The building has a fascinating history that dates back more than a century
Row of shops on Smithdown Road, near Greenbank Road(Image: Photos by Andrew Teebay)
A red terraced building situated within a row of shops on a popular Liverpool street became an institution in the city – but its early life was very different. For decades, customers have headed to 240 Smithdown Road to enjoy sweet treats.
For almost 50 years, the building was home to the legendary Dafna’s Cheesecake Factory – but new business Coco Baroque have kept in with this tradition as a bakery and cholatiers. But at the turn of the 20th century, it was a local family who lived in the building, when it operated as a dairy.
Known as local cowkeepers or dairymen, in the 1800s, generations of farmers from the Pennine Dales sought a new life in our region and went on to sell milk to a rapidly expanding city population. Joan Fenney, nee Harper, age 93, recently told the ECHO how her dad, Edward Harper and mum Doris Harper (nee Stockdale) both came from dairy backgrounds and raised their family on a historic dairy site in Rose Lane, Mossley Hill.
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As part of the Liverpool ECHO’s How It Used To Be series, she shared how in 1935, aged three, she moved to Harper’s Dairy with her parents and siblings Olive and Thomas – and she’s lived there ever since. Others have since shared their memories of Liverpool’s lost dairies and cowkeepers.
But for this week’s edition of the series, we take a look back at the history of 240 Smithdown Road – once home to the Stockdale’s – and how it became a local institution. Joan told the ECHO: “They were just building that property just before 1900.
Doris Stockdale (holding the baby) when she lived in the Smithdown Dairy(Image: Photo courtesy of Joan Harper)
“It was 1897 – I think it’s got that on the wall. My mother’s family went into it brand new. They’d been in Bootle until then.
“They moved into Smithdown Road when mother was just six weeks old. They stayed there and he had the shippen built at the back because they were just shops.
“My grandfather had that built. Mother was 21 when her parents retired and they went back up to Cumbria which was Yorkshire then. My mother delivered milk herself all that period until they retired.”
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Joan said her grandparents Margaret and Thomas had the diary for about 20 years, but her mother Doris often shared memories of growing up in and around the Smithdown dairy. Joan said: “My mother was a great talker.
“She also delivered milk around Ullet Road, the bigger houses. She did tell me one incident where during World War I, she was about 16 and when the war was on, mother was delivering milk around another road area and someone came and measured her horse because they took the horses out of the shafts if they wanted the horse.
“That was if they thought it was right for the army, for the war. They just took your horse and left you with your milk float and your milk.
Joan Fenney, nee Harper, on her mum Doris’ knee, next to dad Edward and siblings Thomas and Olive(Image: Photo courtesy of Joan Harper)
“They came and measured a horse and luckily it wasn’t big enough, so she was all right.” Now over a century on, the old Stockdale Dairy has been home to a number of other businesses – but for decades it was home to the popular Dafna’s Cheesecake Factory.
Great-grandmother Joan said: “The actual shop, the dairy, was left exactly the way it was in my mother’s day. But I think they decorated it when the new people moved in.
Anne Lev making cakes at home in 1975(Image: Submitted)
“I haven’t been to have a look recently, but I think the tiles will still be there. Dafna’s had the original tiles that my grandfather would have put up.”
Dafna’s Cheese Cake Factory was a firm fixture in Liverpool for decades, amassing a devoted customer base keen to get their hands on its extensive range of sweet treats, cakes and desserts.
It was first opened in the autumn of 1977, by Anne Lev. Back in October 2019, Anne retired behind the counter. But her legacy continued with the shop being taken over by manager Helen Bond.
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In January of last year, the popular bakery announced on Instagram it would not be reopening after closing their doors back in September 2022 for renovations. The owners said the decision “has not been made lightly” and came with the blessing of the previous owner.
But this didn’t mark the final chapter in the building’s long history. In May 2024, artisan bakery and chocolatiers Coco Baroque opened in the historic building.
Stephen Ellis, 34, originally from Norris Green, spent many years working for a Liverpool chocolate company with his friend Steve Renshaw. By 2012, Coco Baroque was formed and for many years, they showcased their batches of chocolate brownies and buttons to Liverpool’s various farmers markets.
Anne Lev, from Dafna’s on Smithdown Road(Image: Photo by James Maloney)
To pay homage to the history of Dafna’s on Smithdown Road, Coco Baroque also serve a selection of its own Basque cheesecakes, alongside its other cakes and chocolates. Stephen told ECHO that the building is full of character and that he found out about its early days as a dairy from a local resident via email.
Stephen said: “It was Dafna’s for 45 years before we moved in. I had a sort of a vague idea that it used to be a dairy or butchers or something like that before us – but it was only when I got sent a photo on email that I got a sort of clearer idea of just how long the history of the building is.
“I think the only thing that’s still there now is some of the tiles that are on the wall our shop. As far as we’re aware, they’re the original tiles that were there from when it was a dairy and then a butchers.
Stephen Ellis and Steve Renshaw at Coco Baroque, Smithdown Road(Image: Liverpool ECHO)
“There’s probably not a lot of people left around that remember it being a butcher’s or a dairy, but we get lots of people every week that remember it as Dafna’s. That is another great thing about having the shop here is that we get to hear stories from people that have been coming to Dafna’s from when they were kids.”
Stephen said over a year on from opening, the team are happy to add to the building’s “legacy”. He said: “You could move into a new building and it doesn’t really have a history, doesn’t have a character to it – whereas this does. It’s.
“It’s got so much history attached to it already. When we were moving in, we were very conscious of the legacy that the building has and it’s fantastic to have the opportunity to add to that legacy.”
Stephen Ellis and Steve Renshaw inside Coco Baroque (Image: Liverpool ECHO)
When it comes to local dairies and cowkeepers, refrigeration and pasteurisation later became common place, and other factors such as shelf life for milk being extended and the Milk Marketing Board coming into existence saw cowkeepers role as both producers and retailer decrease. But decades on parts of Liverpool’s cowkeepers, dairymen and dairies history are still around us.
This is the case for Joan Harper, who has lived in her family’s dairy for 90 years. In the early days, the Harper’s delivered milk to generations of customers using a horse and cart.
Joan Fenney who still lives in her family’s old dairy Harper’s Dairy, Mossley Hill(Image: Photo by Colin Lane)
In 1972, Joan and her husband Jim took over Harper’s Dairy and continued to live there with their children, Rob and Sarah. It’s now been 25 years since it operated as a dairy, but Joan couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
Joan recently gave the ECHO a tour of the old dairy, showing us where the 32 cows and a bull were held, as well as the meal house and the stable which held their horses. A wall was also removed in the site to enable vehicles to be moved inside when that was introduced for deliveries.
Inside her home, Joan has empty milk bottles with different Harper’s Dairy designs proudly on display. Outside, the old signage can still be seen on Rose Brae.