Hi Sue !!
Mmmmm the smell !!
- it was too posh a shop for us to shop there - but it was a great meeting place - we always met outside Coopers - much better than Lewis's !! .... stand over the grates in the winter time .......... !
I found this - not the answer to your question - but thought it might be something of interest !!
May Blitz During May and the first two weeks of June, bombing took place practically every night - about half the dead and injured due to bombing in the entire war occurred during this period. This is commonly reported as being some sort of final action before the invasion of the USSR. The first week of May seems to have been the really bad time. Altogether 79 raids took place. 11.000 houses were destroyed.
Thursday May 1. Low Hill and Cazeneau Street hit badly but it appears the bad weather hindered the Luftwaffe's plans
Friday May 2. Four / five hours of bombing
Saturday May 3. Bombing from 22.30 until 0500. Lewis's and Blacklers department stores destroyed. The music section of the William Brown Library was totally wiped out, along with an estimated 150,000 volumes throughout the entire City Library. The fire in the Library spread to the neighboring Art Gallery and Museum. The Central Post Office in Victoria Street was put out of action and all the records held by the Tax Offices in the India Buildings were destroyed by fire. The major area of devastation was to south of Lord Street - this area seems never to have recovered and become a 'part' of the city again (talking subjectively). In Huskisson Dock, incendiaries set fire to an ammunition ship, the S.S. Malakand, which blew up the entire dock and ripped a section out of the Overhead Railway. Despite this, only four people seem to have been killed by it - two crew who were trying to scuttle the ship and, tragically, a newly-married couple whose car was hit by debris. A stray bomb caught a munitions train parked seemingly out of the way in Clubmoor, in the Forfar Road area. Despite the tragedy of this incident there appears to have been a slightly comic outcome - when the emergency crews realized they couldn't do much about the ammunition trucks, they went about saving a large cargo of Spam and corned beef. Mill Road Infirmary was hit, demolishing several of its buildings.
Sunday May 4. Bombing started at midnight and lasted until 04.30
Monday May 5. Bombing again started about midnight. Bold Street/Berry Street area was particularly hard hit. The bombed-out remains of St. Luke's church remains to this day as a memorial. A high-explosive bomb appears to have fallen through the roof of the Anglican Cathedral but was deflected back by a beam. The resulting explosion caused severe damage to the windows.
Tuesday May 6. Bombing again from midnight.
Extensive damage, including Cooper's shop in Church StreetWednesday May 7. Considered to be the worst night after Saturday May 3.. For Bootle, this was their worst night.
Raids continued but not with the same intensity.
Annie