'Queen of Lark Lane' dies on the street she loved

A woman known as "the Queen of Lark Lane" died weeks after celebrating her 92nd birthday.

Mo Hughes will be remembered for her red lipstick, huge smile and for propping up the bar at one of Lark Lane's many pubs and bars. The 92-year-old died on April 18, just weeks after she turned 92 on April 2nd.

Mo was a huge character on "the lane" which she visited every day, and was well known by people living and working in the area. She was born in a house on Bickerton Street, just off Lark Lane in Aigburth, in 1932 where she lived with her family including two brothers and two sisters.

She was evacuated during the war but after returning home, she got a job with Plessey Telecommunications and worked there until she retired. Mo also worked part-time at the Masonic pub, now known as the Lodge.

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Family friend Kathy Wilkinson, 68, told the ECHO: "She was born on Lark Lane and she died on Lark Lane. She was on Lark Lane every single day of her life that I know of.

"It was a small, tight knit community back then. Everybody knew everybody else.

"There was a saying - 'you could be born, grow up and live your life on Lark Lane and not have to go out of it' because there was every shop, a doctor, a funeral director - there was everything you would ever need.

"There was only the Masonic and the Albert when she first lived there, then Keith's opened and Lark Lane took off when the police station closed really. She used to go and get her breakfast somewhere on the lane. She was always in the Sunshine Café.

"She'd have a drink in every bar. Everybody knew her and everybody looked after her. She always had a smile on her face."

Kathy, who was the landlady of the Albert in the 1990s, said: "On New Year's Eve we'd be running down Lark Lane after midnight to go to my mum's. Mo and her friend Edna would be walking up to the Albert to wish us a happy New Year - they used to call me and my sister their 'good luck charms.'

"We'd be bringing them luck for the New Year because we were the first people they bumped into."

Mo lived in her home at 29 Bickerton Street until it was compulsory purchased by Liverpool Council as part of plans for a new housing estate. She moved to a house on St Michael's Close in Aigburth for many years before spending 12 years living with Kathy.

Mo spent the rest of her days living just off Lark Lane in Pelham Grove Care Home, where Kathy said staff "treated her like one of their own from day one."

Mo was often referred to as "little Mo" or the "Queen of Lark Lane" - a nickname which she gained on her 80th birthday. Kathy said: "A friend of ours made up this picture of Mo as the Queen, so she became the Queen of Lark Lane.

"She always had a red lipstick in her pocket. She would sit wherever she was and put her lipstick back on.

"She was tiny in stature little Mo and she just loved life. She loved everybody and everybody loved her."

Mo's funeral will be held at St Michael's in the Hamlet Church on May 15 which anyone is welcome to attend. The service will be followed by a party at the Albert, as per Mo's wishes.

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