever since I was a kid, I think my mum instilled a love of history in me, but I really started getting into the nitty-gritty of things around 2007.

After my dad passed away, I realised that I knew next to nothing about his side of the family, so I signed up to Ancestry to start researching his family tree. I found out that the Cannons arrived in Liverpool around the 1880s and lived in the old court housing around Vauxhall and Everton. That piqued my interest to find out more, so I started looking seriously into the socio-economic history of the area and found out about the deep hatred between the Irish Catholics and Protestants because one of my ancestors was tried for the murder of a Catholic man (he narrowly escaped being hanged due to a technicality). That trial took place in St George’s Hall and from that, I decided to learn about the history of the building. It grew from that really. It helps that I am a sponge for information and have a knack for remembering names and dates.

What are the most popular tours?

My Heritage Corridor Tour seems to be the most popular. It’s a three hour walk from St George’s Plateau to the Pier Head, but even though I have a fixed route and spiel, I’ll change it on the fly from time-to-time if somebody mentions something that they are particularly interested in. For example, I had a group recently with a lad doing his A-Levels. One of the things he was studying was the city’s direct and indirect links to slavery. I concentrated on that aspect of things for him. Another example which occurred only a couple of weeks ago was when I took an American family around. They were fascinated by Liverpool’s links with America, especially the connections around the Confederates and the American Civil War. I made it more interesting for them by fleshing out some of the stories that I tell of Liverpool in those times.

Pretty much every tour I do ends up being slightly different because I always try to find out what people are interested in learning and aim it specifically fit them.

Are you always finding new facts?

Oh, yes! Normally when I’m following a line of research, I’ll fall down a rabbit-hole and end up reading about something that has nothing to do with my original investigations. I’ve also found quite a lot of ‘common knowledge’ about parts of the city and its famous sons and daughters that is 100% incorrect. I started collating this info just to keep a note of them, but I must have at least the start of a book now, there’s that many.

I have always said that you should keep an open mind to new information and always admit that what you believed was wrong if it has been proven so. I’ve had many arguments with people who refuse to accept something they have held as a fact all their life was wrong. The most common quote in such circumstances is normally along the lines of “My mother told me that, so why should I believe you” even when I’ve shown them documented evidence from old newspapers and the like. I’ve even had someone threatening to beat me up because I proved something his grandad had told him wasn’t true.

How much does it cost to go on

a tour? It depends on how many people. I charge on a sliding scale from £40 (one or two people) up to a maximum of £200 (for twenty people).

Is there a limit to the number of people who can go on it, and how

long does the tour last? I try to keep the group size at a maximum of twenty people as after that it becomes akin to manoeuvring an oil tanker around town at times but have made exceptions in the past.

Tell us a bit about your

background? Back in the 1980’s I was involved in the computer games revolution that had it’s start in Liverpool. I knew quite a few guys in the industry who knew I had a talent with these new-fangled devices and was asked to write a couple of games for Bug-Byte – they had been asked to do some demos for a new computer, The Colour Genie. I wrote three or four simple games and one of them was selected to be shipped with every new computer sold! To cut a long story short, I eventually ended up working for Software Projects and assisted on the games Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy – I was good friends with the author, Matthew Smith (It was me who introduced him to the guys at BugByte). Fast forward several years and a few different jobs (all in IT), I was working as server support for Royal Insurance. Through department changes, mergers, and outsourcing deals, I went through several roles – Server Support Specialist, Business Technology Consultant; Technical Project Manager, to name but a few. I ended up working for IBM and moved to an International Conference Support role (that was fun – I travelled all around the world!), then took on the role of Capacity Manager for DEFRA, the government department. I was in charge of making sure that their server estate was always at peak performance. Anyway, that all came to an end in 2016 when I was made redundant during an IBM resource alignment process. Luckily, it happened just before my 50th birthday which meant that I could get a small pension from the company. This meant I could afford to follow one my real passions, the history of the City of Liverpool.

Do you have time to go away and visit other places and if so, where

do you like to go? Not at the moment I don’t! It’s been so busy the last month I’ve only had two or three days off and that’s including weekends. I’m making up for the fact that I had zero money coming in during the pandemic lockdowns so making hay whilst the sun shines! Back in the BC years (Before Covid) my wife and I discovered cruise ships. It was something that I honestly believed that I wouldn’t enjoy, but I loved it – we both did. We’ve been on a few cruises now and visited places all over Europe. That’s something that we’ll be doing again in the future.

I’ve been lucky to travel all over the world with my work, so got a love for travel doing that. I’m a bit of a culturevulture, so I’d rather visit an historic site rather than lie on a beach to be honest.

Why is Liverpool different to the

rest of the UK? It has a sense of independence and solidarity that you don’t seem to find elsewhere, the ‘Scouse not English’ phrase springs to mind. At times it seems we have more in common with Wales, Ireland and Scotland than we do with the rest of country – most likely because just about everyone here has roots in those very places. I also love the way injustice is dealt with, not just in cases like Hillsborough but, for example, when a bunch of fascists were chased out of the city. The fact that someone started playing the theme from Benny Hill made that even more special. We also have the ability to laugh at ourselves. Some of the best ‘Scouse jokes’ I’ve ever heard have come Scousers.

But woe betide anyone we haven’t invited into our circle who tries to crack such a joke. Humour is a big part of being a Liverpudlian. We can see humour in even the darkest situations at times.

What’s your favourite spot in

Liverpool? The Pier Head and Albert Dock area. Seeing the way those areas have been improved since the 1980s is quite a thing. Back then, who on earth would want to hang around a busy bus station that was covered in graffiti or around an old disused, silted up dock?

How do you relax in the city?

Pubs. There’s nothing I love more than meeting up with a mate and sorting out the ills of the world over a pint. If there’s a beer garden and it’s sunny, even better!

What’s your favourite time of year?

Spring, without a doubt. Not only can you see nature coming back to life, but it means that tourist season is nearly here and that means I’m going to be earning some money again.