Here you can see that the whole area, which would one day become quite a centre of industry, is still mainly rural. The only hints of development here are the railway lines, and the Manchester Ship Canal on the other side of the River Mersey.

The outskirts of Liverpool became attractive sites for expansion of both commercial interests and residential areas. The area was flat, so offering new businesses space to expand, and it was still fairly cheap, being away from areas where development pressures were high. Runcorn itself, seen in the bottom right of the map, became something of an overspill for Liverpool in the 1960s, and it remains well placed as a transport link from Merseyside into Cheshire and the Midlands.

There are five maps on the Old Maps of Liverpool page now, but I’m hoping to add more as I get them scanned in (which isn’t the cheapest thing ever). Watch this space!

Streets of Historic Liverpool

The maps are all part of an aim to create a resource for local and family historians. Whilst I hope the articles already on the site are useful, I’m hoping to add much more detail, which is why I need your help.

I want to create articles for all the roads in Liverpool. As the best source of information on this is you, the readers and researchers of the world, I’d like to contribute to this effort. As I’ve mentioned before, you can create an account on Historic Liverpool (as a couple of people already have) and get writing. Once logged in, click the Posts entry in the left hand menu, followed by ‘Add New’. Then title your article with the name of the road and put down anything and everything you know about.

This can include personal reminiscences, details of when the road was built, demolished, shortened, widened or anything else. All I ask is that you keep it specific to that road. When you’ve done that, hit the Publish button in the top right and you’re all set!

IF you want to discuss other people’s articles, then you can comment as usual. If someone comments on your article then do respond. I’ll be putting my oar in now and again too.

Street Maps

Now, one other thing of interest for those of you who choose to write about a road: if you visit one of the old maps pages on Historic Liverpool, you will see in the bottom right of these maps a little box marked ‘Permalink’. This is a link to the map at its current location and zoom level, and you can use it to put an interactive map in your article.

Centre the map on the road you are writing about (assuming you’re looking at a map which includes it!) and zoom in to a comfortable level. Now, right click on the Permalink and select something like ‘Copy link address’ or ‘Copy link location’ depending on which browser you are using. This will copy the right link to your computer’s clipboard.

Then, when you are editing your road article, type out the following on its own line:

[iframe src="link"]

Replace the word link with the URL you copied from the map, leaving the quote marks in place. It should look a bit like this:

[iframe src="http://maps.historic-liverpool.co.uk/1890plannorth/?zoom=5&lat=-2861&lon=3169.5&layers=B"]

When you hit publish you’ll have a fully-interactive map centred on the road you are writing about! I’ve done one example, for Roscommon Street, to get you going. It’s very short, so do feel free to write as much as you like about your own topic.

If you have any issues with this process, do get in touch, and remember, you can also write about Historic Features as well as roads. Let’s make this the biggest and best record on Liverpool’s historic landscape that there is!

Update: I’ve also started embedding other interactive maps – ones of my own making – in the historic Townships pages. These show you listed buildings, scheduled monuments and other designated historic features. You can add and remove layers, zoom in, and click on each dot or shape for more information.

Typography? Landscape-related?

Well, as the post demonstrates, typography – the selection and use of different fonts around the park – reveals a lot about the motives and methods of the writers/engravers/printers who created the space. (The book Letterpool from a couple of years back shows a great selection of fonts and signs around the city, and the importance of this.)

The post is a picture essay, and an archaeology of gravestones, engraving and the detail to be gleaned from font, material, and quality. There are also reflections on the re-use of gravestones in a walkway, and the nature of graffiti (some of it dating back to before the park was laid out).

Design in History

One of the characteristics of the post is that this is the view of a designer, who sees things archaeologists wouldn’t necessarily see: were the fonts used modern at the time, or already old? what does the font and form of a grave or tomb tell us about the people interred? For example, there is the family tomb of the Rathbones, of which the writer says: “I feel that it has a very noble facade, as if they were a family of importance”. Indeed they were.

This is a great tour of an important historical monument through the eyes of a designer, whose trained eye shows us that typography has been an important indicator of wealth, taste and intent for a long time, and an awareness of the main aspects of the topic can help peel back further layers of history.

Further Reading

For an easy to read over view of the use of fonts throughout history, have a look at Just My Type by Simon Garfield. It’s a guide to the changing fashions of font use across the centuries, and how it was affected by the technology available as well as the message the text was trying to convey.

Each double page spread shows a large version of the older image, together with a smaller modern shot and a couple of brief paragraphs comparing the two.

Jim O’Neil is an authority on Hoylake, having lived there for over 35 years and written such books as West Kirby to Hoylake, giving local history talks in his spare time. I think it’s because of this that the book comes across as really personal. There’s a love of the place which comes through on each page, born from a close personal connection.

There are those times when he gets a little over-excited about current events and projects “this year”, and these phrases will date the book’s text quickly. They’re often not directly relevant to the pictures being discussed, but they don’t ultimately detract from the book’s great interest to anyone researching Hoylake or the Wirral’s history.

Historic Photographs of Hoylake

The best shots here are those which take in a large area, such as a row of shops receding into the distance or the roundabout on Market Street which comes up frequently in the first few pages. These images show how buildings have been remodelled over time, as well as mapping changes to the roads (and their white and yellow lines). These photos also show how some scenes have become dominated by the trees which were mere shrubs in the Victorian period. It proves how bland some of the changes have rendered the buildings: shopping arcades which once had ornate iron and glass canopies (such as those which survive on Lord Street in Southport) have become flat-fronted betting shops and supermarkets.

Other shots show how the Victorians loved their formal planting schemes on central reservations and roundabouts. These too have gone, and despite the continuing efforts of the Friends of Hoylake and Meols in Bloom (p.62) it’s a shame that less attention to detail is paid to modern streetscapes. This is just one of the key changes highlighted by this book.

There are a lot of church shots, which is perhaps to be expected in a small town of Hoylake’s age. However, these images are closer to their subject than the street scenes, and so the areas have generally changed little since the older photos were taken (assuming the church is still standing). The main change that has occurred is that the whole building has become obscured by large trees. One shot of Holy Trinity Church is little more than trees and a small stone wall. It doesn’t add anything to a historian’s understanding of the area, especially as such a change is seen across the town.

In general, the historic photographs are of a high quality throughout the book, scanned from postcards and negatives in the author’s own collection. It’s a shame that some of these are not reproduced at a high enough level of detail to allow the reader to examine the expressions on the faces of the people in them, which O’Neil describes, but the characters, clothing and the accompanying descriptions add a brilliant extra layer to the atmosphere which comes through

Streets of Hoylake

O’Neil’s own modern shots, which were all taken on one “enjoyable and amazingly instructive” sunny day are also of a high quality. Despite the bright sunlight the pictures have come out well, and are easy to compare to the older ones, which O’Neil also compliments for their quality. I’ve seen many an amateur historian’s poor attempts to create their own illustrations (to be honest, I’ve been there myself…), so it’s good to see that this wasn’t a problem here.

Hoylake changed from a well-to-do rural retreat in 1800 to a popular seaside town in 1900 and beyond. It was part of a group of Wirral and Lancashire towns which played this key role in history, as people’s leisure time and health concerns developed. The book therefore is a useful addition to the library of anyone who is interested in the wider context of Liverpool’s history during this period, together with other titles in the Then & Now series (such as Daniel K. Longman’s Liverpool Then & Now).

Hoylake Then & Now is available on Amazon, or directly from The History Press.

Note: History Press supplied me with a complimentary copy of the book for the purposes of this review.

I’ve been (very) slowly adding new posts to Historic Liverpool for many years now, and it’s become more than obvious that if the site is ever going to reach its goal of being the best resource for Liverpool history, then I’m going to need help.

From today you will be able to register your own account on Historic Liverpool, sign in and create articles on any historical feature on Merseyside that you think deserves attention. We’re going to start with a couple of categories, but I’ll be adding more as the months go by.

All this work of yours will end up on a map, on the Liverpool History Map page. There’s already a handful of points on that map. Click on one, and follow the link to read more. If you get the message “Sorry, there’s not yet an article on…” then perhaps you’d like to volunteer to do it? First come first served! I’ve grabbed a couple of the prime sites myself – I want to see what you can offer on your own patch before letting you free on the Three Graces.

The biggest category on the map is going to be historic buildings. Liverpool has more than its fair share, and although many of them are rightly world famous, there are hundreds of others which are just as important, but for which information is lacking. Whether you know Liverpool well from living there for decades, or your ancestors or relations came from here, I want you to research those buildings you know best – your local church, the large house up the wooded drive which sits oddly in a modern housing estate, the remains of an ancient field boundary which dozens of people walk past every day.

I want your help bringing these historic gems to light.

How to contribute to Historic Liverpool

OK, so that’s the general gist of things. In a nutshell:

• Head over to http://historic-liverpool.co.uk;

• Scroll to the foot of the page, to find the ‘Info’ section, where you will see a link called ‘Register’. Click on this link.

• Choose a user name (such as ‘Martin Greaney’ or ‘mgreaney’ – spaces are allowed) and type in your email address. Then fill in the box underneath with the distorted words you see above it – this is just to check you’re not a spamming robot!

• You will then be emailed a password to the email address you’ve just entered. Enter your username and password into the boxes at http://historic-liverpool.co.uk/wp-login.php, and you will be taken the Historic Liverpool Dashboard.

You may now write your article! See the instructions in the Guide to Contributors. There are also a couple of guidelines there, so have a glance through them to keep this whole endeavour fun and fair.

If you’ve had any trouble with this process so far, you can also email me via the Contact page and I can set up an account for you. Just let me know which email address and username you would like.

Why should I contribute to Historic Liverpool?

There are lots of reasons why contributing to Historic Liverpool is worthwhile:

1. All articles will have your name at the top of them – show the world what you know about Liverpool’s history!
2. Connect with like-minded individuals in the comments section on your articles and theirs, then visit the Historic Liverpool Facebook page and discuss your next article.
3. Contribute to the pool of knowledge (if you’ll pardon the pun) – the more of us who add an article, the more everyone benefits.
4. There is no other reader-built historical resource like it. Scousers have all sorts of special knowledge about their town – about the historic buildings, the people, the culture, the highs and the lows. Liverpudlian pride is unparalleled in Britain. Historic Liverpool will be a place for people of all sorts (not just historians) to tell the world about their city.
5. This is just the start. As time goes on, I’ll be adding more features to let you do more. Perhaps there’ll be a points system, or leader boards for those with the most articles, and the most-read! I’m open to ideas on this to – nothing’s out of bounds for now! So start contributing today, and soon you might be crowned King of Childwall History!

I’ll be adding my own articles too, but now I won’t be so daunted about having to write the whole lot myself!

What if my article doesn’t fit a category?

I’m particularly keen on seeing articles about historic buildings dotted around the city, or other hidden features that only locals might know about. However, I’m also happy for you to write about the building you work in, a shop you visit, or anything you know something about.

In addition to buildings and the ‘Hidden History’ category, I want to hear your suggestions for other themes. Do you want to write about statues? Fountains? Parks? Let me know, and I’ll add a category for you.

However, I may suggest something else if your idea falls outside these bounds. The new map wants to concentrate on sites: buildings, archaeological findspots and the like, but if you want to write about something bigger, then let me know – I may suggest it goes here on Liverpool Landscapes, which is the place for longer articles on interesting topics, especially ones which don’t fit on a map as such.

After visiting the city in November, the UN inspectors are claiming that, should Peel’s plans go ahead, it would cause a “serious loss of historical authenticity“.

While UNESCO’s opinions are not a surprise to anyone who’s been following this story from the start, now that a formal response has been received it is up to Liverpool City Council and Peel to respond. English Heritage have also said that they would be happy to become involved “if invited”.

The magazine Seven Streets has published a number of articles on the Peel plans, on both sides of the argument (if I’ve read them right). All are worth reading, but the most recent one (by Robin Brown) especially so It highlights a few key things about the whole slanging match (as do the comments):

• Liverpool City Council asked to become a World Heritage Site. Did they not realize what they were getting into, or do they just not like the responsibility which comes with the award?
• The plans are forever being cited as crucial to jobs and economic prosperity by Joe Anderson and the Council, but as Adrian McEwan points out in his comment, there are other areas of the city which are “ghost towns”. The build-it-and-they-will-come mentality does not always work at the best of times, and certainly not in a recession, when there are vacant tenancies already in existence.
• The article suggests that there are hidden agendas at work, with the business community keen to see the end of the WHS (which they did not necessarily ask for). The UNESCO / Peel Waters shenanigans simply gives them what Brown calls a “battering ram” with which to attack it, in the hopes of longer term implications for future non-Peel developments.
• There is also the mention of agendas on the heritage lobby side. It is suggested that this group are often against development for its own sake, and that the Waters are a good example. I don’t necessarily agree: the heritage lobby (I’m not sure if I count as part of such a thing or not, but anyway…) can certainly be too insistent or restricted in their vision for change, but I don’t think this constitutes an agenda. Either way, this side needs to maintain water-tight and specific arguments if it is to remain credible.

What the Seven Streets article does identify is that the tone of the argument against the WHS has probably been deliberately skewed (towards such things as ‘outsiders’ coming in and stealing our investments) in order to rid the city of a perceived barrier to further development. This doesn’t produce a useful long term solution, but then perhaps not everyone is so keen on one.

The Little Book of Liverpool

Despite Tulloch’s previous book being a general history of the city, the Little Book of Liverpool (LBoL) is a miscellany of Liverpool facts, with less of a history focus. In form (and back cover text) it reminds me of Schott’s Miscellany, a popular book from a few Christmases back, as well as the raft of copycat factbooks which came later. However, there is an understandable concentration on history, both because of Tulloch’s expertise in this area, and arguably because a great deal of Liverpool’s interest lies in its history, as readers of this blog will no doubt agree!

The opening chapter, “Just for Starters… Some Trivia”, is a collection of facts from all aspects of the city, and it was in the opening pages that I was impressed with some of the historical analysis. For example, Tulloch notes that the location of the remains of West Derby Castle in meadow lane is far from certain, even though it is known that a castle was certainly in the vicinity from the 13th century. The list of Liverpool University graduates is one of the less history-centric and yet interesting collections of facts, and the type of thing I expected this book to be full of.

However, I found that the remainder of the book consisted of longer passages which take LBoL out of the realm of miscellany and into history book territory. Whether this suits the book is probably up to the reader, but as Tulloch has already written a full book of this type this feels like a wasted opportunity to create a book more suitable for dipping into at a spare moment.

Unfortunately the historical credentials are marred in the second chapter, “How it All Began”, a chronological account of Liverpool. One passage suggests that the Salthouse Dock was filled in and later covered with Liverpool ONE, rather than the Old Dock which is actually the case. Whilst this can almost be seen as a simple substitution of one dock with another, in Liverpool’s case this is a founding moment of the town’s dominant story. It’s a bit like suggesting that Romulus and Remus founded Paris – little more than a typo which completely alters the historical context!

Tulloch makes a point of apologizing in the introduction for missing out some of the major players and events in Liverpool’s history, claiming that there’s only so much that you can fit in 50,000 words. But judging from some of the odd sentences, repetitions and turns of phrase, I’d say that a strong editing would have furnished him with a couple of thousand more words to play with. Sections such as ‘Liverpool Literati’ begin with rather lengthy introductions which add little to the mix. A few examples:

• On Liverpool FC’s 1980s history: “Liverpool were haunted by the spectre of success and failure”;
• Every comedian and singer seems to have decided that their first job out of school was ‘not for them’, thus leading them into show business;
• the caption to the sketch of the new Museum of Liverpool describes the building as “space age” (aren’t we already in the space age?)

His selection of the ‘Great and the Good’ could be praised for its choice of the lesser known authors, actors, poets and politicians, but in a ‘Little Book’ I would have liked to have seen the author sticking to the very best, not to do Jimmy Tarbuck, Daniel Craig (yes, the Chester-born lad) or Felicia Hemans a dis-service.

The Little Book of Liverpool is a smart, hard-back volume, and at present there’s no other book like it out there. But it falls between the two stools of dip-in factbook and essay collection, and so doesn’t quite fit either description. It needs a good editing and perhaps a tighter choice of topics to cover, otherwise it feels a bit like Tulloch struggled to fill the word count. I would have liked to see the whole book in the format of the Trivia section at the beginning, and many of the topics covered could certainly be adapted for this.

The style of writing, as I’ve said, is odd in places, but it’s certainly easy to read. It’s a book I can imagine getting picked up and passed around turkey-filled family members on Christmas Day, but whether it you’d go back to it later on is debatable. Stocking filler it certainly is.

Bloody British History: Liverpool

Ken Pye’s Bloody History of Liverpool shares many characteristics with the Little Book. It’s a short volume (a 96 page paperback) with articles on different parts of Liverpool history, and is written by an author with other Liverpool books to his name.  But unlike LBoL, this book sets its stall out loud and clearly on the back cover:

Here is the LOATHSOME, LURID and DOWNRIGHT LAMENTABLE history of Liverpool!

Bloody History is chronological, starting with prehistoric Merseyside and the Druids, and goes through Vikings, Normans, Civil War, Slavery and World Wars to describe the more macabre episodes in the city’s history. It does this without holding back on the blood and guts, my favourite line describing the Vikings using their shields: “pounding them into faces and breaking skulls”. What follows are bloody descriptions of the Battle of Bosworth Field, chilling tales of the gallows (and hanging, drawing and quartering in case you were curious) and spooky goings-on in Everton with Spring-Heeled Jack.

While some of the early chapters have little connection to Liverpool (the Druids chapter – don’t get me started on Druids! – and the Vikings can only muster up the Calderstones and local placenames respectively to justify their inclusion), later ones are much better. Pirate and smuggler yarns draw their very leading characters from Mersey shores, while details of the Second World War can’t fail to mention the central role (and target) which Liverpool played in the conflict.

In the spirit of fun which this book is presented, it succeeds brilliantly in presenting a nightmarish version of historic Liverpool. The town is populated with murderers, traitors, heroes, corpse-snatchers and the dead and dying. The articles are fast-paced, well written (more so than the Little Book) and full of energy. Occasionally (especially in Chapter 1) it goes off the rails a bit (“…naked, powerful, angry, hairy blue men…”), but this is easily overlooked given the promise that “you’ll never look at the city in the same way again!”

The primary sources, which often prove themselves too lurid for most histories, are well-chosen and add another gruesome ingredient to the mix (one overwrought witness begins: “my hands tremble while I write…”).

If some of the stories have less direct connections to the city of Liverpool, you at least get a good grounding in wider British history, such as Bosworth or the Armada, but it’s the later chapters which contain most for the Liverpool historian. The last two chapters in particular – about the trenches and the Blitz respectively – are much less gory and more respectful of the recent memory of these events. For this they are stronger, without detracting from the overall feel of the book.

The only two stand-out mistakes I spotted were the lack of gangland coverage promised on the back cover, and the mis-spelling of the exploding ship SS Malakand as Markland. The latter may be due to an over-keen spell-check on this unusual name, but a read-over by someone with knowledge of the city’s history should have picked it up.

Which one should you read?

If you only buy one of these two books, you’re better off with Ken Pye’s Bloody History. It promises blood, guts and gore, and delivers all three, and is entertainingly written. Tulloch’s Little Book of Liverpool, for all it’s high quality presentation, had a couple of historical errors, and somehow the over-long articles and clumsy style just didn’t grab me in the way Pye’s volume did.

That said, I can’t imagine any Liverpool history enthusiast complaining much about getting either in their stocking, as both provide some entertainment to while away those long holiday hours when you should be making polite conversation with the family.

Postscript

Both these volumes were kindly supplied by the History Press for the purposes of this review. If you’d like to let me know of any other books, websites or other material of interest to readers of this site, get in touch via the Historic Liverpool contact page.

If you’d like to buy either volume, and support Liverpool Landscapes, click on the covers to left and right. Any purchases via Amazon.co.uk will contribute to the running of this site (so don’t forget us when you’re doing the Christmas shopping!).

There are two opposing points of view. On one side we have the one-man band of the Liverpool Preservation Trust railing against the plans, and English Heritage (EH) expressing concerns about the nature of the development. On the other side are the developers and Council loudly proclaiming that ‘if we have to give up the WHS for investment, then so be it’.

Fear of a Changing City

But despite the concerns of the heritage lobby, it must be remembered that what EH, the LPT and concerned Scousers around the city want is development, not just of the type that Peel are proposing.

Those who leave comments on the Echo website about how Peel will wreck the city, and those who say we should ignore the WHS in return for jobs must remember that memories of previous modern developments are still strong. After the Second World War Liverpool had several city plans for completely reshaping the town centre, and massive developments in Everton and Kirkby are also the souvenirs we have of that time.

There is a popular dislike of much modern architecture, born of the mistakes of the over-enthusiastic 1950s and 60s developers (remember, someone wanted to put a motorway through the Blue Coat Chambers). The most oft-repeated horror stories of the mid-20th century are the loss of the Customs House, the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) and St. John’s Market. Whether or not the LOR could have been viably restored makes no difference to the fact that the Customs House and St. John’s Market were, or at the very least feel, like unnecessary losses. And looking at what we were given in return – St. John’s Precinct and the modern buildings of Derby Square – it comes as no surprise that there are serious concerns with what Peel will leave us with.

My own opinion is more closely concerned with the future experience of living in a Liverpool of skyscrapers when the current town is more human in scale, and with the effects of dragging the centre of gravity in another direction when Liverpool ONE has already stretched it almost to breaking point (see T.J. Hughes, for example).

Coupled with this is a distrust of developers for exactly the problems Seven Streets mentions: defacement of old buildings before they can be listed is a standard tactic nationally by developers who want to game the system. The same goes for neglecting a building until it’s too late to save and thus stand in the way of ‘progress’. The rhetoric of ‘jobs for locals’, whether or not true, just muddies the waters further.

The Liverpool: a city with a Past and a Future

A distaste for modern architecture, coupled with a distrust of developers and politicians, and the regret of past architectural losses makes for strong anti-development sentiment, as does the steamrollering of citizens’ interests behind a wall of spin. I’ve no doubt that the spin comes from both sides, but retreating to either ends of the debate doesn’t help anyone.

What both sides want is development. What the heritage lobby would like to see is a sensitive rejuvenation of old buildings, and they fear that any large-scale development will ride rough-shod over these wishes. What those in favour of these schemes want is the removal of barriers to development.

There is an overlap of these desires, but as of yet I’ve not seen a sensible way forward advanced by either side. It seems to be

“Here, we’re going to build a load of skyscrapers”

“Fine, as long as you protect the historic environment by not building any skyscrapers”

“But our development is meaningless without skyscrapers – we’ve already made it rubbish by doing half of what you asked! Heritage must step aside completely and let us through!”

And thus both sides retreat to their respective corners, and meanwhile abandoned buildings fall down.

Building on the past

Development must happen, for the good of the city and for the good of the historic buildings we love. But we must learn from the ill-informed mistakes of the past, and the successes too. No one objected to the Albert Dock redevelopment in the 1980s, at least not on historic grounds (there were a few raised eyebrows on economic grounds back then).

What has happened is that Liverpool were very keen to promote the WHS and culture during 2007 and 2008, but now that the inward investment has been attracted, they’re all too willing to risk throwing it away in the pursuit of projects which many people are understandably skeptical about.

Is there a way to restore trust in developers, and for the heritage contingent to go further than simply taking existing plans and chopping off the bits they don’t like? It will take effort, engagement, cooperation and discussion, and less of the mud-slinging which has been all too prevalent in the Peel/UNESCO saga.

There is a common cause: to create a dynamic city which celebrates and enjoys its historic environment while remaining open to change. We in the 21st century have the hindsight which the Victorians and the post-war developers lacked. Let us use that knowledge and work together to create a Liverpool which future generations will be proud of, will love living in, and which won’t need to be razed in 40 years’ time. Only by coming out of our corners can we do this.

Image: The Albert Dock warehouses in 1956 before their sensitive redevelopment in the 1980s. Copyright English Heritage.NMR, available on the ViewFinder website.

The North Liverpool and City Fringe Employment and Investment programme have been granted £25m from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF), and their plans involve the conversion of the docks and warehouses into apartments, bars, shops and a hotel. The Liverpool Echo compares the scheme to the regeneration of the Albert Dock two decades ago.

The Eldonian Group, an award-winning regeneration project, will also be using some of the money to build a combined heat and power plant to provide electricity and hot water to the Vauxhall area.

This project presents a chance to regenerate and bring back into use a crucial part of the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City World Heritage Site (WHS) which has for so long been under threat. The Stanley Dock area lies between the main business and commercial district of Liverpool city centre and the north docklands which may be transformed under the Peel Waters scheme. Being closer to the centre means that the scheme represents a natural extension of the town, rather than a wholesale remodelling of an isolated area.

History

Stanley Dock was part of the rapid expansion of the dock estate under Jesse Hartley, Liverpool’s dock engineer. The city’s trade was expanding into new markets (including tobacco) and new dock technologies were being introduced to keep up with the demands of commerce.

The Albert Dock and the Stanley Dock warehouses, both projects of Hartleys, with their sheltered quays and cranes on the walls were “bonded storage”, and allowed the transfer of goods from a ship directly into the warehouse, with next to no delay on the dockside at all.

Bonded warehouses were storage buildings where cargo would be unloaded from a ship and put straight under lock and key. The key was held by a representative of the Crown, and customs dues were only paid on the goods when they left the warehouse to continue their journey to customers inland. Thus the turnaround time for boats in the docks was reduced, no longer having to wait for assessment by customs officers.

Jesse Hartley was known for his ‘cyclopean’ architecture: giant stone blocks and imposing building design, and the Tobacco Warehouse was no shrinking violet. As possibly the largest brick building in the world it was ground-breaking at the time, and remains a vital part of world history.

However, it has remained derelict for 50 years.

Heritage at Risk

The warehouse on the north side of the dock was added to English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk register in 1999. In 2009, when EH drew up a list of Conservation Areas at Risk, the whole Stanley Dock area was added, including the Tobacco Warehouse. With the 2011 At Risk list focussing on Industrial Heritage, there’s never been a better time to celebrate the legacy of fabulous warehouses such as these.

As with many historic areas across the country, Stanley Dock became caught between the prospect of insensitive redevelopment and the conservation lobby, and no progress was made. Various plans have been proposed to bring the dock into new use, with most ideas attempting to recreate the success of the commercial Albert Dock or the residential Waterloo warehouse just down the road. Let’s hope these latest attempts actually bring some development to the area, and do justice to the globally-important buildings around Stanley Dock.

Image: Stanley Dock, by SPDP via Flickr, released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

OpenPlaques is a project to “collect and open up data about plaques and the people they commemorate”, which involves placing all the information about blue plaques and the people they are dedicated to on an OpenStreetMap map. You can use the OpenPlaques database in your own projects, as it’s all under Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share-Alike and Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication licenses (which means you can generally do anything non-commercial with them as long as you give credit to the source).

The site actually includes all blue and non-blue plaques from projects with similar aims to the original blue plaques scheme from the Royal Society of Arts, now run by English Heritage. I first mentioned them back in February 2010 amongst other web sites for local history.

Since the beginning of October the OpenPlaques Twitter account has been announcing a string of new Liverpool plaques being added to their database.

@mdgreaney We've recently had an influx of plaques as users can now add listings directly: Liverpool currently at 43 http://t.co/m5WixrYs

October 3, 2011 8:50 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@openplaques

Open Plaques

They were up to 43 by 3rd October, and were already at 84 as of writing this (16th Oct). You can submit your own if it’s not already in their database, so do lend a hand if you can. Liverpool was the first city outside London to be included in the English Heritage blue plaque scheme, which goes to show the city’s importance in national history. Liverpool’s first plaques celebrated the lives of Bessie Braddock, J. A. Brodie, John Lennon, Wilfred Owen, Captain Noel Chevasse and 10 others.

Also while writing this, I’ve noticed that a string of black Liverpool Council plaques are featured on the home page, such as this one marking one of the original seven streets, High Street.

One other thing you can help with is the location of Frankie Vaughan’s plaque. It was unveiled in 2005 at the Museum of Liverpool Life, but no one at the moment can confirm that it’s still there. Has it been moved to the new Museum of Liverpool? Or is it still in the MoLL? Let us know in the comments if you know where it is/was!

Image: High Street South Plaque, by TonyMo22 via Flickr (Creative Commons by-nc-sa)