Liverpool, Merseyside

My time in Liverpool

My memory of Liverpool was living in number 12 Kensington Rd near the corner of Hall Lane where the post office was. My parents' landlady was Mrs Elizabeth Smith, I think she was Tommy Smith's mother? I remember my father taking me & my sister to St John's Gardens on weekends and to Otterspool until a tragic accident involving a young lady on a pushbike and a car? I remember the New Brighton ferry at the pier head. And I remember my dad taking me in the company (Otis) truck going to Birkenhead through the Mersey Tunnel. Thanks...

University

I have fond memories of living in Liverpool. I lived behind Hope Street and paced the pavement of Bold Street most days. This is a wonderful picture for me.

SS Majestic 1890

On 25 June 1890 my grandmother, Emma L Hasell, 24 years old, left her life as a household servant and sailed on the Majestic for New York where she joined her fiance, William Henry Pickering, formerly of Silverdale and Tunbridge Wells. She stayed in the YWCA until she found work. They married in November 1891.

to a new life

My greatgrandfather Patrick Matthews, his second wife Mary Ann (Smith) together with their daughter Rose sailed on the maiden voyage of the Majestic to New York in April 1890. Patrick was from Cootehill, CountyCavan, Ireland. In 2005 I found his descendants living in Florida. My husband and I flew to America for a holiday and met our new cousins.

Liverpool and Merseyside Photographic Memories

It was planned that around St George’s Hall there would be unbuilt areas so as to show off the Hall, the grandest of the civic buildings. At the back is St John’s Gardens, and in front is the open area of St George’s Plateau. At the time of our photograph, it contained the equestrian statues of Prince Albert (1866) and Queen Victoria (1870), and the four lions (1860) designed by the man who put the finishing touches to the hall, Charles Robert Cockerell. This was a busy and important area of Liverpool for a century before our photograph. The cenotaph and the reminder of two world wars are still to come.

Liverpool and Merseyside Photographic Memories

We see George’s Dock from Mann Island. We can just see St Nicholas’ Church and the Tower Building at the very far end. George’s Dock was built out from the original shore-line and opened in 1771. At the time it was Liverpool’s largest dock covering 26,793 square yards; it could hold, as we can see, a considerable amount of shipping. The dock was closed in 1900, and was filled in to give us George’s Parade (the Pier Head and the three large and famous waterfront buildings that we have today).

Victorian and Edwardian Maritime Album

Construction of St George’s Dock was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1761. The town’s third dock, it extended from the corner of St Nicholas Churchyard to Moor Street; the land was provided by the Corporation. The decision to build St George’s was one of necessity, as the Old Dock, prone to silting, had to be closed on occasion for dredging, while the Salthouse Dock, completed in 1748, was already too small to take the larger merchant ships then being built. When originally built, St George’s Dock covered just over 20,000 sq yds and had a total quayage of 700 yds. It was linked to the town’s two older docks and the graving dock, allowing vessels to move between them without having to enter the Mersey. St George’s was later enlarged to 31,000 sq yds and linked to Prince’s Dock. When it was eventually filled in, the site of the dock was occupied by the headquarters of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board, the Cunard Building and the Royal Liver Insurance Building.