WHERE: Toxteth Park Cemetery, 215 Smithdown Road L15 2HF (followed by Sips and Stories Coffee Shop, 266a Smithdown Rd L15 5AH
Led by historical fiction author JP Maxwell, the tour delves into the power of epitaphs, place, and character — uncovering how memory lingers in landscapes, and how Liverpool’s dead still speak.
Featured on the tour is the grave of James Dunwoody Bulloch, the Confederate naval agent who coordinated secret shipbuilding operations from Liverpool during the American Civil War — a figure central to Maxwell’s forthcoming novel, The Shenandoah. Also buried here is his nephew, Irvine Bulloch, officer aboard the infamous raider CSS Alabama and another key character in the book.
Maxwell is the author of Water Street and The Americans of Abercromby Square, both rich with the hidden histories of Victorian Liverpool. His work brings historical figures vividly to life, revealing the transatlantic ties of war, espionage, and resistance that shaped the city.
Other notable graves include:
- Sir John Bent, brewer and Lord Mayor of Liverpool (1850–51), beneath a striking Gothic memorial
- John Hulley, early Olympic pioneer and co-founder of the National Olympian Association
- Andrew Hunt, Victorian artist and landscape painter
- Sir John Harmood-Banner, industrialist, MP, and civic leader
- War graves, pauper plots, Titanic connections, and unsung lives etched in fading stone
This event blends storytelling, social history, and urban archaeology.
Attendees are invited to consider the relationship between death and place — how burial sites shape memory, and how stories shift as we walk among the dead.
Bring weather-appropriate clothing, sturdy footwear, and a curious mind. Copies of JP Maxwell’s novels will be available to discuss after the walk at Sips and Stories café on Smithdown Road (15 mins walk, 5 mins bus/drive).
Toxteth Park Cemetery is not just a place of mourning — it’s a landscape of narrative. Join us, and walk the line between the past and the present.
This event is supported by RILCH, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool City Coucil. Ticket profits will be donated to Smithdown in Bloom.
For all enquiries about this event please contact the Smithdown Litfest, and not the venue directly.
