patron saint of sailors and a protector from storms.
Either way, history resonates through a name which esteemed
sports author Simon Inglis calls “a powerful asset in terms of
heritage and international renown.”
This season they’ve come from all over the world to see the
fab Trent Alexander-Arnold mural on the corner with Sybil Road.
Painted by Akse, the French graiti artist behind the Klopp mural
in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, and commissioned by the Anield
Wrap podcast team, it’s made the 20-year-old full-back “incredibly
proud” and will be used to support Fans Supporting Foodbanks.
Across the road three pairs of stuccoed villas, numbers 35-45,
provide a handsome backdrop. They date from 1860 and their irst
residents included a timber merchant, a tobacco manufacturer and
the manager of the Liverpool & London Insurance Company.
Next it’s Epstein House, birthplace of Beatles manager Brian and
fresh from a 2015 appearance on Alex Polizzi’s Channel 5 show
The Hotel Inspector. Then at no21, Hotel TIA, where Trent spent
his Christmas Day last year providing festive dinners for 60 families
from underprivileged backgrounds and giving presents to their
children.
Kamilla Herstad is one of the four-strong management team
which opened the hotel (TIA stands for ‘This Is Anield’) six weeks
before Liverpool’s Champions League inal against Real Madrid in- They’ve hardly caught their breath since.
“We’ve had the bar extended in the beer-garden and there’ll
be astro-turf for kids to play,” she says from her oice inside the
former vicarage, which has eight guest-rooms over three loors
plus a basement-bar and much-loved ‘shule-board’ games-
alcove.
A typical match weekend can consist of a Friday-night quiz
(George ‘Voice of Anield’ Sephton has been among the hosts),
pre-match singalong with Jamie Webster and Sunday Q&A
sessions with an LFC legend.
“Bruce Grobbelaar often calls in for a pint before the game. We
call him ‘The Godfather’. We’ve had John Barnes, Robbie Fowler,
John Aldridge, Ian St John, Alan Kennedy and Phil Thompson.”
Outside, Anield Road has been more or less straight for its irst
half-mile northwest from the Flat Iron. Now it dog-legs to the left
and no5, Rosemeath Cottage, incongruously appears: a little lodge
in dark sandstone hard against the roadside.
Liverpool, says the lickering-lightbulb brigade, has a lair for
time-lapse phenomena and it’s as if we’re back in the 1800s,
ANFIELD ROAD