The Liverpool carpet shop that's fitted everywhere from cruise ships to lap dancing clubs

From humble beginnings with just two rolls of carpet and calling customers from a phone box across the street Admiral Carpets in Toxteth has become something of a Liverpool institution.

In its 30 years in business, it has serviced family homes, cruise ships, hospital theatres and even lap dancing clubs - as well as rolling out the red carpet for the Queen.

There's a strong likelihood, when walking through the public and private buildings of Liverpool, that everyone in the city will at some point have stepped on a floor or two laid by one of the team.

Owner John Brownell, 58, who has been fitting carpets since the age of 13, sits at the heart of the business alongside his co-director Colin Mannix.

John and his partner set up shop in 1985 as Allerton Carpets on Admiral Street, and for the first six months they didn't even have a phone to call customers.

Hopping across the road to a phone box not far removed from the one there to this day, John and his partner gradually grew the business from scratch.

The company has experienced its ups and downs but, still on the road today fitting floors alongside his team of 45, John has barely looked back since the business was relaunched over 20 years ago as Admiral Carpets.

Last week, however, John was fitting a carpet which took him right back to his early days in the industry, replacing a floor he'd lain as a 19 year old apprentice nearly 40 years previously.

He said: "I went to measure a job in Edge Lane in a block of flats and the same carpet was down that I fitted 38 years ago. I couldn't believe it - it knocked me for six. That's the longest carpet I've seen down."

John, who lives as well as works in L8 is very fond of the area, although he remembers a time when Admiral Street was much busier as buses used to pass by.

While every spare square inch of the shop has been put to use as the business has grown, and the company now also has a warehouse in the city centre holding over 400 rolls of carpet, John wouldn't want to move his base anywhere else.

He said: "L8 is the best area in the city, it's amazing down here. Years ago they were giving the houses away but not now.

"I wouldn't go anywhere else, although 30 years ago I would have said the opposite. I say we're set in our roots here."

Sales manager Tony Shannon has been at Admiral Carpets for the past 12 years and loves the "quirky" character of the shop floor.

He said: "We are a quirky place. We mix modern with traditional and our customers come from every nationality in the world."

There used to be a huge map on the wall in the shop where customers could place a pin for their or their family's country of origin.

He said: "Most countries in the world were represented. I think it was only a few places, like Madagascar and Greenland, that we'd had no customers from."

Alongside many businesses across the UK, Admiral Carpets closed its doors in late March as lockdown got underway, reopening in early June to brisk trade.

Tony said: "We've been mad busy, it's been crazy - everyone wants their carpets doing - I think they've all been waiting for us to open."

The shop has strict social distancing measures in place. With controlled entry and a hand sanitiser station at the front door and special rules customers must follow when carpets are fitted, owner John is keen to keep staff and customers safe.

He said: "We had to close for the sake of the staff and customers. We've had some fatalities, families who have lost people with corona, so we're very careful. We're back up and going now and let's hope we don't get it bad again."

While the pandemic has brought its heartbreak and challenges, John has also seen his fair share of other difficult moments across the years.

In 2011, his waste truck was set on fire in the midst of riots as a crowd descended on Admiral Street police station opposite John's shop.

He said: "The Lord Mayor came down and said sorry to us, and there's a picture of our van in flames that went in the ECHO."

Around 2008, Admiral Carpets also made headlines when it re-carpeted an entire house for free to help a family who had been the victim of a firebombing.

A few years earlier, the company had even rolled out the red carpet for the Queen, when she visited the city for a Royal Variety Performance at the Empire.

John said: "We had to get out the way when she came, but we did go back and get a photograph."

The photo is hung proudly on the wall of the shop, alongside other cuttings and snippets that lay testament to the company's long history.

Over the years they've fitted floors for footballers, hospital trusts, social landlords and private homeowners, shisha bars and boats - and a few other quirky jobs in between. Admiral Carpets has woven itself into the very fabric of the city, and for John it is also a business with which his own family has grown.

He said: "We started the company before we had kids and now our sons are in their 30s and work with us in the business - but not as hard as us.

For John, the secret to his success is simple: "Hard work - and not going out at night."