Five Decades in Anfield: The Blundells of Skerries Road 2026

Key Points

• Alan and Peggy Blundell have been residing on Skerries Road in Anfield for over 50 years.
• The couple, who is now in their 80s, met while they were still teenagers at the Kop area in the late 50s and got married to settle down in that very same place.
• They have three sons; Alan, Ian and Colin and continue being part of an active and strong community.
• On December 1978, Liverpool FC’s player Alan Kennedy came to their door knocking to get some tea and directions to purchase a bracelet for his girlfriend.
• Over the years, the couple witnessed many stadium renovations and can see the Kemlyn Road stand (currently known as the Kenny Dalglish Stand) from their bedroom windows.
• Despite the fears about stadium development, they intend to remain there forever, with their youngest son planning to keep the house in their family.
• The match days become the time of using their house for meetings both before and after the match; Peggy prepares food and beverages for everyone.
• The story was featured in the Liverpool Echo, photographs taken by Danny Gutmann and interviews done by the paper’s journalists.

Anfield (Liverpool standard) September 5, 2026 — For more than five decades, Alan and Peggy Blundell have called Skerries Road in Anfield their home, living in the shadow of Liverpool FC’s stadium and becoming part of the fabric of a community shaped by football, family and neighbourly ties. Their story, reported by the Liverpool Echo with photography by Danny Gutmann, offers a rare, ground-level view of life in L4 across generations of sporting history and urban change.

How did Alan and Peggy Blundell meet and settle in Anfield?

According to the Liverpool Echo, Alan and Peggy Blundell first met as teenagers in the late 1950s outside the Kop at Anfield, when Alan was walking home with his friend Bobby and encountered Peggy and her friend Pat. “When I met Peggy, I was outside the Kop. I was walking home with my mate Bobby, and Peggy was walking with her mate, Pat. We hadn’t planned to meet them, they just walked past us and we got talking,” Alan, 87, told the ECHO. Peggy added: “And he took me home, and Bobby took Pat home”.

The couple married not long after and moved to Skerries Road, where they raised their three sons—Alan, Ian and Colin—and have remained ever since. Their bedroom window has long offered a view of the stadium’s upper tiers, first the Kemlyn Road stand and later the Kenny Dalglish Stand, a daily reminder of the club’s evolving presence on their doorstep.

What memorable encounter with a Liverpool FC star took place at their home?

One of the most unusual episodes in their long residency occurred in December 1978, shortly after Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford, a match in which Alan Kennedy delivered a standout performance. As reported by the Liverpool Echo, Alan Blundell recalled: “We had a do here in the house and by eight or nine o’clock the next morning, there’s a bang on the door and it was Alan Kennedy, he had been at the ground training. He knocked on the door and asked for a cup of tea”.

The conversation turned to the game, with Kennedy reflecting on playing against Steve Coppell, whom Blundell described as “a good player at that time”. “Alan had just played him off the park,” Blundell said. Kennedy was also en route into town and asked the couple where he might buy a bracelet for his girlfriend. The anecdote, recounted by the Blundells to the Liverpool Echo, underscores the unusual proximity between residents and players in this part of Anfield.

How has the community on Skerries Road sustained the Blundells over decades?

Beyond football folklore, the Blundells emphasise the strength of local community as central to their decision to remain on Skerries Road. Alan told the Liverpool Echo that older neighbours have lived there since their early days on the street and that they have “all grown up together”. He described routine acts of mutual support:

“I get the paper every morning for Sadie, who lives next door but one. Then the girl across the road, Pauline, she’s 90 and housebound, so Peggy phones her up, sees if she wants anything, a loaf, a pack of biscuits or anything. We go round and see how she is”.

The couple also take responsibility for keeping the street tidy. “Sometimes it gets a little bit messy, but we do clean the street. Me and Peggy clean up half. And the fella up the street, he cleans his side,” Alan said, adding that it is “a quiet street” and “a nice road to get along”. “If you’ve got a community feel about the place, it helps out,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

What are the Blundells’ plans for the future amid stadium expansion?

While the Blundells have expressed concerns at times about the future of their street in the context of stadium expansion, they have no plans to leave. According to the Liverpool Echo, Peggy said their youngest son, Alan, is determined to keep the house in the family:

“My youngest lad, he wants this house. He said, ‘No one else is getting that, I want this when yous go’”.

Alan Blundell noted that even though his son has moved out, he continues to use the home as a matchday hub. “Alan comes to the house before every match, and he brings his girlfriend and mates every time. They come in before the match and Peggy always prepares them drinks and food. She says ‘Anybody want this?’ And all his old mates come here. They go to the match and come back after the game,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

Background of the development

The Liverpool Echo’s feature on the Blundells forms part of ongoing coverage of Anfield’s residential community as the stadium continues to evolve. The report, published on September 5, 2026, includes photography by Danny Gutmann and draws on interviews with Alan and Peggy Blundell to document personal histories intertwined with the club’s modern era. The story highlights how long-term residents navigate changes to the built environment while maintaining social ties and routines anchored in place.

Prediction: How could this development affect local residents and the wider Anfield community?

The continued presence of long-standing households like the Blundells’ may influence how future stadium-related planning is perceived by residents, particularly if expansion or redevelopment affects nearby streets. For local residents, stories that foreground community cohesion and intergenerational continuity could strengthen arguments for safeguarding residential uses and neighbourly networks amid commercial and infrastructural pressures. For Liverpool FC and city planners, such accounts may serve as reference points when balancing matchday operations, tourism growth and the everyday needs of people who have lived in L4 for decades.