Liverpool Waterfront – Walking Merseyside
It’s the middle of our fall 2024 golf trip to England’s Golf Coast and after playing Wallasey, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham & St. Annes we have a scheduled day off. Most of the others are going on a Beatles’ tour, but I did that on my last trip to Liverpool with private guide Paul Beesley. It is the one thing that is an absolute must do in the city, but not far behind is spending a day exploring the totally revived Liverpool waterfront which has a myriad of attractions including a few that are Beatles related. So please join me as I take time off from golf to find out why this part of Merseyside is so popular with both tourists and locals alike.
History of the Liverpool Waterfront
By British standards Liverpool is not an ancient city, receiving its royal charter from King John ‘only’ in 1207. For the next five hundred years it was a small port that was focused on the intracoastal trade between England, Wales and Ireland. Then in the 18th century things took a dramatic change centred primarily around the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This had started in the late 16th century, but by 1700 had evolved into the infamous triangular trade system that saw English trade goods taken to the west coast of Africa and traded for slaves. Then the slaves were taken to the Caribbean and American colonies where they were exchanged for the sugar, coffee and tobacco the Europeans had become addicted to. All told British ships, a significant percentage from Liverpool, transported over 3,000,000 slaves from Africa to the New World until the abolition of the trade in 1807.
However, it was not just the slave trade that propelled Liverpool to world prominence. In 1715 the world’s first commercial wet dock was built on the Liverpool waterfront. This was a device that allowed ships to stay afloat in an enclosed lock when the tide went out. Merseyside has the second highest tidal range in the UK, up to ten metres during spring tides, so this was a big deal, allowing cargos to be loaded and unloaded at all times of day and year. In 1846 the Albert Dock, the first building made of a combination of cast iron, brick and stone and considered an architectural wonder at the time, was opened by Queen Victoria’s husband. It was the centrepiece of miles of warehouses on the Liverpool waterfront that by the late 19th century were handling an incredible 40% of all the world’s trade.
Aside from trade, Liverpool in the 19th century became one of the principal passenger ports in the world with both Cunard and White Star lines based here.
And then the long decline began. It started with the transition from sailing ships to steam ships and ended with the containerization of world trade that doesn’t require warehouses. After London, Liverpool was the most bombed city in the UK during WWII and by 1980 the Liverpool waterfront was virtually a wasteland.
Then the resurrection began. In 1981 Margaret Thatcher’s government created the Merseyside Development Corporation that was tasked with regenerating the Liverpool waterfront starting with the Albert Dock. Over the next twenty years over 900 acres of derelict land was reclaimed and over 60 miles of roads and pathways created. While a lot of old buildings were repurposed, other new ones were built giving the entire area a nice admixture that has turned it into the most visited free tourist attraction in Britain outside of London. So let’s go find out why.
We are staying at the Crowne Plaza which is the red brick building on the left. As you can see from its location just across from the most iconic building in Liverpool, the Royal Liver, it’s right on the Liverpool Waterfront and an ideal spot to stay in the city. However, it’s a very busy hotel with a lot of business meetings so if you prefer a more luxurious option with less hustle and bustle consider the Malmaison which is right next door.
Leaving the Crowne Plaza most of what there is to see on the Liverpool waterfront is to the left towards the area known as Pier Head and after that Royal Albert Dock. However, before going there I take a stroll around the area immediately to the right of the Crowne Plaza which is known as Prince’s Dock, named for the future King George IV and opened in 1821. It’s not really a tourist area and much quieter than Pier Head, but it has this very interesting pedestrian bridge which is worth seeking out.
Behind it you can see the 40 story West Tower which is the tallest building in Liverpool and home to Panoramic 34, a restaurant on the 34th floor. Platinum Golf Scotland, who organized our tour, had made reservations for our group there the night before and while I’m always skeptical about restaurants that rely on the view to draw in patrons, it turned out that the food and service at Panoramic 34 was exceptional.
Turning now toward Pier Head, I join the many tourists who flock to this area from cruise ships, buses and taxis to walk the Liverpool waterfront, but it is a large enough area that during the several times I walked in the area during our stay in the city it never seemed overcrowded. There is one exception to that and I might as well deal with it right off the bat.
This is The Beatles statue that was donated to the city by the Cavern Club in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the band’s last performance in Liverpool. It is the one thing on the Liverpool waterfront that everyone wants to see and get their picture taken with. Unless you get here very early in the morning or in the dead of winter there will always be a lineup with everyone waiting there turn to get in the picture. I had to take this one quickly as one group departed and before the next arrived.
The Three Graces
The most famous buildings in Liverpool, Cavern Club aside, are the four shown in this photo taken from the other side of the Mersey. From left to right are The Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building, the Port of Liverpool Building and in the background Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, the largest in Britain. The first three are among the star attractions of the Liverpool waterfront and are collectively referred to as The Three Graces.
The Royal Liver Building has become the symbol of the city of Liverpool with the two Liver birds on top instantly recognizable. It was built between 1908 and 1911 to house Royal Liver Assurance. The story of the liver bird goes back many centuries and has many theories as to what type of bird was to be found on a city seal that dated to the 13th century. Whether it was originally an eagle or dove as some claimed didn’t matter because by the 18th century it was considered by all to be a ‘lever’, another name for a cormorant. The city was granted its coat-of-arms 1797 and on it alongside Neptune and Triton are three unmistakeable cormorants.
The two liver birds on the Liver Building are named Bertie who looks over the city and Bella who looks out to sea. Royal Liver Assurance lasted as a separate entity until 2011 when it merged with the Royal London Group. The building itself was off limits to tourists until 2019 when the Royal Liver Building 360° Tour opened and you can now take a one hour guided tour that will take you up to the very top where you can see the Liver birds close up as well as have one of the best Liverpool waterfront panoramas to be found in the city.
I did not have time to take the tour, but contented myself to look at this really amazing building from the exterior while King Edward VII looked down on me.
The second of The Three Graces is the Cunard building constructed between 1914 and 1917 to be the headquarters of the Cunard Shipping Co. which it was until 1960 when the headquarters were moved to Southampton. I doubt most Liverpudlians are aware that Samuel Cunard, the founder of the line that bears his name, was a native of my home city, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a classic rags to riches story much like another famous Maritimer who made it big in England, Lord Beaverbrook. It was Cunard who essentially invented the trans-Atlantic passenger trade that later hybridized into the international cruise industry. The company is known for its ships named for queens with the RMS Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and QE2 all designed in this building.
The building was clearly influenced by Italian Renaissance architecture and bears a passing likeness to the Farnese Palace in Rome. The monument in front is to the Cunard employees who served and died in the two World Wars.
Today the building is home to the British Music Experience another of the many music related tourist draws in the city of Liverpool.
The third of the Three Graces is the Port of Liverpool Building erected between 1903 and 1907 to house the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board which was headquartered here for 87 years. It has a wonderful symmetry that is quite pleasing to the eye and reminded me of a number of state and provincial capitol buildings. Although there is no tourist attraction per se in this building, you are free to enter and check out the interior.
While in the Pier Head area of the Liverpool Waterfront there are some other monuments to seek out starting with this one originally dedicated to the 32 marine engineers who died in the Titanic disaster. On first seeing this I wondered what the connection was of the Titanic to Liverpool; after all it was built in Belfast, sailed out of Southampton and never docked in Merseyside. However, the owners of the Titanic, the White Star Line were headquartered here and Liverpool was the Titanic’s Port of Registry, something that I did not know despite the ship’s intimate connection with Halifax were many of the dead are interred.
Given the huge loss of life by marine engineers in WWI the monument is officially the Monument to the Heroes of the Marine Engine Room.
The Liverpool waterfront is not dotted solely with monuments and statues that were erected many years ago. New monuments and statues are being put up regularly by various non-profit groups of which this one to Frederic ‘Johnnie’ Walker is a prime example.
Described by some naval historians as the greatest British seamen since Lord Nelson, Walker was the most successful anti-submarine commander in the history of the Royal Navy and the man responsible for successfully shepherding dozens of convoys from places like Halifax to Britain during WWII. He collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1944 at only age 48 after protecting the hundreds of ship involved in the D-Day invasion from a single submarine attack. The statue was unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1988 and perfectly captures Walker’s vigilance as he stares out to sea.
On a lighter note is this work by Andy Plant titled Heaven and Earth which is dedicated to one of the world’s least known but very influential astronomers, Jeremiah Horrocks, a native of Liverpool. Horrocks was the first astronomer to determine that the moon and planets had elliptical orbits, to understand the gravitational effects of the moon and to successfully calculate the transit of Venus. The latter was an obsession with astronomers around the world and one might recall that Captain Cook’s first visit to the Polynesia was specifically to record the transit in 1769 some 130 years after Horrocks’ accurately predicted the 1639 transit. The transit was a big deal because among other things, it helped determine the actual distance of the earth from the sun.
The real kicker about Horrocks is that he did all this by age 22 when he suddenly died of unknown causes.
Whether intentional or not, this area of the Liverpool waterfront contains memorials to three men, Walker, Lennon and Horrocks who died well before their time and who knows what other contributions they may have made but for their untimely deaths.
Pier Head has two modern buildings that are in complete contrast to The Three Graces, but nonetheless seamlessly fit right into the Liverpool waterfront as if they always belonged there. The first is the Mersey Ferries Terminal.
Ferries have been crisscrossing the Mersey River since the 12th century and continue to do so on a regular basis today. Despite the fact that there have been tunnels under the Mersey since 1886 which provide a much faster way to get across, the ferries remain popular not just as a means of transportation, but a way to get a much better view of the Liverpool waterfront. They of course have also been romanticized by Jerry & the Pacemakers in their hit song, Ferry Cross the Mersey.
Mersey Ferries offers not only direct transits of the Mersey, but also a number of other river and canal excursions leaving from this building.
I’ve hardly wandered more than a few hundred yards from the hotel and already there’s been enough to see and do to keep me occupied for more than a day, but there’s much more to come starting with the other ultra modern building on the Liverpool Waterfront, the Museum of Liverpool.
Built to replace the overcrowded Museum of Liverpool Life, this was the largest purpose built museum in the UK in over a century. Opened in 2011, it details 10,000 years of Merseyside history with a primary focus on the rise and fall and rise again of the city of Liverpool.
Passing by the museum, the Liverpool waterfront transitions once again, this time from the new to the old as you arrive at the sprawling Royal Albert Docks.
Royal Albert Dock
When the Albert Dock opened in 1846 it was considered to be an architectural and engineering marvel. It was the first large structure in Britain built entirely of cast iron, brick and stone which might not sound like a big deal, after all most commercial buildings today are built using a combination of those materials with steel replacing cast iron. The big deal was – no wood. These new warehouses were fireproof. The other innovation was that ships could literally come right up to the sides of the warehouses and have their goods laden or unladen by the world’s first hydraulic cranes. For the next fifty years these buildings on the Liverpool waterfront held some of the most valuable cargos on Earth.
The builders of the Albert Dock did not foresee the Age of Sail coming to an end and the increased ship sizes that steam engines allowed. By the late 1800’s most cargo vessels could not fit through the narrow opening to the warehouses and business went elsewhere to larger docks further down the Liverpool waterfront. Even with much reduced revenue the Albert Dock struggled along all the way to 1972 before the warehouses were closed for good. For the next decade no one could agree what to do with this now derelict piece of land and buildings, until Margaret Thatcher took the bull by the horns and created the Merseyside Development Corporation tasked with revitalizing the entire Liverpool waterfront, but with Albert Dock as the priority. In 1952 the Albert Dock buildings collectively had received the Grade I designation as being of national importance, the largest such collection of buildings in the UK, so it was imperative that they be preserved.
It still took until 1988 before the complex was finally reopened and since then there have been a number of attractions added including The Beatles Story, The Tate Liverpool and the Mersey Maritime Museum. In addition there are a ton of restaurants, pubs, shops and a couple of hotels. Simply put Albert Dock, which received a Royal charter in 2018, has been one of the most successful waterfront redevelopments anywhere in the world and believe it or not, with over 6 million visitors a year is the most popular tourist destination outside London in the entire UK.
My suggestion is to just walk around the entire complex before deciding which attractions, stores or restaurants to patronize, stopping to look at a number of the statues and monuments along the way starting maybe with this one.
This statute, The Legacy by Mark DeGraffenried, was donated to the city of Liverpool by the Mormon church to commemorate the nine million people who emigrated to North America from this port, one of whom was my maternal grandmother Leah Gent a WWI war bride. It reminded me of similar statues in Cobh (formerly Queenstown), Ireland, Ellis Island in NYC and outside Pier 21 in my city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It also reminded me that we are all descendants of immigrants whether it be a few generations ago or a thousand generations.
Liverpool was the Port of Registry and the destination of perhaps the most famous ship to be sunk after the Titanic, the Cunard passenger liner Lusitania which was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915 with the loss of 1,193 lives. These included 128 Americans and this event is credited with turning American sentiments against Germany, although it took the US more than two more years to get into the war. What most people don’t know is that there were more Canadian casualties than Americans, 216 to be precise.
In 1982 parts of the Lusitania were salvaged including three of the propellers. This is one of them now permanently displayed on the Liverpool waterfront near the entrance to Royal Albert Dock.
Every May 7 a ceremony takes place here to commemorate the victims who never got to step foot on this spot near where the Lusitania should have docked.
Since the main purpose of this trip to England was to golf, apropos of nothing, I’ll include a shot of this cairn on the Old Head golf course in Ireland which is the closest spot to land from where the Lusitania was sunk. We played there on an absolutely gorgeous day in September, 2019.
Almost right beside the Lusitania propeller is this memorial statute, Waiting by Judy Boyt, dedicated to the working horses of the Liverpool waterfront which once were the principle means of getting the goods to and from the warehouses that stretched for seven miles along the Mersey. At one time there were up to 20,000 of them on duty, the most of any UK city outside of London.
From a distance you can be excused for mistaking our final Liverpool waterfront statue for Elvis Presley; I know I did. It’s actually Billy Fury whose career pretty well made him the British Elvis. Not only did he look like Elvis, he gyrated like him, starred in a number of movies, including one with Ringo Starr, and died an untimely death at age 42. Although he never had the success that Elvis did, he did have a legion of adoring fans who collectively are known as ‘The Sound of Fury’ and they raised the money to commission this statue by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy.
Ok we’ve cased Royal Albert Dock and it’s time to decide which of the attractions to visit. I strongly recommend two, starting with The Merseyside Maritime Museum which occupies three floors in one of the restored warehouses and is free to explore.
I could do an entire post on this museum, but will limit my comments to say that the Titanic and Lusitania exhibits alone are worth seeing, but there’s much more to the story of Liverpool’s pre-eminence as one of the great ports of the world. Make sure you set aside an hour or so for the first two floors and then go up to the third where The International Slavery Museum is housed. Here you will find three main sections. The first tells of life in West Africa, the second of the enslavement and middle passage to the New World and the third to the lasting legacy of the international slave trade. It might not be the most comfortable visit of the day, but one that cannot be ignored.
The second must-see attraction in the Royal Albert Dock is The Beatles Story which is in the basement of another restored warehouse. Like the Maritime Museum I could do an entire post on this place, but suffice it to say that if your are a Beatles fan, and who isn’t, then you need to visit here. The tour includes an audio guide narrated by John Lennon’s sister Julia which lets you take as much time as you want exploring the many rooms that tell the story in chronological order from the earliest days to the solo careers after the breakup. At the end there is a gift store with every possible type of Beatles souvenirs you can dream of.
Lastly, you’ll want to wet your whistle at some point during your visit to the Liverpool waterfront and there’s lots of places to do that, but if you want a typical Liverpool pub experience I recommend visiting The Pump House which, not surprisingly, is located in the old Albert Dock pump house. Nothing fancy about this place, but a good selection of beer, wine and spirits and traditional pub grub, Brit style.
Well that concludes our Liverpool waterfront tour. Tomorrow we’ll return to the links at fabled Formby Golf Course. See you there.