The jewellery shop is currently one of the oldest businesses on the city centre street
Danny Gutmann
04:00, 28 Jan 2026
FA Welch has been open on Bold Street since 1996(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Now approaching their 30th year on Bold Street, independent jewellers FA Welch have seen some of their neighbours close for good in recent times. But its owners have said that they have embraced the “new dynamic” that has been brought about by new restaurants and coffee shops that have opened on the street.
In recent months some of Bold Street’s oldest institutions including Ellis Brigham and Maggie May’s have shut their doors for good, but almost 30 years since they opened, FA Welch’s current owner Stewart Watts looked back to when the shop first opened on May 6, 1996. He told the ECHO: “When we came to Bold Street in 1996, it was down on its knees and we helped start the regeneration with a few other people that were here.”
He added: “Everything moves around in the city, areas chop and change. It’s changed in recent years to eateries, because you used to have some fine shops on Bold Street, there was a furriers [George R. Cripps], a clothes hide shop, Waring & Gillow.”
Fast forward 30 years and the number of independent shops along the street has been in significant decline with new restaurants and coffee shops now filling most premises. However, despite the huge changes to the street in recent years, June says that it is something that they have embraced. She said: “Yes we are surrounded by restaurants and cafes, but it’s brought about a new dynamic into the street, it brings a lot of young people into the street, who maybe didn’t necessarily come beforehand. The dynamics are changing, but we just have to move along with the times.”
The jewellery shop is ran by Stuart and June Watts(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
In fact, June says that while they still have their core clientele who have been coming to the shop for years, the emergence of trendy new eating spots on the street has helped a new audience find them. She added: “We embrace everybody that comes in, but the younger generation are now our key customers. They don’t have the same money that the older generation do, but they still bring in repairs and they’re beginning to know who we are now. These were kids who didn’t know about us many years ago and now they’re all coming in, so there is a new generation that is coming in.”
Unlike many other businesses, FA Welch has never been tempted to move to an online retail model, instead, June says that they rely on more traditional methods of promoting their products. She said: “I think word of mouth is important, for every good job that you do, there’s always somebody else that will mention it to somebody and then they’ll bring a friend in. We get it all the time where somebody will come in who we have never met before and they’ll say ‘this is my friend, she told me to come and see you’.”
Meanwhile another thing that has seen the shop remain so committed to what they are doing is the cross-generational support they have had from families. She added: “A lot of it is through word of mouth, through the families, through the mums, dads and aunties who’ll say ‘go and see FA Welch, June and Stewart will go and help you out’. We get a lot of people coming in because of that. An awful lot of our customers are generations of families that have come into the shop.”
Gold chains on sale at FA Welch(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Having originally opened in the early 1900s on Hunt Street before moving to Duke Street decades later, the jewellers has gained a reputation for making one-of-a-kind gold and silver products. One of their most well-loved creations is the Beatles pendant, which has been reproduced time and again for customers down the years. Stewart said: “We made this Beatles charm in the 1960s, it’s got all of the characteristics of each of the Beatles. We were actually producing that in the 1960s, but Epstein came along and said that we weren’t allowed to produce it and that we needed a patent for it.”
Possibly their most popular piece of jewellery are the Liverbird pendants. He said: “We’ve been renowned in Liverpool for making the Liverbird and they have flown all over the world. A lot of people have copied it in the past, but I’ve still got a warrant in the back from 1955, which was given to us by the council, because they had to have a vote on whether we were the right company to actually make it.”
They have made one-of-a-kind pendants(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
He added: “There’s an awful lot of manufacturing companies who have used the Liverbirds and produce them, but they haven’t got the originals. I’ve still got the original mould and mast.”
Having been a director for years previous, Stewart Watts has been the sole owner of the shop since 1999, running it alongside his wife June, 62, and a small team of workers. Reflecting on why they have remained open for so long, June said that it is their commitment to operating the same way that they have always done. She said: “People like to come to us because a lot of what we sell is made within our own workshop, a lot of other jewellers have to send their jewellery away and it can take six to eight weeks.”
She added: “We do everything here on site and that’s one reason why people like to come back, they feel safe, they like to know if we’re doing an evaluation, they like to know that the article [jewellery] is staying here with us and they can collect it the same day. That’s kept a lot of our traditional customers coming back to us, and they know that it’s a family business.”