IT'S a "hidden enclave", frequented by university lecturers and students in the know, and plenty of local people rely on it too. A small parade of shops and cafes, home to the popular Eureka Greek restaurant and Kimos too.
But the days of Myrtle Parade seem numbered. Plans have been submitted to demolish the mainly single storey precinct, to be replaced by two buildings of up to eight storeys tall.
A new ground floor area, spanning around 12,500 sq ft, would accommodate shops and eating places. Above there will be 43 clusters of student accommodation providing 303 bed spaces.
The application was submitted this week to Liverpool City Council’s planning department, by a Mr D Kelly who is seeking full consent. That means it is an active scheme, rather than a hoped-for development.
Slightly off the beaten track Myrtle Parade, for some decades, has provided a little escape from the University of Liverpool’s ever expanding campus on the opposite side of the road.
Many academics use it as a place where they can catch their breath away from the maddening crowds of students.
One of the longest established businesses is the corner Chinese takeaway, owned by the same family for nearly 30 years.
“We have been given some papers about the new scheme but we have no idea when it will happened,” a lady who described herself as the owner, told Liverpool Confidential.
Will she return if and when the new place is built?
“I don’t know, I don’t think so. We have been here for many years. The rents for the new shops would probably be much higher than what we pay now,” she said.
In the past few years the face of Myrtle Street has changed dramatically, with multi-level student flats changing the landscape and plenty of watering holes, such as the Baa Bar, catering for students.
It also ponders the question for local decision makers – what will become of the traditional student bedsit lands? For decades, most of them have rented houses or rooms along places like Smithdown and Croxteth Roads, keeping alive communities that may otherwise disappear.
Student developments on the rise futher down Myrtle Street
What about the student residential campuses in Greenbank and Mossley Hill? There are always strong rumours about places with high land values, such as Carnatic Halls of Residences, being flogged by the university. Those sites would earn a fortune for the university for up-market housing redevelopments.
Nearly all the bigger planning applications for city centre schemes in recent years have involved student living accommodation.
Just this week Downing, the Liverpool property company, announced at the MIPIM property event at Cannes of their plans to build hundreds of student flats in Islington.
Downing is currently converting the old Scandinavian Hotel in Chinatown into student accommodation, and the site of the old Odeon in London Road is set for another undergraduate invasion.
Meanwhile Myrtle Parade, now a hub for entrepreneurial Chinese businesses, seems to be the latest to make way for the never ending thirst for student living space.
