Mossley Hill was made famous in 1967 thanks to the Beatles' song "Penny Lane", written about a Mossley Hill street of the same name. The street runs between Allerton Road and Greenbank Road and is on the routes of various tour buses, with thousands of tourists visiting annually. In July 2006, the city council discussed renaming certain streets because their names were linked to Liverpool's role in the slave trade, with Penny Lane possibly being named after 18th-century slave trader James Penny. On 10 July 2006, officials said they would modify the proposal to exclude Penny Lane as it was generally accepted that most people associate the street with the Beatles rather than the slave trade. During the 2020 George Floyd protests in the UK, which formed part of the international Black Lives Matter movement, Penny Lane's street signs were defaced due to the name's alleged association with the slave trade. Unlike similar incidents in the UK during the protests, the action was widely condemned and quickly reversed, primarily due to the aforementioned lack of evidence linking the street's name to the slave trade.
Notable residents
Kim Cattrall, actress, born in Mossley Hill and raised there for three months
J. Bruce Ismay, director of the White Star Line and Titanic survivor
Freddie Mercury, singer, lived in the flat above the Dovedale Towers pub for a short period in 1969; he was still known as Farrokh Bulsara at the time and was in local band Ibex
Derek Nimmo, actor, sang in the local parish church choir
The suburb is home to Dovedale Primary School. This was the school of notable Liverpudlians George Harrison, John Lennon, Peter Sissons, Jimmy Tarbuck and John Power. Calderstones School is located on nearby Harthill Road. In turn, this is located near the city's police horse training centre, just north of Mossley Hill's main residential area. Liverpool College is also located within the area, and Liverpool's only grammar school the Liverpool Blue Coat School is also nearby. The area is also home to the Greenbank Halls of Residence and now closed Carnatic Halls of Residence student accommodation complexes. The Greenbank Village complex consists of redeveloped Halls including Derby and Rathbone Hall and Roscoe and Gladstone Hall: commonly known as D&R and R&G. The former Carnatic Halls site at Mossley Hill on Elmswood Road was the largest of the University of Liverpool's accommodation complexes: Morton House, Lady Mountford House, Lichen Grove, McNair Hall, Salisbury Hall and Rankin Hall. Dale Hall was demolished in 2019 and now is redeveloped as a housing complex.
Parks
Mossley Hill is home to Greenbank Park, one of the most popular parks in Liverpool. Two more of the city's most popular parks, Sefton Park and Calderstones Park, are also nearby.
Spire Hospital Liverpool on Greenbank Road is Liverpool's first private hospital. The hospital faces Greenbank Park.
Sport
Mossley Hill Athletic Club are a voluntary multi sports club. They offer facilities for archery, crown green bowling, cricket, football, rugby, hockey, running and tennis. The district has a women's football team, Mossley Hill L.F.C., who play in the Northern Combination Women's Football League.
Retail and nightlife
Penny Lane Wine Bar is a pub on Penny Lane. The area of Rose Lane and Allerton Road contains a large number of wine bars, bistros, and restaurants. These two streets are the area's principal centres for retail, hosting numerous shops and offices. The Dovedale Towers pub stands on the corner of Dovedale Road and Penny Lane. It was closed for business in 2010 and reopened in 2012.
Architecture
The area is mostly residential with a few local businesses scattered around the district. Housing is mainly semi-detached, with occasional detached and numerous terraced streets. The area around Sefton Park has many large Victorian villas.
Places of worship
Most of the churches in Mossley Hill are members of "Churches Together in Mossley Hill", a covenanted group of churches. This group was known as "The Nine Churches of Mossley Hill" until it reformed with one new member under the new membership covenant in 1994. The original nine member churches comprised three Anglican parishes: St Matthew and St James, St Barnabas, and All Hallows, Allerton; two Roman Catholic parishes: Our Lady of the Annunciation, Bishop Eton and St Anthony of Padua and four Free Churches: Dovedale Baptist Church, Allerton United Reformed, Elm Hall Drive Methodist and Bethel Presbyterian Church in Wales. The tenth church was Dove Community Church, which ceased to exist in 2006 and at the same time was replaced in membership of Churches Together by Wavertree Christian Fellowship. There is at least one more church in Mossley Hill not in membership of Churches Together: Ramilies Road Chapel. There is also a mosque in the area, the Islamic Institute on Cramond Avenue.
