youve got me going again annie................. but 29 Wolverton Street looms almost as large in murderous lore and legend. This bijou, terraced house in Anfield is the cat's pyjamas for Britain's murder-fanciers. Seventy years ago, it was the setting for the most baffling whodunnit in the annals of crime. Close the door, light the light. Forget Kafka and Poe. Welcome to the Wallace case.
"We'd been here a couple of months before that taxi-driver told us," says Kevin Firth, 27. "The agent never told us, the people we bought it off never told us, and the old couple next door were horrified that we didn't know."
"Had I known this house had been the scene of a murder, I'd never have moved in," says Kevin's partner, Julie Sames, 25. Kevin himself is a tad more pragmatic. "Wish I had known," he smiles. "I'd have asked for a bit more off the price."
The price was £34,950. That was four and a half years ago. Kevin and Julie were delivering election leaflets along Wolverton Street and liked the feel of this hush-filled cul-de-sac. Unlike many other parts of inner Liverpool, this is not poor quality Victorian property. The houses, built in 1912, are of good-grade red-glazed brick, and come with bathroom, hot and cold running water and inside lavatory. The ceilings are high and the rooms feel airy.
There was more than one house for sale, but Kevin and Julie settled on number 29 because the occupiers had fitted it out to their taste. In any case, it was towards the blind end of the street, and quieter.
The house is snug, but not cramped, its geography almost unchanged since Wallace's day. A bigger bathroom has taken a chunk out of the third back bedroom that Wallace used as an amateur laboratory. Modern frames have replaced the original sash windows in the front bays. Julia's post-Edwardian clutter, etched in the flashlight of the police photographer, has made way for TV and stereo equipment in the pastel-painted front room.
"You have to accept that living here means a certain amount of hassle," Julie explains. What's certain is that the story won't go away. "I'd feel obliged to tell a prospective buyer," Kevin says, "and in any case, like us, they'd find out soon enough anyway."
Prices in this part of Anfield have faltered in recent years. Houses in Wolverton Street with central heating and double glazing are now marketed at an average of £32,950. "It's not the best of markets at the moment," says Alex Dixon, of Anfield agents Sutton Kersh, "but if this particular house came up, the murder tale might create that extra little bit of interest."
Raymond Chandler reckoned the case would "always be unbeatable". Seventy years on, crime buffs are still drawn to this quiet Liverpool backwater, to gaze at the Wallace house and to wonder at its secret.