We had a busy day today planned and it would have been nice if the 'heat wave' had arrived, but here in Liverpool it was draughty and cool with light rain periodically. We were booked in to the tour of the old, or original dock in Liverpool.
The tour starts is the Maritime Museum lobby that is obviously close by the moorings. There is a little talk at the museum and then you walk across the main road, The Strand, to the Liverpool 1 complex. The Old Dock was the first enclosed dock in Liverpool, and it seems the World, that was used entirely for commercial purposes. The dock gates were roughly where the pelican crossing from the Dock to the shopping centre is. When they built Liverpool 1 they came across the remains of the old dock and the Duke of Westminster, whose company were the developers, were instrumental in preserving what they found, despite the cost. The photo above you can see the far end of the dock, away from the river. You can also see that the dock was actually built on the actual bedrock of an actual inlet into the city, the Liver Pool, meaning muddy creek.
In this picture you can better see the bricks that were added on top of the natural sandstone bedrock. As this wasd the first dock bricks were used as the engineer who built the dock, 1710 to 1715, was Thomas Steers who has an acknowledged canal engineer. The archway was discovered when they started building and it turned out to be an old sally port that was a 'secret' tunnel to the old Liverpool castle about 400 mts away. It was uncovered at low water, the HW mark being about halfway up the bricks. The wooden bung was a sycamore post that was hollowed and used as a drain after the blocked it up when the dock was dug. The same sort of post was used as mooring bollards at the surface
Bricks were used for a dock for a first and last time as apparently they didn't wear well with the inundation of salt water. However they were at one time covered with lime mortar that was waterproof, and could be applied under water too. It was also applied to the wall for protection.The bricks were further protected by having vertical wooden fenders every 10' down the face of the dock. This first dock was about 75yds x 200yds and could moor about 100 ships of the day. It is said that before the enclosed dock, due to the change in heights of the quay as the tide went in and out twice a day, could take two weeks. With the advent of the dock in only took a couple of days!
This is under the quayside and is an old sewer that went into the dock that had a sluice on it. One of the main causes of the death of the dock was the fact that it became the dumping ground of ship and household effluent. When they commenced the archaeological they found that the dock was full of S--T. So much so that the depth in the dock was so restricted it became unusable and was closed in 1824 and filled in.
On the top of the bricks can be seen a square block of sandstone. These were used as coping stones to protect the top of the dock wall. many of them came from the old castle. They were pushed into the dock when it closed and then filled with sand. The dock, it could be argued was the start of the Industrial Revolution in the North, the making of America and obviously of Liverpool. With the increase in turn round town of the ships it meant that more products from the New World could be traded bringing more money to them. These products, like sugar and cotton, were than spread about the area and development took place. The tour is free, but needs to be booked. It is very informative and well worth going. It is on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 1030, 1200 and 1430. I would recommend it as well worth an hour or so of anybody's time as it certainly puts Liverpool into perspective.
The Radio City Tower, or St John's Beacon was built in 1969. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and is 138 mts tall. It had a revolving restaurant at the top originally, but it was closed in 1979. It was re-opened in 1983 but quickly closed again. It reopened in 2000 as Radio City. You can go up to a viewing gallery for a fee. We didn't!
The Queensway Tunnel was the first road tunnel under the Mersey and was opened in 1934. It took 9 years to build. 17 men were killed in its construction. The tunnel, toll booths etc are Art Deco and are listed Grade II. It is 2 miles long and costs £1-80 per journey.
We had a little time to kill so went to look round the Walker Art Gallery. It was opened in 1877 and is named after the main benefactor that was a Scottish Brewer. Amazingly, following the year of City of Culture in Hull, we were expecting to be overwhelmed by the size and quality of the collections in this massive gallery, compared with Ferrens Gallery in Hull. In fact we were disappointed with the quality of the art as well as the hanging. The lighting of the pictures was terrible.
Next door to the Walker Gallery are the Picton Reading room and Lecture Hall. These were completed in 1879 and named after the Willaim Brown Library and Museum, the fore runner of the Walker gallery, Sir James Picton. It is this shape to disguise a change of alignment of the buildings.
This facade of buildings was originally the William Brown Library and Museum, mentioned above, and with the Picton Reading Rooms and Lecture Hall make a complete run of Grade II* buildings. This building was opened in 1860. The right hand wing was the library and the rest the museum. In 2010 it closed to be brought up to date behind the facade. The left hand side is now know as the Liverpool World Museum.
The interior of the newly altered library remind me of the new Birmingham Library and was re-opened in 2013.
More tomorrow.
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