Liverpool Landmarks Tour (Part Three)

Lets continue our walk...check where you are ;-)

Finally, you got to the most iconic Liverpool Landmarks.

Three Graces - Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building. They have defined Liverpool waterfront for the last hundred years and the lives of many people around the world. They are on the list of the UNSESCO global heritage - as they truly served to change the lives of so many families. 

Royal Liver Building - the most recognisable and loved landmark of Liverpool. Its grand clock towers are crowned with the Liver Birds. They are named Bella and Bertie. 

Bella looks out to the sea, to welcome handsome sailors and ships bringing wealth to the city. Bertie looks inland to protects Liverpool people or/and to see if the pubs are still open for the sailors. This is according to the local legend from the start of 20th century. The port is here no more, the sailors are gone, the pubs are closing down. Times are changing. As they have always been. 

This was one of the first buildings in the world to be built using reinforced concrete, and it also added to the construction of mega building in the Art Deco era. It is a forerunner to many old structures in New York and many films scenes have been created here, resembling this American city. 

The tower-clocks are larger that of Big Ben, and largest electronically driven clocks in the UK. The building was originally a home of the Royal Liver Assurance group until 2011. Now it serves different businesses and you can go up the towers for a tour. 

Cunard Building, in a elegant classical style, was the gateway to America for millions of migrating people during the late 19th and early 20th century. 

Former headquarters of the Cunard Line shipping company that provided the passenger facilities for the all-important life-changing trans-Atlantic journeys. So, it was here, in its grounds, that many people from all over Northern Europe and Asia - both wealthy and poor.- had waited hours and days for one of the vessels to leave Europe forever, and to bring them to the new promised land - glorious America, the land of hope and possibility. 

Today, the building is owned by the Merseyside Pension Fund and is home to public and private organisations, and serves as the screen for some remarkable light-work displays. 

Cunard moved its business to New York city. 

Port of Liverpool Building - commonly known as the Dock Office. It was the main Port of Liverpool office, until 1994, when the port facilities moved to the north of the city. Here was all the day-to-day business done, operating the port in the proper manner. 

Liverpool Waterfront - Pier Head- it is built on a reclaimed land from the river Mersey. You may have heard about the river and Liverpool if you stumbled upon some sea shanties. Most of them come from Irish sailors that have life-long connection to Liverpool. Dublin is just across the pond, at it is like a sister city to Liverpool. 

The Beatles Statue - arrived on Liverpool's Waterfront in December 2015. Donated by the famous Cavern Club, the placement of the statue coincides with the 50 year anniversary of the band's last gig played in Liverpool, at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. 

Play - can you find an acorn in one the hands and do you know what does it mean? 

Behind the Beatles you may notice the Albion House - 30 James Street. This is the White Star line previous headquarter. The design closely follows the former New Scotland Yard building in London which can be admired over Thames.

In 1912, when news of the disaster of the Titanic reached the offices, the officials read the names of the deceased from the balcony. They were too afraid to leave the building - on the ship were family members of the people of Liverpool - the crew. All gone. And knowing the character of Liverpooldians -they were quite right to be afraid.  

So, remember - many Liverpooldians lost their lives on Titanic, along with its captain, Edward Smith, who lived in nearby Crosby - Waterloo. 

Liverpool Museum (bottom right) opened in 2011 replacing the former Museum of Liverpool Life.  There is the Lion locomotive on display - one of the first that linked the first railway passenger line in the world - between Liverpool and Manchester. 

The huge debate was if the new buildings on the waterfront diminish the unique character of Liverpool as a global heritage city. The UNESCO decided in 2020 to remove the status and many people here were outraged. 'We need new buildings - not derelict sites - and it is better to look at those new structures than piles of rubbish and scrap' - was the argument. How true. 

On the other site - we know how fidgety the local authorities are - not only in Liverpool, everywhere, and they tend to make hasty landscape planning. The character of Liverpool old docks has been lost, the marvellous Landing Stage is in disarray. All for the money of new property developers. 

Is it right, is it wrong?  

After a few moments of reflection on urban architecture, we are heading to Albert Dock - a place that visiting the UK - is the place to know. Huge historic impact on a worldwide scene. This is something for the history maniacs.

But before, something for the modern art fans - Lambananas. Designed by a Japanese artist, Taro Chiezo, and placed all around the city, exactly 125 of those sculpture - to commemorate the city's 2008 Europe's Capital Of Culture and the Liverpool Biennale Festival. 

The artist's idea was apparently to reflect on what will happen if the - more or less mad - scientists of the world would genetically cross the lamb (remember Dolly, the sheep?) with a banana? Well, he came up with the idea before them, and here it is: 

The concerned here is a rumour or truth (we have no time, passion and resources to investigate it)  that the grain of proper wheat has been transmuted with some genes of a rat or whatever - to make it more profitable (growing better, immune to diseases). The thing is that genetic engineering is both - good and bad. 

Let's get back to walk:

Royal Albert Dock - one of the oldest docks in the world (if not the oldest). Over the next 200 years there had been more than 50 docks alongside River Mersey, stretching out for over 12 km. 

This is the place when it all started for Liverpool - to be a grand city. A thought of a few clever men - how to improve shipping. And this cast iron dock was introduced. 

Well, it was the first structure in Britain to be built with no structural wood, to prevent the all-damaging menace - fire. Also a revolutionary approach to docking where ships were loaded and unloaded directly from/to the warehouses. This was the most advanced port system in the world. For nearly two centuries half of the world’s trade had been passing through it, 24 hours a day (some sources say it, we are not that on the ball).

The huge cast-iron columns painted orange-pink are in the cyclopean classicism style. Beauty to the beast. The dock - both in size and the quality is a sign of prosperity that the Port of Liverpool had at the time.

In times of its use in the 19th century it stored the most valuable cargoes of the time: brandy (!), tobacco (!), tea, sugar, ivory, cotton, silk, hemp and jute. 

During the Second World War, Albert Dock served as a base for boats of the British Atlantic Fleet,  heavily damaged during the 1941 May Blitz.

Forget the war, lets do some peace. Pump House is a good place - integral part of the dock system, now one of the best pubs in the UK. You can spot it easily, stare at the chimney. 

One of the most recognizable and cherished artists of the North-West England, L.S. Lowry (1887-1976), got many impressions of Liverpool, below is one. 

One of the moving attractions of the Liverpool docks' is Zebu - in both senses - it moves around the dock sometimes, and its story is very moving, indeed. 

The tall-ship was built in Sweden in 1938, used initially as a Baltic trading vessel. She carried timber, iron ore, and paper. When the Second World War came, she was used to smuggle arms and refugees from Poland and Denmark to Britain. Zebu was in service until the late 1960s.

A crew took her on a circumnavigation of the globe trip in the late 1980’s. Finally, after much perturbances, she found home in Liverpool.

Mersey Heritage Trust takes care of her now. It is a sign of TLC in and around Albert Dock, for the people of the sea.

Leaving the waterfront we are heading for new addition to the city life. Built in the end of 2010 - Liverpool One - huge shopping complex.  

This was a part of the Old Dock and an area where sailors used to live. Now the shopping experience is thriving. 

 

Going west one of the alleys you may find yourself in front of the Bluecoat - the oldest surviving structure in Liverpool centre, from 1716, built by a sea captain as a charity for children. It now hosts a modern art gallery, a café and a peaceful garden.

If you want more of the city buzz Liverpool is famous for, the best place is Liverpool Central - definitely the most vibrant part of the city. Pubs here are almost alway full. The madness never stops here, that is the motto.

Central Hotel is located directly opposite Liverpool Central train station. The hotel has fifteen stylish and contemporary en-suite bedrooms and great pub as well.

At the end of the street, the Adelphi Hotel emerges - considered to be one of the finest hotels anywhere in the world - in the glorious past. 

The current hotel building opened its doors as Britannia Adelphi in 1914 and was regarded as the most luxurious hotel outside London. It served the wealthy passengers before they embarked on their journey to North America or famous ones: Charlie Chaplin or Charles Dickens. It is on the National Heritage List for England.

Many guests staying here have reported seeing ghosts, it is one of the most haunted hotels in the UK, the ghost-hunters claim.

Naked Statue above, is one of the city landmarks on the old Lewis building. The official name is 'Liverpool Resurgent', but locally, and for obvious reasons, it is known 'Dickie Lewis'. An artwork by Jacob Epstein, mounted above the main entrance to the former Lewis's department store building in Ranelagh Street. It has been a place where people meet and is adopted in one of the popular songs about Liverpool. 

Liverpool will tell you farewell (or welcome, depends which way you are heading) in a high fashion. There are two of the most outstanding pubs, next to the main Lime Street station.

The Vines

This impressive baroque style pub has been on the corner of Lime Street for over 100 years. Granite and marble porches, etched glass windows, tower and the clock. Interior is simply lavish, it explodes with decoration. The pub used to have its own art collection. 

The Lounge Bar, Smoke Room or Queensbury Room, are one of the most ornate pub rooms in the country. Completely panelled in mahogany. Above the fireplace is a splendid bas-relief of a Viking ship. Upon the ceiling are 12 zodiacal designs. Bill Bryson, famous US travel writer eulogised about the Vines in his famous book 'Notes From a Small Island'.

The Crown is the first pub people see on their arrival in Liverpool. The beautiful golden letters outside refer to a famous local brewer, who owned a series of lush pubs in the bygone era. The earliest reference to a pub here is from 1859. It has copper-front bar, ceramic fireplace, a glazed dome with a winding staircase beneath it. Enjoyment to the senses.

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Below you can explore the landmarks of Liverpool in a moving picture.  

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Sources:
http://yourliverpoolview.com/
https://www.pressreader.com
https://www.stgeorgeshallliverpool.co.uk/about/heritage/