The Old Dock and the Royal Liver Building.

 Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th August 2024 in Liverpool.

Today, the four of us decided to be tourists for the day and the weather very kindly cooperated with bright sunshine and blue skies.

Our first port of call was to the Maritime Museum, where we had booked a tour of the Old Dock. We were a bit early, so had to wait for the tour guide and the others on the tour.

In the 17th century, unloading and loading a ship required the ship to anchor in the deep channel in the middle of the Mersey and the cargo would be carried back and forth on "Lighters", which were basically small rowing boats. It took up to two and a half weeks to unload and reload a typical 150 ton vessel of the time. That is, until this gentleman had the great idea of building an enclosed dock with gates that could be closed at high time to keep the water in and allow ships to moor up on the quayside to unload and load in one and a half days! It was revolutionary.

Mr Steers began work in 1709 and by 1711 the new "Steers Dock" was opened. Its construction costs were so high that the whole of Liverpool and its 700 inhabitants had to be mortgaged to pay for it - but when it opened it was an immediate and runaway success and paid for itself in six months.

Before the "Liverpool One" shopping centre and the Hilton Hotel were built over it, the "Old Dock" was fully excavated and preserved and it is possible to visit one corner underground.

On the wall there is a copy of the 1803 Tythe Map, which has been colour coded for the different types of businesses. Not surprisingly the red and brown of Pubs and Taverns predominate around the dock.

One road back from the edge of the dock was, and still is, Paradise Street. It is interesting to note the yellow coloured businesses all run by ladies; the street name may be a clue!

Outside is a colourful reminder of the City and this marks the northern edge of the "Old Dock" about 20 feet below.

After a brief stop for some lunch, our next stop was a visit to the Royal Liver Building. 

The "Liverpool Lyver Burial Society" was founded by a group of working men in Liverpool, who met in the Lyver Inn on 24th July 1850 and formed the mutual society to "provide for the decent interment of deceased members." Over the years the society grew and decided that "Life Insurance" sounded better than a "Burial Society"; and thus it remained until the decision was taken to build a new headquarters, which would eventually become the Royal Liver Building. The building opened in 1911 and was the tallest building in the country for many years and, at 15 storeys, our first "skyscraper".

The first ten floors were thankfully negotiated by lift before climbing about 50 steps to get into the room behind the clock faces. When we arrived, you could see the clock faces and the electrical mechanism behind the faces. However, unlike the faces of "Big Ben's" clock, which you can see through, these clock faces are solid. So, the faces that you see are actually projected images on to the back of the face.

A really excellent audio visual presentation followed celebrating the various stages of Liverpool's development over the years with all of its many triumphs and disasters.

The huge clock faces (slightly bigger than those of Big Ben we were proudly informed), were built in Leicester. Before the faces were delivered a lavish dinner was held using one of the faces as the table.

The menu included Turtle Soup, Mutton Cutlets, Galantine of Tur(n)key, Pressed Beef , York Ham and Salad, followed by dessert.

We then continued to the top floor, a total of 124 steps, where we went out on to the roof and found a splendid view in all directions.

To the north, there was a wondeful view of the docks through which we came last Saturday. In the foreground of the photograph is a lock and after that lock is the first of three tunnels completed in 2009 to create the "Liverpool Link" that connects the canal and the Stanley flight of locks to Salthouse Dock where MM is moored.

There are two more tunnels. The first goes under the statue of King Edward VII on his horse and the statues of the four Beatles, clearly visible as a crowd of very small people way below us. After a brief bit of open water the third tunnel goes under the Museum of Liverpool as shown by the yellow line.

From the top of the Royal Liver Building we could also see Salthouse Dock and where MM is moored (arrowed).

Later in the eveing, Harley cooked us all delicious steaks on the barbecue and Shelley provided a wonderful raw brocolli salad, which we ate in the light of the setting sun.

 

On Wednesday, the weather was perfect but just as Tuesday poured with rain, the same thing happened on Thursday. We had been planning on Thursday to visit our good friends Bob and Jan, who live a bus ride away on the other side of the Mersey. Sadly, Bob is not well and we had to postpone our trip. So disappointing to be so close and not to be able to see them.

Instead, we did domestic things and went out for a "few bits" (we found we could have breakfast in John Lewis for the princely sum of £3:95!) but otherwise had a quiet relaxing day.

This Saturday is the last day that M&S will be open in the Belfry back home as it is closing its doors for ever. Last year when we were here in Liverpool, M&S was about to open its huge new shop in the Liverpool One shopping centre just round the corner from our mooring. Today we went there and found that the new M&S shop is indeed huge - but it has a tiny café, made even smaller by the ten or so customers always queueing in the middle of the café to use the one and only single unisex toilet stall in the building! How could anyone open a huge shop like that with such poor toilet and café facilities?

We went to the even bigger John Lewis close by, a really lovely shop which has ample facilities and an excellent café! No wonder M&S is in trouble.