The shop has been a firm favourite in the city for almost a century and that looks set to continute
15:57, 17 Nov 2025Updated 21:47, 17 Nov 2025
Chips from Byrnes in Walton
One of Liverpool’s best-known fish and chip shops has quashed online speculation that it could be closing – but confirmed there are plans for its sale. Byrnes has been feeding happy customers for four generations, ever since Patrick Joseph Byrne opened his fish and chip shop on Stuart Road, Walton in 1932.
The immensely popular chippy, considered by many to be the best in the city and billed on its website as the city’s “favourite”, was run by Barbara and David Dickson and their sons, across the years. Nowadays, the shop is run by great-grandchildren Francis and Mark who have continued their family’s frying tradition.
In 2019, the family opened a second, larger site on Muirhead Avenue East on the border of Norris Green and West Derby. In 2022, the team closed that site due to rising costs – but the Stuart Road branch stayed open.
The ECHO asked Byrnes about an online claim that the Walton location was closing, but a spokesperson said the chippy is “not going anywhere.” He added that while the team does plan to sell the business, this would not result in the shop closing.
Patrick Byrne arrived in Liverpool from Dublin many years before opening the shop in 1932, and signed up to fight in the First World War. He decided to stay and became friendly with some of the Italians who essentially ran the fish and chip shop trade in the city.
David previously told the ECHO: “Grandad managed one or two shops for them and then eventually bought the premises in Stuart Road with his wife, Norah. In 1953, my mum – another Norah – married my dad, Bill Dickson, and they took over the business in 1957.”
Byrnes experiences one of its busiest days of the year on Good Friday when everyone flocks to the chippy for a traditional fish and chips tea. David added: “Friday is known by many people as ‘Fish day’, or ‘Chippy tea day’, and it’s not just Catholics.
Byrnes Traditional Fish & Chip Shop(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
“We are always busy on a Friday, but 10 times busier on Good Friday. One Good Friday, a customer was ordering all these fish meals, and then he said at the end of his order ‘And two sausages, please.’
“I said ‘Sausages? But’s it’s Good Friday’ – and he replied ‘Yes, but the dog’s not Catholic!’ My dad had never opened on Bank Holidays, but we opened on Good Friday for the first time in 1999.”
As for the appeal of Byrnes, David said at the time: “I think, because of the distances some people travel, it has to be the quality of the food.
“We could be the nicest and funniest people in the world, but you wouldn’t keep going back for that! Every day we come through the door, our aim is to make things as good as they possibly can be.”