Notes from our Talks Programme
compiled by Peter Keen

The Liverpool Waterfront, by Margaret Benham, November 2002

The last Society meeting of 2002 was visited by Margaret Benham of the National Trust who spoke of a scene known to many but seen from a slightly different angle.

Margaret began by describing the first of Liverpool's harbours, a simple 'pool' formed by a widening in an inlet in the north bank of the Mersey, roughly at the lower end of William Brown Street. Dock development began in earnest in the later 1700s. The Salt House Dock is aptly named as the location of the salt refineries, probably using St. Helens coal.

The open quaysides were prone to pilferage so timber warehouses were built in the town. These however were often destroyed by fire so more secure premises were needed. From these beginnings came the so-called fireproof warehouses on the dock estate, including the Albert Dock. Jesse Hartley the Dock Engineer left a wonderful legacy of dock structures and buildings as he built or enlarged existing facilities. His business acumen is well illustrated in his purchasing of a quarry in Scotland to ensure that a regular supply of granite reached Liverpool to build its quaysides and dock installations.

Margaret pointed out some interesting points about the area around in and around the Albert Dock. There is the purple crown post box, knows as the "Liverpool Special", retained in the city because standard pillar boxes were considered to be too small; the change over from granite columns to cast iron ones to save money; the huge anchor outside the Maritime Museum, originally on a training ship in the Menai Straits.

Many frequent the area around the Pier Head without realising the wealth of history there. Apart from the Liver Building and its companions which represent the Liverpool waterfront to the world, there are many smaller items. The Cunard Building has much interesting carved stone, not merely for decoration but of significant coats of arms and symbols. The Mermaid Museum is maintained by the Friends of the Maritime Museum whilst the Cooperage and the Pier Master's House are regular destinations for the tourist. Less well known are the granite gate-men's hut; the memorial to the thousands of emigrants who departed for a new life in the U.S.A. (the statues represent Mormons, not an Irish family as many suppose); the memorial to the Merchant Navy sailors lost in the wars; the statue of Sir Alfred Lewis Jones who ran the Elder Dempster shipping line and set up the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; the Titanic memorial dedicated to the engineers lost aboard her and the promenade itself, now a tree lined "Canada Boulevard" in memory of the Canadian Navy's contribution to the Atlantic convoys in WW2.

No talk on the Mersey would be complete without mention of ferries and ship building. The first ferries were authorised in 1150, to be administered by Birkenhead Priory and have operated ever since, sometimes in extremely difficult circumstances. Ships were built for both sides in the American War of Independence, one, the Alabama, captured or destroyed 68 enemy ships during hostilities. In the 1860s Lairds shipbuilders had to pay millions of pounds compensation to the Southern States for the damage inflicted upon its shipping by Lairds built vessels. Another ship, the Shenandoah was sailed all the way to Liverpool to surrender because her captain refused to believe that the war was over.

The Liver Building was opened in 1911 and is still occupied by the original owners, the Liver Insurance Company. This developed from a few dockers putting aside a few pence per week in case of financial difficulties and grew into the present company. The clock faces on its towers are larger than those of the tower of Big Ben in London whilst the Liver Birds face seawards and shorewards, one representing the female, looking out to sea for her returning sailor-man, and the other looking towards the dock road with its one-time multiplicity of public houses and other sources of enjoyment.

The Port of Liverpool continues to develop, despite the massive reduction in the number of ships using the port and the number of dock workers employed. The ships have got bigger and the handling methods are now mechanical instead of manual. Seaforth Container Dock handles massive numbers of containers from ports world wide whilst the new roll-on roll-off facilities being tested in Birkenhead will, if successful, be duplicated on the Liverpool side of the river. The plans for the new canal across the Pier Head and the proposed building of the so-called "fourth grace" mean that change continues at one of the world's most well known waterfronts.

SCARS is grateful to Margaret for her talk and to her husband for his help in taking the photographs used in her presentation, they make an excellent team. The next time Society members visit Liverpool they will see it in a very different light.

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