Liverpool Warehouses: Past and Present

[the golden vision]

In the 1930's the number of warehouses in the city centre and docklands would've been in the high hundreds.Today, that number is down to around 80. What is particularly regrettable is that there were in excess of 250 pre-1830, only 11 remain. Even the most humble of these Georgian warehouses had a sombre dignity,some, like the Goree and Duke's Dock were monumental. The loss of the latter prompted this from art historian, Nikolaus Pevsner; " The magnificent classical warehouse of 1811,one of the oldest preserved examples of this type at Liverpool,was senselessly destroyed in 1966"

It might be prosaic and unglamourous but Liverpool excels at warehouses.It was at the forefront of design and innovation of these buildings for nearly 200 years. The warehouse as architecture arrived in Britain with the Goree warehouses of the 1790s(rebuilt in 1802) with their stone colonaded ground floors. Then in the 1840s the apogee of dock warehousing, the Albert Dock, the finest Victorian dock in the world ! In north docks can be found the gargantuan(if nothing else) Stanley Dock Tobacco warehouse, the largest brick building in the world at the time of its construction.

Back in the late 1990's i contacted Liverpool City Council about the future of a warehouse on Galton St , off the dock rd. There were plans for a Toy store on the site and the warehouse was threatened with demolition. I was told by the council planning permission had been granted for the development,even though the warehouse was listed. Then, as now, Liverpool was in urgent need of investment and jobs. The warehouse was demolished and Toy 'r' Us was built.

The warehouse in question happened to be the earliest surviving example of a fireproof building in Liverpool,1836. The warehouse had stood isolated and neglected since the demolition of the neighbouring Bibby warehouse complex(which incidentally had included two Georgian warehouses) in the early 1980's.

This is an irony here,around the same time ,possibly just before, plans were put forward by MDHC, to build a ten storey hotel at the south west corner of Prince's Dock.The main opposition to the plans came from the vicar or rector of St Nicholas' church, who said the building would obscure views of the church from the river. Heritage groups supported him and the they pressured the developers to build something more 'in keeping' that was, warehouse style. Subsequently plans were revised, and the Crown Plaza is the result, 5 storey red brick. The irony is, a 5 minute walk from St Nicholas's was an historic warehouse, was demolished without a murmur of opposition

The above illustrates perfectly the lowly status of the warehouse as anything of architectural or historic value. Understandable to some extent, most warehouses are primarily functional, quite often without any architectural detailing. However, it's worth noting, that i remember seeing the Albert Dock included on a top 100 buildings of the world on an international architecture website a few years ago and i personally would place it before St George's Hall and the cathedrals

It would be hard to write about warehouses in Liverpool without including some of the buildings that have been lost. Not just because some were very fine structure indeed but the sheer scale of the destruction.
Despite the losses, anyone interested in the development of the warehouse in the last 200 years, wouldn't go to London, New York or Boston, Hamburg or Marselles, they'd come here to Liverpool.
In the coming weeks i'll be photographing all the remaining pre-1930 warehouses left in the docklands and city centre.

[the golden vision]

Pre-war photos of parts of Liverpool's north dockland showing the expanse of warehousing. These photos are from Huskisson northwards and dont include Stanley Dock. Almost all of the warehouses in these photos have gone.
Photo English Heritage.

[the golden vision]

Baltic Triangle. Some warehousing still survives here but the three large warehouses in the bottom right,along with another large adjacent warehouse(just out of shot) were demolished in the early 1980's.
Photo, English Heritage.

[the golden vision]

The Baltic Triangle looking towards Toxteth.
Photo, LRO.

[the golden vision]

The Hanover St and Old Hall st areas. These were the main city centre warehouse districts, with smaller clusters spread around the city,such as the Mathew St area.

[the golden vision]

The Duke's Dock warehouse, built by the Duke of Bridgewater in 1811. Not only was this warehouse of interest externally,with its classical detailing but internally there was extensive use of cast iron, columns and beams. It was demolished in 1966 to make way for a marshalling yard and storage for containers. The plans never materialised and the site was left vacant after demolition. If the building had've survived it would probably be Grade 1 listed today.
Photo, EH.

[Scarecrow]

This is a brilliant thread GV. Totally mesmerising & utterly depressing at the same time. Keep it up!

[McGrath]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

This is a brilliant thread GV. Totally mesmerising & utterly depressing at the same time. Keep it up!

This.

How many of the pre-1930 warehouses still have an industrial function?

[the golden vision]

Originally Posted by McGrath

This.

How many of the pre-1930 warehouses still have an industrial function?

Good question. Some of the smaller ones,mostly from the 1890's onwards are small businesses, small workshops, garages. Very few are actually just for storage. Quite a few are now apartments, most are in use with the obvious exception of Stanley Dock(on which conversion work will start very soon) and the Jamaica St area.

[the golden vision]

The Goree warehouses. The first Goree warehouses on that site were built in 1793,burnt down and rebuilt after a fire in 1802. They suffered war damage and were demolished in the 1950's. They could almost certainly have been saved. Personally, i don't think there was the will. Post'war government funding for rebuilding Liverpool after the devastating effect of the blitz on the city was prioritised for the docks(national importance) Despite the lack of funds available to the city i think there war damage could've even been a convenient excuse for demolition. The location of these magnificent structures was the cause of their ultimate demise imo. Freeing up space on the Strand for the motor car ,at the expense of the loss of warehouses,even those warehouses would've been an easy choice for the planners in the 1950's i'm afraid.
Images, LRO and EH.

[the golden vision]

Warehouses from the 1870's on Jamaica St in the Baltic Triangle. Demolished in the early 1980's.

[the golden vision]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

This is a brilliant thread GV. Totally mesmerising & utterly depressing at the same time. Keep it up!

Cheers, i know i feel the same way myself. On the positive side we still have a great legacy and to quote Pevsner on the Albert Dock......"For sheer punch there is little in the early commercial architecture of Europe to equal it"
A little warehouse tale in was living in London in 1987 but travelled home in the April of that year to see the Everton-Luton game and the presentation of the League Championship trophy. The next day i went to Stanley Dock to see if could see the resident Peregrine Falcons in breeding display. I waited a couple hours, nothing. I decided to head home and popped in to a pub on Vauxhall Rd for a quick pint(pretty sure it was the Green Man) Anyway, a few old fellas were talking and one of them remarked how windy it was down there now with all the warehouses gone Good job the Stanley Dock warehouses are still there It's true though, the warehouses that dominated that area were a huge windbreak. The demoltion of the Tate and Lyle complex there also included a very good range of warehouses from the 1840's, Love Lane also had some good warehouses.
Someone posted an aerial shot on here a while back, which showed Tate&Lyle and the warehouses, anyone remember it?

[Cast Iron Shaw]

Looking at these photos brings out a resemblance to Detroit which has lost many significant old buildings.

I have always had a hankering to go back to 1930's Liverpool for some obscure reason if teleporting was a possibility

I am sure it was a fairly miserable existence for many during that time but the relative scale and importance of the city must have been quite impressive.

It would also have been good to catch up with my relatives and also see Dixie Dean play at Goodison

[the golden vision]

I understand where you're coming from there.

[the golden vision]

This huge Railway Goods warehouse in Kirkdale was built in 1880 and demolished in the late 1960's.
Photo, LRO.

[cambrian]

The sad thing is (as proven) even when not required any more for warehousing they can be redeveloped into anything, good solid apartments,small business units retail and leisure.

The loss of the Bibbys warehouse is particularly heartbreaking.

[Richard_A]

Originally Posted by Cast Iron Shaw

Looking at these photos brings out a resemblance to Detroit which has lost many significant old buildings.

Yep.

[the golden vision]

Someone posted a photo a few years ago of a photo of the New York waterfront in the 1920's with a picture of Liverpool's central waterfront and part of the north docks. The foregrounds were strikingly similar. A really wide river, lined with miles of docks built out onto it and huge,densely packed warehouses.

[Scarecrow]

This should be renamed the 'Square Battery Licking Thread'. It's deeply unpleasant, yet I insist on going back for more. Imagine how smart that area off Old Hall Street would be if those warehouses were retained, sandblasted and given the Albert Dock/Hamburg treatment. Such short-sightedness really is sad.

Have you got any pics of the large warehouses down from Millers Bridge, Bootle, that look like they've been halved in height?

[the golden vision]

Re: the Millers Bridge warehouses, Scarecrow, they can be seen in the first aerial pic in post 2. Some were demolished in 1976 and the rest in 1984,as part of the 'regeneration' of the area, replaced with the ubiquitous Industrial Estate.
I'll be concentrating on the legacy that remains from now on.
(The remaining warehouses on the south side of Millers Bridge date from around 1900. The ones that were demolished were from about 1880 and far superior to what remains)