It has an incredible history
McGuffie’s on Castle Street has a fascinating history(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
Liverpool has grown enormously since the days it had only seven streets – all of which still exist. Before the city that we know and love came into existence, in 1207, King John established a new town of seven streets – “Livpul” – which provided him with a safe harbour and attracted settlers from nearby areas to live in the new borough.
Liverpool’s seven streets were Bank Street (now Water Street), Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street (now High Street), Moor Street (now Tithebarn Street) and Whiteacre Street (now Old Hall Street). Still part of day to day life in the city centre, it’s no surprise that these streets are home to some of Liverpool’s oldest and most fascinating buildings.
If you head to Castle Street in particular, you’ll find one of the city’ centre’s oldest original shop fronts that people walk past every day, the Liverpool ECHO previously reported. Back in 1795, McGuffie & Co opened its doors on Castle Street as a pharmacy under the name of Edwards and Penny, Druggists and Chemists.
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Around 1840, John Rowland McGuffie changed its name to the one it still bears today. Shortly after taking over the pharmacy, Mr McGuffie became a town councillor and was twice elected to serve the St Paul’s Ward – the area we now know as the Business District.
There are no known images of Mr McGuffie still in existence but a description of him is included in an article called “Pen-and-Ink sketches of Liverpool Town Councillors” by Hugh Shimmin from 1866. It reads: “Imagine a portly, commanding figure, nearly six feet high, of rotundity unimaginable, a face like the moon at its full, radiant with fun and humour, who is witty himself and the cause of wit in others, and all combined with warmth of heart and feelings, and you have John McGuffie.”
Relics from the company’s history on Castle Street(Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)
Despite his death in 1860 aged just 52, Mr McGuffie’s name lived on. The original business was based at a number of different premises on Castle Street in its history, such as number 10 and number 44.
In 1997, the ECHO reported: “McGuffie’s opened for business in Liverpool in the year that a disastrous fire swept through the Town Hall at the top end of Castle Street. For years, it helped cure people’s coughs with a patent medicine Castellan Number 10 Cough Mixture.
“The medicine was developed by McGuffie’s at its other shop at 10 Castle Street, and sold abroad. It was on sale in Liverpool until the late 1980s when the Medicines Act and strict controls finally ended its days.
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“The McGuffie family remained owners until the war years when they sold out. But the name has lived on.”
After 200 years in business as a pharmacy, McGuffie and Co closed its doors in the late 1990s. On June 26, 1997, the ECHO reported: “A business started in 1795 has become the latest victim of a city centre disappearing act. McGuffie’s Chemist at 44 Castle Street will close tomorrow – and reopen next week as a branch of Boots.
Features inside McGuffie’s on Castle Street(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“But it means the loss of yet another long-established city business, following the shock announcements of closures by Norman Simmons clothes shop, Stoniers and Rushworth’s Music House.” The article continues: “The shop at 10 Castle Street closed recently and was sold – its ornate name plate now covered by a new sign.
“Pharmacist Graham Roskin, who co-owned the business, said: “It is the end of an era and the end of another old name in the city. People have said it is so sad to see the name going, particularly after the news about other businesses in the city centre.
McGuffie’s historic signage(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“The reasons are complex. but largely it is as a result of changing shopping habits. Many people are now going to supermarkets and retail parks and there is more competition in sales of cosmetics and perfumes.”
Number 10 Castle Street reopened for a short time as a leather goods shop and then a mobile phone store before it became a cocktail bar in 2010 and the name ‘McGuffie & Co” was established once more – after years of the original signage being hidden. Owner Phil Haughton, who took over the cocktail bar in 2014, was keen to continue to celebrate its incredible history on Castle Street and in 2021 told the ECHO how he named a number of cocktails after things that would have been sold in the pharmacy.
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Phil previously said: “What gets me is Mr McGuffie died in 1860 and every person that’s had the building since then has kept the name. I don’t know how many different hands it’s been through in that period but I think that’s really good.
“What I’ve tried to do since I took over in 2014 is to try to recreate it as a snapshot of what it would have been like as a pharmacy in 1910. I’ve got lots of old photos on the walls from the start of that period and earlier.
Sam Hudson, bar manager of McGuffie’s on Castle Street, back in 2021(Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)
“At that time the Anglican Cathedral was being built and the Pier Head was just being built.” During a refurbishment in 2014, old bottles from the pharmacy were found in the cellar and are proudly displayed in the window.
Phil said: “We are proud to be part of a true piece of Liverpool history and hope that the current potions, tinctures and tonics that we serve up to our customers today – many of which bear names that relate to those sold in the company’s past – would meet with the approval of Mr McGuffie himself.”