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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Lee Grimsditch

Liverpool's first internet cafe opened before Google or Facebook even existed

For younger generations it's hard to contemplate what the internet looked like before they were born.

These days we're used to lightning fast broadband speeds and Wi-Fi connections as a normal part of everyday life. But it was back at the start of the 1990s that the internet was only just becoming available to people in Liverpool, mostly through universities.

The thought that it would be commonplace to access the internet in our own homes - never mind via a smart phone in our pockets would have seemed an outlandish fantasy. In the mid-'90s, if you were lucky enough to have internet at home, there was no broadband and connecting was via a desperately slow dial up service through a phone line.

READ MORE: Customers as the Cafe Internet on North John Street. June 19, 1995

READ MORE: Lost Liverpool department store was a 'Christmassy Aladdin's Cave' that became John Lewis overnight

Despite the technology being in its infancy, one entrepreneur from Huyton chose Liverpool city centre to open Merseyside's first cyber cafe. Cafe Internet opened on North John Street in 1995 when the web was more a buzzword than a technology people used.

Self-employed television cameraman, Len Gowing, from Huyton had the grand vision of people sipping cappuccinos while being able to surf the World Wide Web at their leisure. Len, 30, told the Liverpool Echo: "I have a computer at home and have been connected to the internet for a year.

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"It's absolutely fascinating. You can go anywhere in the world and find out anything from facts about pop star Prince to the day's schedule of the President of the United States. It's amazing."

To put things in perspective, in 1995, there was no search engine Google. The closest thing was Yahoo and that had only gone online a year earlier in its most basic form.

Only a year earlier, the now fourth richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, had the bright idea to start Amazon.com to sell books online from has garage. And Google was still three years away only arriving on the scene in 1998, while Facebook wasn't a thing until 2004.

The internet cafe entrepreneur added: "I have always had an interest in computers. I know they have these sort of cyber cafes in San Francisco and there is one in London and I thought it would be ideal to have one in Liverpool."

Trevor Owens and Len Gowing, partners in the new cyber cafe, the north west's first dedicated Cyber Cafe. Picture taken 2nd May 1995 (Mirrorpix)

Costing £75,000 to start up, the cafe employed 10 people with 10 computer terminals from where the internet could be accessed for £5 an hour. However, Len said customers who just wanted to come in for a drink or snack would also be welcome.

Does this story awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.

Despite what many would see as a steep cost today, charging £5 an hour to use the internet, the idea seemed to have success written all over it. At the cafe's launch party, local photographer and partner in Cafe Internet, Trevor Owens, said: "There is an internet cafe in London and there are big queues around the block.

The new internet cafe in North John Street, Liverpool, Merseyside. 18th September 1995 (Mirrorpix)

"We are ideally placed here. Indeed, it's great for, say, Beatles fans because Mathew Street is over the road and they can come in here and check out the internet Beatles information.

"Tourists or visitors to the area can find out any information they need to know about Liverpool." Although the experience seemed to bemuse radio presenter Tony Snell, who wrote of his experience of visiting the cafe in the Liverpool Echo a few months after it opened.

Frank Waring, internet cafe chef, at the Cafe Internet in north John Street. During the Mathew Street Festival and Beatle Convention, many Beatle fans were tapping into the computers at the cafe searching for Beatle information. Picture taken 9th September 1995 (Mirrorpix)

He described a bank of computer screens and keyboards full of "busy little people tap, tap, tapping away." Adding: "I got my mug of tea and wandered over to one fella who was busy pulling up information about the history of Liverpool docklands for his college course. Next to him were three young lads printing off a picture of Batman."

It's not known exactly what year the cafe closed. However, it's fair to say it would have introduced many people in the city to the internet for the first time in their lives.

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