A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
LIVERPOOL, a large seaport town on the S verge of Lancashire; the second for population and for commerce in England; on the Mersey, opposite Birkenhead, near the Mersey's mouth, 31½ miles W by S of Manchester, 49½ S by W of Lancaster, 74 SW of Leeds, and 202 NW of London. As regards poor-law administration, it is conterminate with Liverpool parish; as regards borough government and parliamentary franchise, it includes also Everton and Kirkdale townships, part of West- Derby parish, and part of Toxteth- Park extra-parochial tract; and as regards edificed continuity, or suburban appendages, it further includes Bootle-cum-Linacre township, much of the rest of Walton-on-the-Hill parish, part of Sefton parish, the eastern or beyond borough portions of West Derby parish, parts of Childwall parish, and all the beyond-borough portions of Toxteth-Park. It also, in a large sense, as regards at once contiguity of position, community of interests, and intercourse of population, might be understood as including Birkenhead and other places on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, villages beyond Bootle on the coast, and villages beyond Toxteth-Park on and near the Mersey. Some parts within its borough boundaries have separate names, and in some respects separate belongings of their own; and all these parts, as well as all others beyond the borough boundaries, are separately noticed in their respective alphabetical places.
History.A creek or pool of the Mersey, around which the original nucleus of the town stood, had a tidal flow in the direction of what is now Paradise-street; underwent encroachment and much change in the course of the town's progress; was partly converted into the first wet dock of the port in 1709; was finally all obliterated, by the filling up of that dock, in 1831; and is now the site of the custom-house, the post- office, and the revenue buildings. This pool and the adjacent sea most probably gave rise to the name Liverpool. The name was formerly written Litherpoole, Liderpole, Liferpole, Lithepool, and Liverpol; and it occurs, in these various forms, or in others nearly identical with them, so fitfully or indefinitely in early documents, that a critic cannot say which was the earliest form. The Lither, the Lider, the Lifer, the Lithe, and the Liver, seem to be only varieties of spelling; and all probably were taken either from the old Gothic word Lithe or Lide, signifying " the sea, " or from its derivatives Liter and Lid, signifying " a ship," or Lithe, signifying "a fleet of ships. " The names Litherland, at the Lancashire side of the mouth of the Mersey, Lytham, at the month of the Ribble, Lithermore or Livermore, in Suffolk, and perhaps Leith, in Scotland, appear to have been taken from the same source. Yet the name Liverpool has been the subject of much difference of opinion, and of much debate. One opinion derives it from the family name of Lever, which is a very ancient name in Lancashire. Another derives it from the Welsh words Ller-pwll, signifying "the place on the pool;" asserts that the entire Mersey estuary was anciently called Lyrpul, Lyrpoole, or Litherpoole; and alleges that the vulgar pronunciation of the name by the country people in the vicinity, Lerpool, represents the true and ancient form of the name. A third opinion derives it from a plant, called liver-wort, found on the shore. And a fourth opinion, a very favourite one, derives it from a kind of water-fowl, supposed to have frequented the pool at the town, and to have been anciently called lever or liver; and this opinion is supported by an appeal to the borough arms, the crest of which is a bird, alleged to be the lever or liver. No such bird as the lever, however, is known to exist in nature; and the bird on the corporation seal, as given in Gregson's " Fragments of the History of Lancashire, " is rudely figured, presents no resemblance to any of the aquatic species, was thought by Mr. Gregson to represent an eagle, and may, like other symbols of heraldry and ornament, have been altogether a creature of the imagination.
The pool at the town is supposed by Baxter, in his "Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, " to have been the Portus Segantiorum mentioned by Ptolemy; but it is not viewed in any such light, or associated in any way whatever with the Roman period, by any other writer. Not a single Roman relic has ever been discovered in Liverpool; not a trace has been found of the Romans having been ever here; and not a vestige of either station or military road exists or is recorded, to show that they were ever in the neighbourhood. All the surrounding tract, in as far as antiquarian research has been able to ascertain, was, till considerably after the Roman times, a thorough solitude, probably covered by forest; and, if previously penetrated at all, was penetrated only by the ancient Druids; and came, at length, to be partially opened by the daring Scandinavians who scoured the coasts of the Irish sea. The Mersey itself, though believed to have been the boundary between Northumbria and Mercia, in both the Saxon and the Danish times, figures very obscurely in early record, and is first mentioned by its modern name, so late as 1004, in a deed of King Ethelred. The country between the Mersey and the Ribble, " inter Ripam et Mersam, " is first mentioned in the same year, in the will of Wulfric Spott, Earl of Mercia, bequeathing it to his heirs, Elfhelme and Wulfage. Most of the manors around Liverpool were held, at the death of Edward the Confessor, by thanes of the second or third class who paid a nominal rent to the Crown; but the only one of them respecting which we have any definite information, is the manor of West Derby and its subordinate six berewicks, which are supposed to have been Liverpool, Everton, Garston, Thingwall, Great Crosby, and part of Wavertree. This manor and these berewicks belonged then to the Crown, and were inhabited and cultivated by 53 villeins, 62 bordarii, 3 ploughmen, 6 herdsmen, a radman, 2 bondmen, and 3 bondwomen. The amount of their population, therefore, assuming all the men to have been heads of families, could not have been more than between 600 and 700; and this proves that no town, or even any very large village, was then within their bounds. Domesday book must have taken note of the six berewicks, for a chief object of it was to provide for the raising of a tax on all arable land; but it simply includes them in the manor of West Derby,-does not name either Liverpool, Garston, Thingwall or Crosby; and, though naming Everton, does not give its value. The manor of West Derby, together with all the rest of the country between the Mersey and the Ribble, was given, by William the Conqueror, to Roger of Poictou; and the lands of that manor and of its six berewicks were transferred by Roger to eight Norman knights; yet they continued to be held as one property, under successive owners or lords, till so late as the time of Charles I. John, Earl of Morton, afterwards King John, was lord of them in his time; and the oldest extant document which mentions Liverpool by name, is one of a date seemingly some time between 11 89 and 1195, in which John confirms Henry Fitzwarine in the possession of five portions of the West Derby manor.
A statement has generally been made, on the authority of Camden, that a castle was built at Liverpool by Roger of Poictou; but is entirely without evidence. The residence occupied by Roger was at West Derby, about 4 miles from Liverpool; and even that was probably an unfortified edifice, or one not much fortified, and not a castle. Whatever great structure stood within the manor must have descended to King John; and, while a list of his castles is preserved in the record of his insurrection against his brother, and mentions among others the castle of Lancaster, it is silent respecting any castle at Liverpool. A belief was long current also that a charter had been given by Henry I., constituting Liverpool a borough; but no such charter exists, or seems ever to have existed; and the only alleged evidence for it is a slight corporation record of 1581, which is proved to have been a mistake. The real origin of the town appears to have occurred in the time of King John, who visited Lancashire and Cheshire in the 7th year of his reign; formed Toxteth Park, by enlarging of lands, and by such enclosure and decoration, as made it of princely character; is thought to have selected the pool at the town as the site of a port and a borough, highly favourable for his enterprises; is known to have expended large sums of money on his castles in West Derbyshire; and most probably was the founder of a castle at Liverpool, which came into notice soon after his time, and was always connected with Toxteth Park. The castle stood where St. George's church now stands; occupied all the ground between St. George's-crescent on the one side and Preeson's-row on the other; was of nearly quadrangular form, with a circular tower at each corner; and was surrounded by a moat, from 20 to 30 feet deep. The front facing up what is now Castle-street measured 108 feet in width, and was defended by. a very strong tower and a gatehouse; the front facing down Lord-street, where the Castle gardens and orchard were situated, was also 108 feet in width; the front facing toward the pool, where the quay and the landing-place were situated, was 1 11 feet in width; and the front facing toward what is now James-street had a covered way down to the river, and was 105 feet in width. The circumjacent ground was long open on all sides; and as it sloped rapidly down to the pool and the river, it gave a garrison such command over three-fourths of the circuit as could not be resisted by a besieging force. The castle was dismantled by order of Charles II., and the ruins of it were swept away in the time of George I.; but the substruction of one of its towers was not long ago laid bare, and a part of its moat was opened at the digging of the foundations of the North and South Wales bank. The depth of the ditch was then found to be about 20 feet below the present level of the ground; and it must have been much more. prior to the cutting away of the brow of the hill.
A town instantly arose under protection of the castle; received a charter from King John, in the 9th year of his reign; and acquired, from that charter, the right of local courts of justice, the privilege of choosing its own bailiffs, and all facilities requisite for commerce. The original town extended along the brow of the hill now occupied by Castle-street, the town-hall, the exchange buildings, and Oldhall-street; and was intersected by a line of street, extending from the river-side to a bridge which crossed the pool at the end of the present Dale street. The part of that line now called Water-street was anciently called Bonke-street; and the other part of it was called Dale-street, and took that name from its descending rapidly into the dale in which the pool lay. A lofty cross, called the High Cross, stood at the intersection of the two main lines of street, on a spot near the site of the present town-hall. Castle-street and Oldhall-street, with their adjuncts, were for several ages the chief seat of population; and Dale- street was a sort of fashionable outskirt, containing the mansions of county families who held land in the neighbourhood by burg age tenure. No fewer than about 168 of such families appear to have become early connected with the town; many of them resided in it for mere amenity, without engaging in any trade; and some, particularly the Mores and the Crosses, continued to be connected with it till so late as the time of Queen Anne. A tradition says that, when King John enclosed the lands which formed Toxteth Park, he removed the inhabitants of them to Liverpool; and that these, with some fishermen and boatmen, constituted the town's original population. The castle was provisioned for a long siege, at the commencement of King John's war with his barons; but it does not appear to -have made any figure in the war. A tallage levied in the sixth year of Henry III. shows the value then of Liverpool as compared with adjacent places,-for it yielded 5 marks, or equal to £50 for Liverpool, 5 for Crosby, 1 for Everton, and 1 for West Derby; and another tallage, five years later, shows the value as compared both with these places and with Lancaster and Preston, -for it yielded 11½ marks for Liver pool, 8 for Crosby, 5 for Everton, 7 for West Derby, 13 for Lancaster, and 15 for Preston.
Ranulf, the great Earl of Chester, who had for nearly fifty years governed his earldom with almost regal power, got a grant from the Crown of much of the country between-the Ribble and the Mersey, including the borough of Liverpool; and though he lived not more than three or four years to enjoy his new possessions, he appears to have done good service to the town. A very old tradition assigns to him the erection, on Everton hill, of a beacon, or lighthouse, which continued to stand till the beginning of the present century. That structure may have been either a beacon or a lighthouse, or both; for it stood so conspicuously on an eminence upwards of 200 feet above the town's level, that it must have been visible both over a great extent of country and over many miles at sea. The town passed, at the death of Ranulf, to the Earl of Derby, in right of his marriage to Ranulf's sister; and it does not appear to have made progress under its new proprietor and his heirs; for, in the time of the fourth of them, it still stood at the same valne as in the time of Henry III. Yet it was important enough to be called upon, in the time of Edward I., to send two members to parliament. Measures were initiated also, in the time of Edward II., for removing to it the great establishment of Whalley abbey; and they seemed likely., for a time, to take effect; but they never were matured. Its castle likewise was visited by Edward II. Its streets then, and in the time of Edward III., were only five, Castle-street, Dale-street, Bonke-street now Water-street, Moore-street now Tithebarn-street, and Chapel-street. One Vessel, with six seamen, was its contribution to the fleet of 700 ships, with 14,457 seamen, in 1347, for the siege of Calais. A fearful epidemic, somewhat resembling modern cholera, assailed it about 1361, and made such- havoc among its inhabitants that the survivors were not able to remove the dead to the burial-place at Walton, about 3 miles distant; and they obtained permission to have a cemetery of their own, around the one place of worship in the town, the chapel of St. Nicholas. Either then also, or on some subsequent similar occasion, another cemetery was formed outside the town, on what was then the road to Everton. A lane adjoining that cemetery was long known as Sickman's lane, and is now the site of Addison-street. The proprietorship of the borough reverted to the Crown at the accession of Henry of Bolingbrook to the throne as Henry IV.; and it continued in the possession of all the succeeding sovereigns till Charles I. But it did not, for a time, make progress; for, in the 9th year of Henry VI., it had only 168 burgesses, or no more than it had had in the time of Edward III.
The castle was extended, by the addition of a tower on the S side, in the 20th year of Henry VI. Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton had been made governor of it in the preceding year, and he was made hereditary governor five years afterwards; so that the castle, as long as it stood, was thenceforth governed by him and his descendants. Oldhall-street, previously a private road to the Old Hall of the Moores, was made a public way in the 7th year of Henry VIII; and the change upon it indicates that the town was then slowly extending. The ecclesiastical property in the town confiscated- at the Reformation, comprised nothing more than four chantries in the chapel of St. Nicholas; and two of these were transferred to the Crown, and two were sold. The sum of £5 13s. 4d. was, at the same time, appropriated to the establishing of a grammar school. Leland, who visited all parts of England in the latter part of Henry-VIII's reign, says, respecting the town,- "Lyrpole, alias LyVerpole, a paved town, hath but a chapel. Walton, four miles off, not far from the sea, is the parish church. The king hath a castelet there, and the Earl of Derby hath a stone house. Irish merchants come much thither, as to a good haven. At Lyrpole is small custom paid; that causeth merchants to resort. Good merchandise at Lyrpole; and much Irish yarn, that Manchester men do buy there." The town lost 250 persons in a total population of between 1,200 and 1,500, by a visitation of plague, about 1559, at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign; and it suffered total destruction of its haven, by a tremendous storm, in 1561; yet, notwithstanding these, disasters, and in the face of adverse circumstances which pressed for some years on the whole kingdom, it made a start in commerce during Elizabeth's reign. The old haven is supposed to have been formed in the time of Edward III.; and, immediately after its destruction, a new and better one was rapidly and gratuitously formed by the burgesses. The town suffered loss of several of its vessels, and endangerment to all the rest, by another dreadful storm in 1565; and it afterwards sustained severe injury from the eight years' war in Ireland which completely stopped, for a time, all trade thence with England; yet it is described by Camden, near the end of Elizabeth's reign, as the most commodious and the most frequented route to Ireland, and as remarkable more for elegance and populousness than for antiquity. The number of its burgesses or freemen was nearly doubled between the accession of Elizabeth and the death of James I. Nevertheless, as compared with other seaports, it was still a small place; for, in 1636, when Charles I. issued writs for the exaction of ship money, Liverpool was rated at no more than £25, while Chester was rated at £26, and Bristol at £1,000.
The royalists, at the commencement of the civil wars of Charles I., took possession of Liverpool, seized its magazines, found here thirty barrels of gunpowder and a large quantity of match, garrisoned the castle, and formed some new fortifications. The parliamentarians soon laid siege to the town, stormed the outworks, got possession of the principal street and the chapel, shut up the royalists in the castle, rejected terms of surrender offered by them, stormed them out of the castle, and drove them from the town, with a loss of 10 guns taken, 80 men killed, and 300 men captured. Several frigates, or small armed vessels, were then fitted at the port; went out to cruise on the Irish sea; blockaded Dublin and other Irish ports, so as to cut off supplies of provisions and other necessaries thence to England; and caused such embarrassment to the royalists as incited them to contemplate an attack on Liverpool by sea. Forces were mustered to make that attack; but they landed near Chester, and did not venture into the Mersey. The parliamentarian garrison, anticipating an attack either by sea or by land, placed numerous cannon on the castle, constructed a powerful battery at the entrance to the harbour, built up the ends of the two streets facing the pool, erected a strong fortification along the slope from the castle to the end of Dale-street, and formed a mud wall and a deep wide ditch from the east end of Dale-street to the river. Prince Rupert, with a royalist force of nearly 10,000 men, and in the flush of victory elsewhere, came against the town; expressed contempt for its fortifications, comparing them to a crows nest, which a parcel of boys might take; found to his cost, that they resembled rather an eagle's eyry or a lion's den; spent eighteen days, consumed a hundred barrels of gunpowder, Suffered repulse in at least two general assaults, and lost not fewer than 1,500 men, before achieving success; and even then required all the aids of assault by night, under guidance of a native who could direct him to the most vulnerable points. The slaughter of the garrison was very great; but it ceased on their reaching the H Cross, and there laying down their arms. Prince Rupert formed a plan of new and much stronger fortifications, but never had opportunity to carry it out. He remained nine days in Liverpool recruiting his army, and organizing the surrounding country; and he would probably have made it the base of his future operations, but for being called away by the king to raise the siege of York. The parliamentarians came against the town, between three and four months afterwards; laid siege to it, both by land and by sea; continued the siege for fifty-five days; and then, on 4 Nov. 16 44, got possession of the town by surrender. The losses sustained by the inhabitants, during the three sieges, were very heavy, not only by injury done to trade, but by demolition of very many houses by shot or by fire. The parliament, on petition of the inhabitants, and as compensation for their losses, gave rights of ferry to the corporation; allowed 500 tons of timber for purposes of rebuilding; ordered that the timber should be felled in the estates of the Earl of Derby, Lord Molyneux, Sir W. Norris, and Robert Blundell, Robert Molyneux, Charles Gerard, and Edward Scaresbrick, Esqs.; and afterwards, when passing an ordinance for confirming the town's charters and liberties, granted a sum of £10,000.
The subsequent history of Liverpool is mainly commercial; but, though presenting few of the kinds of events which form the bulk of most local histories, it exhibits one of the most wonderful incidents of town aggrandizement which the world has ever seen. The commerce increased steadily but slowly, with corresponding increase of buildings and inhabitants, till the beginning of the last century; it increased thence, in a more rapid ratio, till the beginning of the present century; and it has increased thence till now with such prodigious rapidity and with such magnificent accompaniments, as to make its progress look like a work of enchantment. The population, in 1700, was 5,714; in 1800, about 75,000; in 1861,443,938; in 1866, nearly 500,000. Nor do these last two figures represent all the increase; for they note the population only within the borough boundaries; and there must be added to them, as equally the result of the town's prosperity, the enormous increase of population immediately beyond the borough boundaries, the rise of several neighbouring villages, and the rise of Birkenhead and other places on the Cheshire shore. All thins else about the town too-the communications, the harbour arrangements, the town extension, the street-improvements, the public buildings, the intelligent enterprise, and the general wealth-have kept pace with the progress of commerce and of population. The late Lord Erskine remarked,- " I had before often been at the principal sea-ports in this island; and, believing that, having seen Bristol and those other towns that deservedly pass for great ones, I had seen every thing in this great nation of navigators on which a subject should pride himself, I own I was astonished and astounded when, after passing a different ferry and ascending a hill, I was told by my guide, " All yon see spread out beneath you that immense plain, which stands like another Venice upon the water- which is intersected by those numerous docks-which glitters with those cheerful habitations of well-protected men--which is the busy seat of trade, and the gay scene of elegant amusements, growing out of its prosperity-where there is the most cheerful face of industry-where there are riches overflowing, and everything that can delight a man who wishes to see the prosperity of a great community and a great empire-all this has been created by the industry and well-disciplined management of a handful of men since you were a boy. "I must have been a stick or a stone not to be affected by such a picture."
The first wet dock, latterly called the Old Dock, and eventually filled up in 1831, was formed at the old pool or haven in 1719. The opening or improving of the navigation to Manchester, by the rivers Mersey and Irwell, so as to enable the "flats " to sail up in ten or eleven hours, instead of requiring ten or eleven days as they had previously done, was commenced in 1720. An act of parliament for enlarging the first dock, forming a second one, and erecting a pier, was obtained in 1736; and another act for enlarging both of the docks, forming a third on e, and erecting other piers and two lighthouses, was obtained in 1761. The plan for improving the navigation of the Sankey-brook, so as to connect Liverpool with the western part of the great coalfield of Lancashire-a plan which was changed into the grander one of cutting a navigable canal down the Sankey valley, and which gave origin to the entire system of navigable canals in Southern Lancashire and throughout England-was concocted in 1755. Only one carriage, and that a carriage kept by a lady, was in Liverpool in 1760; no stage coach came to Liverpool, or nearer than Warrington, prior to that year; and the first stage coach from Liverpool to London was then established, went only once a-week, and took four days to perform the journey. Only four inns were then in Liverpool; and two of these stood till 1852. The streets were not regularly named or numbered till 1773. The "stone-house" of the Earl of Derby, mentioned by Leland, stood till 1819; is supposed to have been erected about 1351, as a watch- station for the Crown; and, after ceasing to be a residence of nobles, was converted first into a public assembly room, and afterwards into a jail. It stood at the foot of Water-street; and its site is now occupied by warehouses. Other features also of Old Liverpool have perished; much of the very ground is changed; and nearly the entire aspect of the present town is new.
Some of the causes of the prosperity of Liverpool have been the advantageousness of its situation for commerce with all parts of the world; its command of central intercourse between England and Ireland, making it a great entrepôt for the products of the two countries; its proximity to an extensive field of the most valuable minerals,- coal, iron, freestone, and salt; its facility of communication with Manchester and the clothing-towns of Yorkshire, rendering it a port of interchange between the markets for manufactured fabrics in England and the markets for raw material in the eastern and western hemispheres; and its prompt, skilful, and complete adoption of new inventions or openings for extended commerce, as these, in any manner or from any quarter, have arisen. "Rapid as was the progress of the commerce of Liverpool in the last century, "-says a writer in the Colonial Magazine, "it is quite equalled in the present day. From the large share the merchants possessed in the African slave trade, it might have been apprehended that the cessation of that traffic won ld have seriously affected their interests. But it was not so. A succession of causes continually tended to open up fresh channels for enterprise, and to give increased facility to mercantile operations. The most powerful of these was the warehousing system, which gave all the advantages of a free port to one possessing so many natural and artificial advantages. It was followed by the partial opening of the trade to the East Indies; next, by the introduction of steam navigation; and, during late years, by the complete abolition of the East India Company's monopoly. In addition to these causes, the rapid advance of our original descendants in the New World, in wealth and population, has called into operation an intercourse chiefly carried on through this port. Lastly, with her skilful engineers, and fortunate position as the outport of a county abounding in mineral fuel, she holds the sinews of that mighty power which is extending its conquests over the wide world; walking the waters through storm and calm, and bridging the Atlantic itself; gliding over the peopled plains of the Old World, through the eternal forests of the New; and, as it passes along, scattering in its train civilized man, his energies guided by Christian knowledge, and by his expanding wants and rational desires."
Among distinguished visitors to Liverpool have been William III., in 1690, on his way to Ireland; the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., in 1806; the Grand Duke of Russia, in 1818; the British Association, in 1837; the Royal Agricultural Society, in 1841; Prince Albert, at the opening of the Albert dock, in 1845; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in 1851; Don Pedro V. of Portugal, in 1854; the British Association again in 1854; the Duke of Cambridge in 1855; the Prince of Oude, in 1857; Dr. Livingstone, the celebrated African explorer, in 1857; Lord Brougham and other distinguished noblemen, on several occasions; the National Association, in 1858; and the Prince and Princess of Wales in Nov. 1865.- Among eminent natives have been Jeremiah Horrocks, the astronomer; George Stubbs, the painter of animals; William Sadler, the inventor of the transference of copper-plate prints to earthenware; John Deare, the sculptor; Edward Rushton, the poet; Mrs- Hemans, the poet; Joseph Whidbey, the civil engineer; Dr. Currie, the biographer of Burns; William Roscoe, author of the Lives of Lorenzo de Medici and Leo X., and at the same time a great local luminary; the Rev. Leigh Richmond, Dr. Dobson, Dr. Enfield, Dr. Bostock, and some others.-Among distinguished residents have been J. Among, the political bookseller; Gregson, the antiquary; Houlston, the physician; S. Heywood, the lawyer; J. Johnson, the bookseller; R. Wright, the painter; Gibson, the sculptor; and many more.- The town gives the title of Earl to the Jenkinsons.
Site and Structure.The Mersey, opposite the centre of Liverpool, is about ¾ of a mile wide; expands gradually along the lower part of the town, and along its seaward suburbs, to an opening of about 1½ mile wide into the Irish sea; and expands gradually, above the town, to a maximum width of fully 3 miles opposite Hale Park. All this, of course, is estuarial; and -it continues to be estuarial up to Runcorn-Gap, and for several miles beyond. Its sweep, from the mouth to Runcorn Gap, is proximately semicircular; and this form of it, together with the narrowness of its mouth as compared with its expansion upwards, renders it a very splendid haven, and gives it the advantage of being constantly scoured and kept open by the rush of the receding tides. It has also the advantage of being flanked along the left or Cheshire side, to the mouth, by the peninsula of Wirral, which extends like a great bulwark between it and the sea. Its shores, for 4 miles from the mouth, as well on most of the Cheshire side as on all of the Lancashire side, are brilliantly covered with town or suburb; and, over most of the distance thence to Runcorn-Gap, exhibit beautiful scenery, scarce1y excelled anywhere in England except on the Wye, rich in woodland, and profusely sprinkled with beautiful villages, charming villas, and picturesque church-towers or spires. The immediate Lancashire environs of the town, for some miles all round, have an undulating contour, are finely wooded, embosom beautiful town-outskirts or villages, and display great wealth of handsome residences and magnificent mansions. The site of the town is partly flat ground along the edge of the river, -partly a sort of amphitheatre of hills, inclosing two depressions, and rising from the flat ground to the borough boundaries; and, except in the part which was occupied by the ancient pool, is all favourable for building and for health. The brow of the hill on which the castle stood, and along which Castle-street and the other ancient streets were built, is about 50 feet above the level of the river; and the slope on both sides of it is sufficient, with very little aid from art, for dryness and salubriousness. The ground beyond the bed of the quondam pool rises rapidly to the E, till it reaches an elevation of 230 feet at Edgehill church, an elevation of 240 feet at Everton-church, and a general elevation of about 200 feet along the borough boundary. The ascent to the N and to the S is more gradual; but it soon, in each direction, attains an elevation of 50 or 60 feet. The two depressions within the amphitheatre are an upper one, which was anciently occupied by the Moss lake, and a lower one, which was anciently occupied by the pool. The former lies at an elevation of 150 feet above the level of the river, and was easily and effectually drained; but the latter, being little above the level of ordinary tides, and actually below the level of spring tides, is very bad building- ground, and can never be rendered sufficiently dry for the purposes of health. The filling up of the pool was a great mistake, as to both the construction of the town and its facilities for commerce. Had that mistake not been committed, the docks would have been in the form of the segment of a circle, sweeping along the bank of the river, and projecting a broad radius among the principal streets. The town is seated partly on red sandstone, partly on coarse red diluvial clay; it is sheltered by heights from the chilling north-east winds; and it has a climate more humid than that of many parts of England, but at the same time less variable. The heat of summer is tempered by the sea-breezes; and the cold of winter is commonly from 6 to 8 degrees lower than under the same latitude on the E coast.
The town, in a general view, presents a somewhat airy appearance, and contains many thoroughfares, vistas, or vantage grounds, commanding charming prospects; yet it includes a comparatively small aggregate of open spaces, and is considerably more dense than most of the other large towns of the empire. The Registrar-General, allowing for in crease since the last census, estimates that Liverpool contains averagely 93 persons on every acre, while Glasgow contains only 84, Manchester 79, Dublin 67, Birmingham 42, Edinburgh, 39, London 39, Bristol 34, Salford 21, and Leeds 10. Much of the northern and of the eastern portions, within the borough boundaries, or the portions in Everton and Kirkdale townships, are very open; so that the other portions, in contrast to these, and as making up the high figure of 93 persons per acre for the entire borough, are very dense. Only the principal streets too, and not all of them, run long distances; while the great majority, except in the newest portions, are not only short but narrow. Nearly the whole town, till about the beginning of the present century, was dingy, ill-built, badly-paved, and inconveniently aligned; but it both has undergone immense improvements in its old parts, and has constantly and increasingly assumed much beauty, regularity, and amenity, in its great and rapid extensions. Some old streets were widened and improved so early as 1786; many others were widened and improved, during the next forty years; a number were widened and improved on plans formed in 1860; about seven more were to be entirely re-modelled, at a cost of about £130,000, on plans formed in 1865; and still further street-improvement, at a computed cost of £250,000, were resolved upon in Oct., 1866. The sums expended by the corporation in improvements from 1786 till 1866, are computed to have exceeded £3,000,000. The result, excepting chiefly in a paucity of open spaces, is very brilliant. The town cannot for a moment compare with Edinburgh, Bath, Westminster, and some other cities, in squares, crescents, and other features of mingled spaciousness and grandeur; but it vies well with all these cities, and far excels many of the other large towns of Britain, in wide handsome streets, in neat substantial private dwellings, in large ornate shops and warehouses, and in sumptuous or magnificent public buildings. A continuous, broad, well paved road runs along the entire line of the docks, both within and beyond the borough boundaries, to a total length of fully 5 miles; very numerous streets strike from that road, mostly at right angles, toward the interior; a fair proportion of spacious main streets intersect the town in all directions, running through it like so many arteries; and the docks, the ferries, and the railway works and stations are all, in their own several ways, of a character great and striking.
Waterloo-place, formed by the junction of Bold-street, Church- street, Ranelagh-street, and Hanover-street, is a fine centre whence to make a tour of the town; commands some good interior views of the street architecture; and is in the neighbourhood of many public buildings and many hotels. Clayton-square, a short distance N of Waterloo-place, but on the line of Parker-street and Elliottstreet, running from Church-street to Lime-street, contains several fine hotels and the Prince of Wales' theatre, and has a stand for hackney coaches. Bold-street, going eastward from Waterloo-place, is the Regent-street of Liverpool; presents a fascinating display of elegant shops and ornate places of business; and has been so greatly enhanced in value, that a building stance on it of 208 square yards, with a frontage of 24 feet, was recently sold by auction at £5,660. Church-street, running west by southward from Waterloo-place, is the Rialto of Liverpool; contains St. Peter's church and the Athenæum; and makes a rich display of shops and warehouses, including the extensive Liver establishment, formerly the Liver theatre. Lord-street, leading on a line with Church-street to St. George's church, is a very fine thoroughfare, with shops and houses at once large, uniform, and ornate; and terminates in St. George's crescent, which was built in 1 827, and is disposed in shops. Castle-street, going northward from the W end of St George's crescent, contains the branch Bank of England, and is confronted at its further end by the Town-hall; South Castle-street runs on the same line, in the opposite direction, and is confronted at its further end by the massive pile of the Custom-house; and these two streets. though originally narrow and dingy, and though both of brief length, are now spacious and imposing. Water street, going from the Town-hall, or the N end of Castlestreet, to St. George's dock, and occupying the site of the ancient Londe-street, was widened and entirely altered in 1825; and is now a spacious and crowded thoroughfare, edificed chiefly with handsome and extensive offices and warehouses. Dale-street, going eastward on a line with Water-street, is also now all spacious; was formerly the grand starting-place of stage coaches to all parts of the kingdom; is now a starting-place of omnibuses to all parts of the town and the suburbs; and contains the Exchange buildings, the Royal Bank buildings, the Corporation public offices, the New Police-offices, a number of very ornate business offices, and several first-class hotels. Oldhall-street, Fenwick-street, Chapel-street, and a number of other business streets, more or less resemble those which we have instanced, and either approach or excel them in rich displays of architecture. The genteel private streets and places are so very numerous, and comparatively so little varied, that any very distinctive examples of them cannot well be selected. Rodney- street, Abercromby-square, Falkner-square, with streets in their respective vicinities, may be taken as specimens. Abercromby-square lies in the SE part of the town, not far from Edge-hill; is crossed, along its four sides, by the lines of Chatham-street, Bedford-street, Oxford - street, and Cambridge-street; is handsomely edificed with most respectable houses; has, at the middle of the E side, St. Catherine's church; and is occupied, throughout the centre, by an extensive and beautiful garden and shrubbery. Falkner-square lies near Toxteth Park, at some distance SE of Abercromby-square; was, a very short time ago, a large enclosed shrubbery, away from the neighbourhood of any house; and, besides being itself now edificed, is subtended, on all sides, by elegant streets. The river- ward part of Toxteth Park contains a fine variety of buildings and suburban residences; and includes, on a rising - ground, handsome villas, commanding delightful views, over the town, the Mersey, and the Cheshire coast. The Everton outskirt also contains many large and beautiful houses, with gardens and shrubberies in front; and commands extensive views over great part of the town, over the Mersey to its mouth, and over -the Wirral peninsula to the mountains of Wales.
Fault has been found with the ornamental architecture of Liverpool, that it is too pretentious, too grandiose, too destitute of a blending of utility with ornament; but this is simply a matter of taste; and what one man, in respect to it, regards as a blemish, another regards as an excellence. Fault has been found with the architecture also, that it wants sufficient diversity, is too much on one type, was long determined or controlled by one set of ideas, or even by one architect; but this likewise is simply a matter of taste, insomuch as to be more pleasing to many persons than it is displeasing to a few; and exactly the same alleged fault has been more strongly urged against Edinburgh and Bath and some other cities which are generally admired. Comparative uniformity in Liverpool, moreover, is a matter rather of the earlier than of the later years of the town's extension; and has, for a considerable time, been giving place to a very much wider play of style and decoration. Even the merchants' offices, as well as the buildings of a less or more public kind-for example, the elegant and lofty piles of offices along both sides of Fenwick-street, and three great groups side-by-side, erected in 1865-6, at the corner of Tithebarn street-vie with one another, and compare victoriously with the best buildings of the same class anywhere in the world, in at once variety, ornature, and splendour. A marked feature in very many streets is the very variety of manner in which the corner houses are treated; most of which are splayed at the angle, or carved, or partly both, with the projecting part supported on brackets, while few do not display cunning devices to make the most of their position. A variety of quite another kind, very damaging to collective views of the street architecture, arises from the town's entire devotion to trade, combined with retention of old or unsightly buildings for sake of their utility, and producing a mixture of meanness and magnificence, or of dinginess and decoration, in very many reaches of street line " It is this mixture of wealth with penury, " remarks a writer in the Builder of Nov. 1865, " that is another distinctive feature in Liverpool. In the metropolis a fine site is usually occupied with houses of corresponding and nearly uniform appearance. But the Trafalgar-square of Liverpool, though having many points in common with that of London, has a strong dash of Tottenham-court-road thrown into it, by the existence of a few shabby unworthy houses among the buildings surrounding it. Standing under the terraced portico of the Free Library, and looking upon St. George's Hall and the railway station, as one might look upon St. Martin's church and Northumberland House from the entrance to the National Gallery, the resemblance of the two sites is striking, even to the street opening out of it in a similar position to that occupied by Parliament-street. But here the resemblance ceases. The houses in this street are small and dirty, and should make way for better ones. Their chimney-pots occupy the position that should be occupied by the drawing- room floors of a handsome class of buildings. Although one side of the square is sumptuous with the enormous American hotel, another side has an ugly eyesore in a shabby group composed of an American and Canadian kerosine and petroleum oil depôt, a cigar-shop, a frail bazaar, an eating-house, the turning into a narrow dingy street, called Livesleyplace, two or three old public-houses, -the Warriors' Rest and the Angel to wit, and Bentley's book-store, most of which, specimens of the domestic and commercial architecture of the last age, are made still more garish by enormous announcements of the wares dealt in by their proprietors permanently painted upon them in huge black letters. A few masterly touches, such as the removal of inadequate objects occupying conspicuous sites, and Liverpool would be more like the cities of the ancient classic world than anything we have. "
Public Buildings.The Town-hall stands at the junction of Water-street and Dale-street, confronting Castlestreet. It was built in 1749, at a cost of £80,000, after designs by Mr. Wood of Bath; and, the interior having been destroyed by fire in 1795, it was then rebuilt in an improved style, at a cost of £110,000, under the direction of John Foster, Esq. It is a noble structure, in the Grecian style, with two elegant fronts; has a handsome portico, with a plain bold pediment, a well- proportioned rustic basement, and a beautiful Corinthian superstructure; is adorned with some fine pieces of sculpture, one of which, representing "Commerce presenting her treasures to Neptune, "draws particular notice; and is surmounted, in the centre, by a dome, rising to a height of nearly 120 feet from the pavement, and crowned by a colossal sitting figure of Britannia. The principal entrance is from the S side, and leads to the grand staircase, opening out upon a suite of apartments, enriched with architectural ornaments in Scag1iola marble, and having arched ceilings in panelled compartments. The principal rooms are a saloon, 30 feet by 26; a drawing room, 33 feet by 26; a ball-room, 90 feet by 42; a second ball- room, 66 feet by 30; a card-room, 33 feet by 26; a refectory, 33 feet by 2'2; and a banqueting-room, 50 feet by 30. A chaste marble statue of George Canning, by Chantry, set up in 1832, is on the first landing of the grand staircase; and portraits of George III., George IV., the Duke of York, and William IV., are in the saloon. The dome is illuminated interiorly by spacious lateral lights; ex cites admiration as seen from the grand staircase; and is encircled exteriorly by a gallery or balcony, which commands a fine view of the surrounding streets, and of the Cheshire coast. The Exchange-buildings occupy three sides of a square, the fourth or S side of which is occupied by the Town-hall. They were erected in 1803-6, after designs by Foster, at a cost of £110,000; and were re- erected in 1864-6, after designs by Wyatt, at an estimated cost of £360,000. They extend along the E and the W sides 197 feet; and along the N side 178 feet. They exhibited, in their original form, a style and ornature corresponding with those of the Town-hall; and they exhibit, in their new form, a higher degree of magnificence corresponding to the higher amount of cost. One of their wings contained a spacious news- room, supplied with all the leading journals, and with all means of immediate telegraphic and commercial intelligence; and had, immediately above, a corresponding room for the use of the underwriters. The news- room, in the reconstructed building, was completed about the end of 1866, and has a very imposing character. The floor is of oak, teak, and pitch pine, laid in patterns, with a large star in the centre; the walls are chiefly of Caen stone; the cornice is supported by columns and pilasters of blue, white, and red marbles; a niche, on the S side, is designed to have a colossal statue of the Queen; panels, above the cornice, contain alternately allegorical groups and the arms of the colonies in bas-relief; and the surmounting dome is of iron and strong plate-glass, and has an inner ornamental glazing, with gold fret border and star centre. A bronze monument to Nelson, originally situated in the centre of the Exchange- square, has been removed to a site a few yards nearer the Town-hall, mid distance between the E and the W towers of the new buildings; and is placed on a handsome granite pedestal, 6 feet high, adorned with perforated panels, through which fresh air passes into a circular shaft round the base of the monument, and is conveyed thence to apparatus for warming the news-room. The monument was designed by M. C. Wyatt, and executed by Westmacott; was erected originally in 1812, at a cost of £9,000, raised by subscription; required upwards of 22 tons of bronze for its formation; and has a total height of 24¼ feet. It is thus described by Roscoe- " On a basement of Westmoreland marble stands a circular pedestal of the same material, and peculiarly suitable in colour to the group which it supports. At the base of the pedestal are four emblematic figures of heroic size, in the character of captives, or vanquished enemies, in allusion to Lord Nelson's signal victories. The spaces between these figures, on the sides of the pedestal, are filled by four grand bas-reliefs executed in bronze, representing some of the great naval actions in which the immortal Nelson was engaged. The rest of the pedestal is richly decorated with lions' heads and festoons of laurel; and in a moulding round the upper part of it, is inscribed, in letters of brass, that most impressive charge delivered by this illustrious commander, previous to the commencement of his battle off Trafalgar, " England expects every man to do his duty. " The figures constituting the principal design are Nelson, Victory, and Death; his country mourning for her loss, and her navy eager to avenge it, naturally claim a place in the group. The principal figure is the Admiral, resting one foot on a conquered enemy, and the other on a cannon. With an eye steadfast, and upraised to Victory, he is receiving from her a fourth naval crown upon his sword; which, to indicate the loss of his right arm, is held in his left hand. The maimed limb is concealed by the enemy's flag, which Victory is lowering to him, and under the folds of which, Death lies in ambush for his Victim; intimating that he received the reward of his valour and the stroke of death at the same moment. By the figure of an exasperated British seaman, is represented the zeal of the navy to wreak vengeance on the enemies who robbed it of its most gallant leader. Britannia, with laurels in her hand, and leaning, regardless of them, on her spear and shield, describes the feelings of the country, fluctuating between the pride and the anguish of a triumph so dearly purchased, but relying for security on her own resources. "
St. George's Hall, with the Assize Courts, stands in a central situation, and presents four fronts to respectively Lime-street, St. John's lane, St. John's church, and the junction of Shaws-Brow, Islington, and London-road. The land occupied by it, and by St. John's church, was long an open heath, and came to be intersected by hedges for the drying of the towns-people's clothes. The building was erected in 1841-54, after designs by H. Lonsdale Elmes, at a cost of about £400,000. It is an eminently imposing edifice in the Corinthian style, saliently and recessedly peripteral; presents a very rich polystyle composition, with features of much variety and contrast; comprises St. George's Hall in the centre, and two masses for the assize courts, and a great concert-room, in the ends; and is so constructed as to show externally, by saliency of the sides, and by higher elevation of the roof, the exact mass of St. George's Hall as distinguished or divided from the two other masses. It occupies upwards of 3 ½ acres of ground, and embodies more than 400,000 cubic feet of Derbyshire stone; and it extends 470 feet from N to S, and 160 from E to W. The S front, facing the E termination of St. John's lane, stands so on the brow of a rising-ground about 16 feet high as to have the appearance of being raised upon a terrace; and has a doubly columned portico, 95 feet high from the ground-line to the apex of the pediment, and 24 feet deep. The columns stand on a stylobate 10 feet high; they are themselves 45 feet high and 4½ feet in diameter, and are beautifully polished; and eight of them are in the front rank, and four in the second. The tympanum of the pediment is filled with a splendid group of symbolical figures, aggregately upwards of 50 tons in weight, each nearly 12 feet high, all designed by Mr. Cockerell, and sculptured in Caen stone by Mr. W. G. Nichol, at a cost of £3,500. The E front, facing Lime-street, stands principally opposite the station of the Liverpool and Manchester branch of the Northwestern railway, and is seen thence to much advantage. Its intercolumniations and its entablature are uniform in style and height with those of the S portico; but they are divided into a - grand salient centre of fifteen intercolumns, aggregately coextensive with the side of St. George's Hall, and two reaches of each five intercolumns, co-extensive with the sides of the two end-masses. The fifteen central intercalumniations project in the manner of a portico; but behind the columns, on the line of the end portions, are square pillars, between which an ornamented screen is carried up below, while the upper part of their shafts is insulated; and thus a double contrast is produced, first between the columns and the square pillars, and next between the closed spaces and the open ones of the squarepillar range. The N front presents a projecting - hemicycle, with the same character as the other fronts, but in attached columns; and it therefore, both in outline and in execution, forms a very agreeable variety, and occasions the view of the edifice on the NE to differ considerably from the view of it on the SE. Stone balustrades enclose the entire area; and are relieved, at conspicuous points, by four massive pedestals, each bearing a recumbent solid stone lion, 13 feet long, 6 feet high, and executed at a cost of £200. The SE entrance-gateway is the principal approach; and has four handsome polished granite gate piers on plinths, surmounted by a moulded cornice, and supporting a Triton, holding a cornucopia. The interior of St. George's Hall measures 169 feet in length, 75 feet in width, and 1,720 yards in floor-area; includes a series of recesses 13 feet deep, apparently obtained out of the thickness of the walls, but really coming over corridors which both separate and connect it with the law courts; and is lighted on the W side laterally through windows within those recesses, and on the E side through small domes, one in each recess. The roof is one vast arched vault, at an elevation of 84 feet from the floor; is intersected on both sides by lateral arches, springing from pillar to pillar; is all beautifully panelled and ornamented with various designs; and is supported by magnificent porphyry columns, each 31½ feet high, and 3 feet in diameter. Niches of Irish marble, intended to contain statues, alternate with the pillars; and two of them are occupied by statues of Sir Robert Peel and George Stephenson. The floor is composed of encaustic tiles; and cost, additional to the expense of laying it, about £2,500. Ten splendid gaseliers, each weighing about ¾ of a ton, are suspended from the roof. An organ, containing about 8,000 pipes, having a manual range of 63 notes, four rows of keys, and 108 stops, and built by Henry Willis of London at a cost of £10,000, stands at the N end of the hall, in a beautiful semicircular gallery, supported by granite pillars and by two gigantic Atlantes. A concert-room, measuring 86 feet in -length, 70 feet in width, and 42 feet in height, is in the N end of the edifice; has an orchestral stage, of capacity for 60 performers, as well as for a chorus of 70; and is elegantly decorated in walls and ceiling. The Crown court and the Nisi Prius court are fine apartments, of rectangular form, each about 53 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The Vice-Chancellor's court, the Sheriff's Jury court, the Grand Jury room, the Barristers' library, and the entrance halls also are large apartments. The entire edifice is heated and ventilated upon Dr. Reid's plan, with such arrangement that the entire effect of the apparatus can, at any time, be directed to any one apartment.
The Judges' Lodgings, for the use of the judges during the sitting of assizes, were, by a resolution of the town council, toward the end of 1865, to be erected on the Newsham estate at the E side of the town, at an estimated cost of £10,000. The Newsham estate was then about to be converted, by the corporation, into a public park; and the judges' lodgings would form one of the villa residences to be erected on the park's margin. The seat of the courts of bankruptcy is in a handsome range of buildings, called Eldon Chambers, in North John street. The County court forms part of a noble pile of buildings, erected in 1848, at a corner of Lime-street. The Corporation buildings stand in Dale-street; form a vast block, extending from Crosshall - street to St. Thomas' buildings; were erected in 1865-6; have Corinthian decorations, with fern leaves instead of leaves of the acanthus in the capitals; and present a principal front of centre and two projecting wings, -the doorways of granite, and the walls faced with stone and lined with brick. The Police-offices stand in Dale- street, and along Hatton-garden; are a recent erection; and contain very spacious and well-arranged accommodations. A central archway leads to the detective department; the portion facing Hatton-garden is the police station; and the fire engine department, with engines constantly ready for instant service, is conveniently near. The public offices for Toxteth park township stand on the N side of High Park-street, immediately W of the reservoir of the corporation water-works; occupy an area of 1,050 square yards; were erected in 1866, at a cost of about £6,500; are in the Roman style; have a main front of centre and two wings; and are surmounted at the centre by a dome.-The Custom-house stands, as we have already stated, on the site of the Old dock; was founded, amid great demonstrations, in Aug. 1828; is estimated to have cost £300,000, irrespective of the site, which was corporate property, and Valued at £90,000; and was erected under an agreement with the government, that they should make annual payments of £25,000 toward it, to the amount of £150,000, on condition that it should be ceded to them in twenty years. The edifice measures 467 feet in length from E to W, 95 feet in width, and 67 feet in height; is in the Ionic style, with a rustic basement, with octostyle porticoes on the main, the E, and the W fronts,-and with an entablature round three sides, supported by a bold pilaster at each angle; and is surmounted, at the centre, by-a magnificent dome, resting on eight large pillars, lighted by sixteen windows, and ornamented round by pilasters. A smaller dome, encircled by twelve windows, which light the centre of the long room, is enclosed within the outer dome; the stairs are flanked by handsome iron balustrades; the landing-places are supported by eight Ionic monolithic columns; and the ceilings, and other parts, are all beautifully decorated. The long room occupies the centre of the edifice; measures 164 feet in length and 70 feet in width; has a segment ceiling, supported by columns and pilasters and surmounted by the dome; is lighted, not only by the dome windows, but by fourteen windows at the sides; is all splendidly designed and decorated; and is approached by. four grand staircases and landing-places. The edifice contains not only the Custom-house, but also the Inland Revenue office, the Post-office, and the Dock-offices; and ought to be designated rather the Revenue buildings than the Custom-house. The main or N front of it faces South Castle-street; and in advance of that front stands the statue of Mr. Huskisson, modelled by Mr. Gibson, cast at the royal foundry of Munich in Bavaria, and inaugurated, in Oct. 1847, by Sir Robert Peel.
The Corn-exchange, in Brunswick-street, was erected in 1852; measures 105 feet by 84; and superseded a previous structure built in 1807, at a cost of £10,000.-St. John's market, in Elliott-street, was erected in 1820-2, at a cost of £36,813; is built partly of stone, but chiefly of brick; measures 549 feet in length, 135 in width, and nearly 2 acres in area; is roofed throughout in five ranges, and lighted by 136 windows, with casements opening on swing centres; and forms a vast hall with flagged floor, lofty, well lighted, well ventilated, and divided into five avenues by rows of elegant cast-iron pillars 25 feet high, supporting the conjoined abutments of the roof. Nearly 60 shops are ranged along the walls; stalls and tables for provisions, vegetables, fruit, poultry, eggs, are ranged throughout the body of the area; and at night the whole interior is brilliantly illuminated by 144 gas-lights.-St. Martin's market presents one front to Scotland-road, and another to Bevington-bush; was erected, in 1831, at a cost of about £13,000; is in the Doric style, with porticoes and an entablature; measures, within walls, 213 feet by 135; is divided into five avenues,-a central or main one, with two on each side; has lighted and well-ventilated roofs; and includes, apart from the main area, a fish-market and garbageyard.-St. James's market, in Great George- street, was originally a fish-market, but was changed into a general one in 1826; was erected at a cost of £13,662; is built partly of stone, but chiefly of brick; occupies an area of about 3,000 square yards; and is covered with a lighted and ventilated roof, supported by rows of handsome cast iron pillars.-The fish-market adjoins the Royal amphitheatre, inn the vicinity of St. John's market; was opened in 1837; is a neat and commodious structure, with stone front; contains 19 shops and 56 stalls, furnished with marble slabs; and has underneath it 22 vaults.-The cattle- market is near the Old Swan, about 1 ½ mile NNE of Edge-hill; was opened in 1830; and is the scene of a very extensive trade on every Monday. A wholesale market was projected in 1865, to be constructed on a site of 10,640 square yards, near St. John's market; and to cost, according to estimate, £87,875,-or, including corporation property, £80,000.
The Royal Bank buildings, in Dale-street, were erected in 1839; are in the Corinthian style, with rich ornature of carvings, mouldings, and other details; and are surmounted, at the centre, by a stone sculpture of the royal arms. The front and the sides are occupied as merchants' offices and sale-rooms; and the bank itself is placed at the end of an area.-The Adelphi Bank and Chambers stand in South John-street, opposite the Eldon Chambers; and are fine modern buildings.-The Union Bank stands in Brunswick-street; is a small but handsome edifice; and has, in the front, two chaste Ionic columns on a high plinth, surmounted by a pediment, in which are some excellent carvings.-The North and South Wales Bank stands in James-street; is a very handsome building, well-adjusted to a small site; and has, in the front, a Corinthian portico, surmounted by a pediment.-The Commercial Bank, the Branch Bank of England, and the Mercantile and Exchange Bank, are in Castle-street; the Alliance Bank and the International Bank are in Brown's buildings; the Bank of Liverpool and the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank are in Water- street; the Eastern Exchange Bank and the National Bank of Liverpool are in Cook-street; the Northwestern Bank is in Dale-street; and nearly all are more or less ornamental. -The Electric Telegraph office stands on the E side of Castle-street; and a pole 40 feet high rises from its roof furnished at the top with a time-ball, 6 feet in diameter, which falls precisely at one o'clock of Green which time.-The Ship Telegraph is in a tall campanile tower, near St. Nicholas church; succeeded one on the semaphore principle, first placed on the summit of the Tower buildings in the old churchyard; communicates electrically through five intermediate stations, over a distance of about 130 miles, with a primary telegraph at Holyhead; and is maintained at a cost of about £1,200 a-year. The original semaphore telegraph began to work in Oct. 1827; conveyed one of its first messages from Holyhead to Bidston in 15 minutes, but was afterwards worked so ex pertly as sometimes to convey signals from Holyhead and back in less than one minute.-The Observatory, at the NW corner of the Prince's Dock basin, is a plain structure; but serves the same purpose as the time-ball pole on the Electric Telegraph office, by indicating, in the same way as there, Greenwich time at precisely one o'clock.-Many of the insurance offices, the hotels, and the other kinds of semi-public buildings, are highly ornamental; but they are too numerous to be separately noticed within our limits. One hotel, in Dale-street, was projected in 1861, to be built at a cost of about £100,000, and to contain 400 bed-rooms, besides public and private rooms; another, in Lime-street, presents a front of four stories, with each seventeen windows, and is ornamented with Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian decorations; and a third, confronting Ranelagh-street, presents a magnificent front of three stories, besides an attic, and has a superb covered balcony extending from end to end. -The monument of George III. stands at the junction of London-road and Pembroke-place; was originally founded in Great George-square, in 1809, in the 50th anniversary of George III's. accession to the throne; was afterwards transferred to its present site; and is an equestrian statue by Westmacott, in that celebrated sculptor's best style.-Wellington's monument stands at the N end of St. George's Hall; was erected, in 1863, after a design by Mr. A. Lawson of Edinburgh, at a cost of about £5,000; comprises a pedestal of granite and red sandstone, 15 &ht. feet high,-a Doric column, 10 feet in diameter, and 81 feet high,-and a surmounting bronze statue of the Duke, 14 feet high. The statue was cast from cannon taken at Waterloo, and given for the purpose by the government; and the Duke is represented in a general's undress uniform.-A monument to the late Prince Consort was projected in 1863, to consist of an equestrian statue by Thorneycroft.-A memoria1 to the late Rev. Dr. Raffles was erected in Greenlandstreet, in 1864, at a cost of £5,000; is a large building, after designs by Mr. J. Mason; and comprises a workmen's hall, reading-rooms, and a ragged school.
The county-jail and house of correction is in Kirkdale township, and has been noticed in our article KIRKDALE. The borough jail stands in Walton-on-the-Hill parish; was originally built under the personal inspection of the benevolent John Howard; is the largest model prison in England, and has capacity for 627 male and 429 female prisoners. The main bridewell is in Cheapside; and other bridewells are in Athol-street, Hotham-street, Campbell-street, Jordan-street, Olive-street, Prescotstreet, and Coburg dock. The one in Everton is a small round building in the centre of a green plot.-The female penitentiary is in Falkner-street; the juvenile reformatory is in Mount-Vern on-green; and the reformatory school is in Wellington-road.-The militia barracks, for the artillery- volunteers, are in Rupert-lane; and were constructed in 1862, at a cost of £13,000.-A new bridge across the canal at Chisenhale-street was built in 1866, at a cost of about £4,500; and has a single arch of 39 feet in span, and a roadway 28 feet wide.-A bridge across the Mersey, from Derby-square in Liverpool to Hamiltonsquare in Birkenhead, was projected in 1865; to be carried on lattice-work piers at a height of 160 feet above highwater-level, and to have two central spans each 1,500 feet wide; but it possibly may not be constructed.-Other public buildings will be noticed in subsequent paragraphs.
The Parish.Liverpool parish, as already noted, was originally and long a part of Walton-on-the-Hill parish; was made a separate and distinct parish so late as the time of William III.; forms the portion of the borough along the Mersey between Toxteth Park and Kirkdale, and landward thence to Edge-hill and Everton; is conterminate with Liverpool poor-law union or district; and is divided, as a district, into the sub-district of St. Martin, conterminate with the Scotland ward of the borough,-the sub-d. of Howard-street, cont. with Vauxhall ward,-the sub- d. of Dale-street, cont. with St. Paul's and Exchange wards,-the sub-d. of St. George, cont. with Castle-street and St. Peter's wards,-the sub-d. of St- Thomas, cont. with Pitt-street and Great George wards,-the sub-d. of Mount Pleasant, cont. with Rodney and Abercromby wards,-and the sub-d. of Islington, cont. with Lime-street and St. Anne's wards. Acres, 2,220; of which 660 are water in the Mersey. Pop. in 1851,258,236; in 1861,269,742. Houses, 37,041. Pop. of St. Martin sub-d. in 1851,61,777; in 1861, 81,228. Houses, 11,056. The pop. of 1861 included 1,385 persons on board of vessels; and the increase of it arose mainly from improvements in the docks, and from erection of houses for the labouring classes. Pop. of Howard-street sub-d. in 1851,27,942; in 1861,24,816, -of whom 1,150 were persons on board of vessels. Houses, 3,226. Pop. of Dale-street sub-d. in 1851, 31,763; in 1861,29,078,-of whom 377 were persons on board of vessels. Houses, 3,930. The decrease of pop. arose from the demolition of houses for the erecting of shops and public buildings, and from the restrictive regu1ations imposed on lodging-house keepers. Pop. of St. George sub-d. in 1851,19,823; in 1861,16,827,-of whom 2,040 were persons on board of vessels. Houses, 2,031. The decrease of pop. arose from the demolition of houses for the erecting of offices, Pop. of St. Thomas sub-d. in 1851, 33,957; in 1861, 29,142,- of whom 1,211 were persons on board of vessels. Houses, 2,625. The decrease of pop. arose from the demolition of houses for the erection of warehouses and manufacturing establishments. Pop. of Mount Pleasant sub-d. in 1851,41,997; in 1861,47,410. Houses, 6,901. Pop. of Islington sub-d. in 1851,40,977; in 1861,41,241. Houses, 6,272. Poor-rates of the parish or district in 1863, £106,315. Marriages in 1863,4,215; births, 10,009,-of which 470 were illegitimate; deaths, 9,857, of which 4,570 were at ages under 5 years, and 50 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 40,259; births, 90,131; deaths, 87,898.
The parish is cut ecclesiastically into the sections of St. Peter-with- St.-Nicholas, St. George, St. Thomas, St. Paul, St. Anne, St. John, St. Stephen, St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Michael, St. David, St. Martin-in- theFields-with-St. James-the-Less, St. Bride, St. Catherine, St. Barnabas, St. Silas, St. Bartholomew, St. Saviour, St. Matthias, St. Simon, All Saints, St. Mary Magdalene, Bevington, and Vauxhall; and it includes also, without assigned territorial limits, the charges of Holy Trinity, Christ Church, St. Mark-district-church, St. Andrew, St. Philip, St. Luke, St. Titus, Mariners' Church, Holy Innocents, St. Columba, St. Mary-for-the- Blind, and German Church. Pop. in 1861, of St. George, 4,002; of St. Thomas, 4,984; of St. Paul, 7,637; of St. Anne, 10,330; of St. John, 5,561; of St. Stephen, 14,449; of St. Matthew, 12,197; of St. Mark, 10,066; of St. Michael, 8,819; of St. David, 7,442; of St. Martin-inthe-Fields-with-St. James-the-Less, 16,961; of St. Bride, 3,954; of St. Catherine, 9,679; of St. Barnabas, 7,544; of St. Silas, 7,019; of St. Bartholomew, 8,777; of St. Saviour, 4,615; of St. Matthias, 10,074; of St. Simon, 5,716; of All Saints, 9,204; of St. Mary Magdalene, 10,000; of Bevington, 14,381; of Vauxhall, 8,512. The living of St. Peter-with-St. Nicholas is a rectory, and all the other livings are p. curacies, in the diocese of Chester. Value, of St. - George, St. Catherine, and Holy Trinity, each £250; of St. Thomas, £138; of St. Paul, St. Philip, and St. Michael, each £400; of St. Anne, £99; of St. John, £200; of St. Stephen, St. Mark, St. Barnabas, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthias, All Saints, St. Mary Magdalene, Bevington, and Vauxhall, each £300; of St. David, £203; of St. Martin-in-the-Fieldswith-St. James-the-Less, £320; of St. Bride, £305; of St. Silas, £500; of St. Simon, £150; of Christ Church, £105; of St. Mark-district- church, £100; of St. Andrew, £295; of the others, not reported. Patron of St. Peterwith-St. Nicholas, J. Stewart, Esq.; of St. George, W. Titherington, Esq.; of St. Thomas, St. Mark, St. David, St. Bride, St. Catherine, St. Barnabas, St. Silas, St. Bartholomew, St. Saviour, St. Mary Magdalene, Christ Church, St. Titus, Mariners' Church, and St. Mary-forthe-Blind, Trustees; of St. Paul, G. Ramsden, Esq.; of St. Anne, the Rev. T. Stringer; of St. John, the Rev. H. M'Neile and others; of St. Stephen, St. Matthew, and St. Matthias, the Rector of St. Peter-with-St. Nicholas; of St. Michael, the Rev. J. Lawrence; of St. Martin-inthe-Fields- with-St. James-the-Less, Simeon's Trustees; of St. Simon, All Saints, Bevington, and Vauxhall, alternately the Crown and the Bishop; of Holy Trinity, the Rev. N. Loraine; of St. Mark-district-church, the Incumbent of St. Mark; of St. Philip, J. Ferinhough, Esq.; of St. Luke, the Representatives of the late C. Lawrence, Esq.; of the others, not reported. The livings in the other parts of the borough, and in parts contiguous to it, are noticed in the articles on their respective localities.
Places of Worship.The places of worship within the parish, in 1851, were 36 of the Church of England, with 36,890 sittings; 2 of the Church of Scotland, with 2,650 s.; 4 of English Presbyterians, with 3,900 s.; 1 of United Presbyterians, with 1,160 s.; 1 of Reformed Irish Presbyterians, with 120 s.; 5 of Independents, with 4,276 s.; 7 of Baptists, with 3,970 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 940 s.; 2 of Unitarians, with 1,531 s.; 6 of Wesleyans, with 3,762 s.; 2 of New Connexion Methodists, with 1,370 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,300 s.; 3 of the Wesleyan Association, with 2,220 s.; 4 of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, with 2,807 s.; 1 of Independent Methodists, with 30 attendants; 1 of Sandemanians, with 39 at.; 2 of the New Church, with 600 s.; 5 undefined, with 1,317 s.; 1 of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, with 100 s.; 9 of Roman Catholics, with 8,806 s.; and 3 of Jews, with 710 s. The places of worship within the borough, in 1851, were 59 of the Church of England, with 60,545 sittings; 10 of Independents, with 7,942 s.; 11 of Baptists, with 6,520 s.; 4 of Unitarians, with 1,791 s.; 17 of Wesleyans, with 8,944 s.; 3 of New Connexion Methodists, with 2,020 s.; 4 of the Wesleyan Association, with 2,431 s.; 5 of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, with 4,241 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with 150 s.; 14 of isolated congregations, with 2,095 s.; 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 9 s.; 16 of Roman Catholics, with 14,218 s.; and the same of other denominations as in the parish. The places of worship in 1866, taken as including some in the course of erection, some close on the borough boundaries, some in suburbs lying compact with the borough, and some obscure or ephemeral ones, cannot be very correctly enumerated; but, even exclusive of the doubtful or the obscure ones, they may be stated at upwards of 200, with an increase of sittings fully proportionate to the increase of churches. The new ones, too, have been erected some what equally by the Church of England and by other denominations; and very many of them, as well as very many of the less recent, are large and elegant.
St. Nicholas' church stands at the foot of Chapelstreet, on the site of the ancient chapel, long the only place of worship in the town; was built in 1776; is in a mixed style of architecture; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with tower and spire; and contains a memorial window to W. P. Campbell, Esq., who died of injuries sustained in the Crimean war, and interesting monuments to W. Clayton, Esq., H. Blundell, Esq., Bryan Blundell, Esq., Capt. W. N. Wright, and Mrs. Earle. The tower is 120 feet high, of three stages, and elegant; the spire is a lantern one, 60 feet high, and richly decorated; and they were rebuilt in 1815, in room of a previous steeple which fell in 1810. and buried twenty-two persons in its ruins. The church-yard had formerly a statue of St. Nicholas; and, so late as less than a century ago, was washed by the waters of the Mersey; the space now intervening between it and the river having been all gained foot by foot in the course of the construction of the docks.-St. Peter's church stands in Churchstreet; was built in 1704; is in a tasteless variety of the Italian style; has a tower upwardly of octagonal form: and contains some good oak carving, and two rich monuments to W. Lawley, Esq., and W. Cunliffe, Esq.-St. George's church stands in Derby-square, on the site of the ancient castle; was built in 1734, and rebuilt in 1825; and has an elegant octagonal steeple, with Ionic columns below and Corinthian columns above, surmounted by a lofty spire.-There is also a St. George's church in Everton.- St. Thomas' church stands in Park-lane: was built in 1750; shows a rustic basement, and two rows of windows, with alternations of two Ionic pilasters: and has a steeple of 1845. The original steeple was 240 feet high; suffered much damage from a storm in 1757: was denuded of its spire in 1822; acquired then a cupola-capped hexagonal turret, in lieu of the spire; and was razed to the ground in 1844.-St. Paul's church stands in St. Paul's square; was built in 1769, in miniature imitation of St. Paul's, London; has a boldly projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico on the W front; has also attached tetrastyle Ionic porticoes on the N and the S fronts; and is surmounted by a dome, rising from an octagonal base, supported by eight large Ionic pillars, and crowned with a lantern.-St. Anne's church faces the N end of St. Anne's-street; extends from N to S, instead of from E to W; is in a variety of the pointed style, of stuccoed brick and stone; and has, at the N end, a pinnacled brick tower.-St. John's church stands in St. John's lane, beside St. George's hall; was built in 1784; is a rectangular structure, in poor pointed style, with two rows of five windows on each of the longer sides; and has a square tower 123 feet high, surmounted by a number of small pinnacles. Its churchyard was formerly much crowded; and there were so many as 27,080 interments in it during the twenty years ending in 1820. St. Stephen's church stands near the end of Byromstreet; was erected as a Baptist chapel in 1722; was long the only Baptist chapel in Liverpool; went, by sale, to the Church of England in 1792; assumed then the name of St. Stephen's church; and is a quaint and plain yet neat- looking structure, with a belfry. St Matthew's church stands in Scotland- road; was originally St. Peter's Scotch Kirk; went, by sale, to the Church of England in 1849; is a handsome edifice in the Saxon style; and has a fine turreted tower, surmounted by a spire. St. Mark's church stands in Upper Duke-street; was built by subscription, at a cost of £18,000, in 1803,-and consecrated in 1815; is a plain but very large edifice; and has a rich painted E window. St. Michael's church stands in Upper Pitt-street; was founded in 1816, and completed in 1826, at a cost of £45,267; is a beautiful and imposing edifice; has, at the W end, a Corinthian portico of ten columns and two half columns, surmounted by tower and spire,-and at the E end, four Corinthian columns; and contains monumental tablets to the Rev. T. Johnson and the Rev. H. Bury. The tower is of two stages, respectively Ionic and Corinthian; and the spire, in consequence of having been injured by a thunder-storm, was rebuilt in 1841. St. David's church stands in Brownlowhill; was erected in 1827; and is appropriated to the use of the Welsh inhabitants of the town. The church of St. Martin-in-the- Fields stands between Blenheim-street and Great Oxford-street; was built by government, at a cost of £20,000, on a site given by E. Houghton, Esq.; is in the early decorated English style; and has a pinnacled tower and spire, much blackened by smoke from chimneys in the vicinity. St. Bride's church stands between Percy-street and Catherine- street; has, in front, a bold hexastyle Ionic portico,-and on each side six windows of Greco-Egyptian form; projects the chancel from the main body; and is well fitted in the interior, with galleries resting on slender cast-iron pillars, and with a panelled ceiling. St. Catherine's church stands on the E side of Abercromby-square: was built by subscription, after designs by Foster; is a very handsome edifice, in pure Grecian style; has a hexastyle Ionic portico, and a cupola; is fitted, in the interior, with galleries resting on square pillars, and with a richly panelled ceiling; and is lighted only from the altar-window and from the cupola. Another church of the same name is at Edgehill; was built in 1863, at a cost of £3,000; and is in the early English style, of red brick with Stourton stone facings. St. Barnabas' church stands in Parliament street; was built in 1841; is a handsome red-stone edifice, in the early English style; and has a beautiful tower and spire, 135 feet high St. Silas' church stands in Pembroke-place; is a fine structure, of brick with stone facings; and has a red-stone tower and spire, and a very elegant interior. St. Bartholomew's church stands in Naylor-street, and is a handsome stone building. St. Saviour's church stands in Bloom-street, near the S boundary of the borough; is a plain stuccoed edifice, in the Roman style; and has an octagonal tower, terminating in pediments, and surmounted by a vase.
St. Matthias' church stands in Great Howard-street, amid a street- locality which has been almost totally changed in the course of the modern improvements of the town; succeeded a previous church which was built in 1834, and which required to be taken down in connexion with operations for the formation of a railway terminus; dates itself from 1849; and is an edifice in the pointed style, altogether different in appearance from its predecessor. St. Simon's church stands in Gloucester-street, near the terminus of the Northwestern railway; was built in 1848; is a handsome edifice, in the pointed style, with Lofty tower and spire; and succeeded a previous church which was built about 1808 by the Associate or Burgher Scottish Presbyterians, bore for a time the name of Silver Hill chapel, was relinquished by its congregation in 1827 for their new place of worship at Mount Pleasant, and passed afterwards into possession of the Church of England. All Saints church stands in Great Nelson-street, and is in the early English style. The church of St. Mary Magdalene stands in Finch-street; and there are churches of St. Mary in Edge-hill, Kirkdale, Bootle, Wavertree, and Walton. There was also a church of St. Mary in Harrington-street, erected in 1776; but it was taken down in 1809, and not rebuilt. There is likewise a church of St. Mary, often called the church for the Blind, at the corner of Hardman-street and Hopestreet; and this succeeded a previous church on a neighbouring site, and forms one of a cluster of grand and beautiful public buildings. The previous church was built in 1819; and was taken down in 1850, to give place to an enlargement of the Northwestern railway terminus. The present church is in pure Grecian style, after designs by Foster; has an elegant portico, copied from that of the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, in the island of Egina; is neatly fitted in the interior; contains two fine paintings by Hilton and Haydon; and communicates, by a subterraneous passage, with the school for the blind. Holy Trinity church stands in St. Annestreet; was built by private proprietors, in 1792; is a large stone structure, with a W tower surmounted by vases; and recently underwent a thorough repair. There are also three churches of the same name in Parliamentstreet, in Anfield-Walton-Breck, and in Wavertree. Christ church stands in Hunter- street; was built in 1794, at a cost of £15,000, all defrayed by John Houghton, Esq., who also endowed it; is crowned by a large dome, surmounted by a lantern, with exterior circular gallery, commanding a fine view of the town; and is fitted interiorly with two rows of galleries, lower and upper. There is also a church of the same name in Everton. St. Philip's church stands in Hardman-street; was built at a cost of about £12,000; and is in the pointed style, of painted brick and ornamental cast-iron.
St. Luke's church stands at the N end of Berry-street, fronting the end of Bold-street; was founded in 1811, and completed in 1831, after designs by Foster, at a cost of £44,110; is in the decorated English style, of superior stone and excellent workmanship; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower, all elegantly decorated; has a brilliant interior, with stained glass windows of various designs, and with armorial devices; and was regarded, by a writer in Blackwood's Magazine, as resembling a cathedral, and as worthy of being made the seat of a new bishopric should one be formed out of that of Chester. Mariners' church is a floating fabric, moored at the S end of George's dock; was formerly a sloop of 18 guns; and was presented by government, to be formed into a church. Holy Innocents' church stands in Myrtle-street; and was built in 1854, at costs defrayed by H. Banner, Esq. St. Jude's church stands in Hardwick-street, on ground given by the Marquis of Salisbury; was built by subscriptions and donations; is in the style of the 13th century, of brick and stone, without a tower; and has a handsome and commodious interior. St. James' church stands in Chesterfield-street, Toxteth Park; and is a plain brick building, with round-headed windows, and with a square tower. St. Augustine's church stands in Shaw-street, adjoining the Collegiate institution; was built in 1830; is in the Greco-Egyptian style, with stucco imitation of stone; and has a tower, copied partly from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus at Athens, and partly from the Ionic temple of Ilissés. St. Clement's church stands in Stanhope-street, in the part of the town called Windsor; and is a small but elegant red-stone edifice, in the pointed style. St. John-the-Baptist's church stands in Parkroad; and is a very neat edifice of red stone, in the pointed style. St. Paul's church, Belvidere-road, Prince's Park, was built in 1848; is in the later English style, with tower and spire 150 feet high; has a floor of encaustic tiles, tastefully arranged; and contains about 2,000 sittings. St. Aidin's church, in Victoria-road, was built in 1860, at a cost of £3,500; and is in the early English style, of red sandstone. St. Thomas' church, in Warwick- street, was built and endowed in 1841, by John Gladstone, Esq.; and contains about 1,000 sittings. St. Timothy's church, in Rokeby-street, Everton, stands in a poor neighbourhood; was built in 1862, at a cost of £2,300; and is in a plain variety of the decorated English style. Other churches in the parts of the borough beyond Liverpool parish, and in the suburbs, are noticed in the articles on their respective localities.
Oldham-street Scotch kirk was built in 1793; and is a large, plain, brick edifice. St. Andrew's Scotch kirk, in Rodney-street, is an elegant structure, with handsome stone front; and has an Ionic portico, surmounted by two square turrets, each of which is ornamented with eight Corinthian columns, and crowned with a cupola. St. George's Presbyterian church, in Myrtle-street, was built in 1845; and is an elegant stone edifice, in the Norman style. The Free Presbyterian church, in Canning-street, is a recent erection, at a cost of about £4.500; is in the early English style, all faced with white stone; and has a bold tower and spire, 114 feet high. The United Presbyterian church at Mount Pleasant, was built in 1827; and has a handsome stone front, with four Doric pillars, and an upper range of five round-headed windows. The United Presbyterian church at the junction of Breck-road and Queen's-road, Everton, was built in 1865; is in the later English style, with a nave about 74 feet by 66, and a transept of 15 feet by 19; and has a tower and spire 133 feet high. The United Presbyterian church, in Prince's-road, was built in 1866, chiefly of brick; consists of nave and transepts, with a tower 135 feet high; and has, behind it, a large lecture-hall. The Irish Presbyterian church, in Islington, is a stuccoed brick building, and has four Doric pillars in its front. Great George-street Independent chapel was built in 1 841; succeeded a previous chapel on the same site, erected in 1812, and burnt in 1840; is an elegant edifice in the Grecian style, 127 feet long and 63 feet wide; has, on the principal front, a semi-circular portico of ten fluted monolithic columns, after the model of the temple of Jupiter Stator, surmounted by a richly ornamented dome on a circular stylobate; is adorned, along the flanks, by Corinthian pilasters, alternating with semi-circular headed windows; and has a chaste and beautiful interior, with panelled ceiling. Renshaw - street Independent chapel was built in 1777, by a body of English Presbyterians; passed, by their union with another congregation, into possession of Independents; and was newfronted with a neat Gothic facade in 1820. Norwood Independent chapel was built in 1862, at a cost of nearly £5,000; is in the decorated English style, of red sandstone with Stourton-stone dressings; and has a lofty turret on each side of the principal entrance. Evertoncrescent Independent chapel was-built in 1833, in lieu of a previous chapel in Hotham-street, erected in 1802, and eventually sold to the New Connexion Methodists; and is a neat stone edifice, with a tetrastyle Ionic portico. Stanley Independent chapel was built in 1865, at a cost of £3,800; and is in the decorated English style. Chadwick- Mount Independent chapel, in Everton, was built in 1866, at a cost of £1,500; is in the Roman Ionic style; and was constructed on a plan to admit of much enlargement.
The Welsh Calvinistic chapel in Princes-road, in lieu of a previous one in Bedford-street, was founded in the summer of 1865; and was designed on a plan to cost about £15,000. Myrtle-street Baptist chapel, opposite the Philharmonic Hall, was built in 1844; was subsequently so enlarged as to contain about 2,000 sittings; and is in a variety of the pointed style, with a number of ornate pinnacled turrets at both ends. Byron-street Baptist chapel was built in 1789; is a large, plain and substantial edifice; was so much menaced by the formation of a contiguous tunnel of the Northeastern railway as to be abandoned and sold by its congregation; and passed afterwards into possession of another Baptist body. Crown-street Baptist chapel is a recent erection, of very handsome appearance; and has a massive tetrastyle Ionic portico. The Quakers' meeting-house, in Hunter-street. is a large and plain building. Brunswick chapel, in Moss-street, the principal Wesleyan chapel in Liverpool, is a handsome edifice, with stone front and Ionic portico; and is interiorly formed in the manner of an amphitheatre, with about 1,500 sittings. Great Homer-street Wesleyan chapel has a handsome Grecian front. Pittstreet Wesleyan chapel was built about 1810, on the site of a previous chapel, which was the earliest Methodist one in Liverpool, and in which John Wesley preached. Upper Stanhope-street Wesleyan chapel is a large and fine edifice, with stone front and neat portico; and has, attached to it, a cemetery enclosed by a stone wall and palisades. Princes-park Wesleyan chapel was built in 1863, at a cost of £7,000; is in the decorated English style, all of stone; and has a high-pitched gable front, with richly carved doorway and four -light traceried windows, flanked with square towers and tall spires. Hope-street Unitarian chapel was built about 1850; forms one of a group of fine public buildings; and is an elegant edifice, in the pointed style. Park-road Unitarian chapel was built in 1662; and is a picturesquely ivy-clad edifice, surrounded by a burying- ground. The Catholic Apostolic church, in Canning-street, is a splendid cruciform edifice, in the late decorated English style; is surmounted, near the centre, by a handsome spire 200 feet high; and has a richly-ornate interior, with cathedral arrangements.
The Greek church, at the corner of Princes-Park-road and Berkeley - street, was built in 1866-7; is in the Byzantine style, of brick, stone, and marble; comprises narthex, nave, aisles, transepts, and apsidal chancel; is surmounted by small, lead-covered, brick domes, and by a grand central dome, nearly 80 feet high, crowned with a Greek cross; and has a rich interior. St. Mary's Roman Catholic church, between Edmund-street and Ormond-street, off Oldhall-street, was built in 1845, at a cost of about £14,000; is in the style of the early part of the 14th century; consists of nave, aisles, chancel, and Lady chapel, with a SW tower; contains a very beautiful pulpit of Caen stone, and three rich canopied sedilia; has a chancel-floor of enamelled encaustic tiles; and succeeded a plain brick church on the same site, which again succeeded a comparatively ancient one, destroyed by fire in 1745. St. Peter's Roman Catholic chapel, in Seelstreet, is a plain but commodious edifice. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic chapel, in Grosvenor-street, on the site of a once famous tennis court, was built in 1798, as a church of the Establishment; bore, while belonging to the Establishment, the name of All Saints; was sold to the Roman Catholics in 1844; and has accommodation for about 2,000 persons. St. Francis Xavier's Roman Catholic church, in Salisbury- street, was built in 1849; is in the pointed style, 150 feet long, and 60 feet wide; and is a very handsome or even splendid edifice. St. Anthony's Roman Catholic chapel, in Scotland-road, was erected in 1832; is an elegant edifice, in the pointed style, with accommodation for about 1,700 persons; stands over a deep crypt, containing 654 single burial vaults,-and also over some other burial vaults; and succeeded a previous chapel of the same name, which was sold and converted into dwelling-houses, at St. Anthony's - place, Mile - End. St. Patrick's Roman Catholic chapel, in Park-place, Park-road, is an elegant and spacious edifice, with a burying- ground attached; and has, in front, a large and well-formed statue of St. Patrick. St. Nicholas, Roman Catholic chapel, in Hawke-street, ranks as a cathedral; is in a richly executed variety of the pointed style; and makes a plentiful display of pinnacles. St. Anne's Roman Catholic chapel, in Duke- street, Edgehill, is a neat structure in the pointed style; and has, connected with it, a school and an asylum. Holy Cross Roman Catholic church, in Standish-street, was built in 1861; measures 102 feet in length, 30 in width, and 70 in height; is very rich in constructive decoration; and has attached to it a presbytery and other buildings. St. Michael's Roman Catholic chapel, in West Derby-street, was built in 1865, at a cost of about £5,000; measures 106 feet by 50; is in a Continental variety of the pointed style; and has some good carving, both without and within. St. Oswald's Roman Catholic chapel, at the Old Swan, is a splendid edifice in the early English style; and contains armorial bearings of all the canonized kings of England. The Roman Catholic convent of the Sisters of Mercy, in Mount Vernon-street, is a neat structure in the pointed style; and has a small chapel, and a private cemetery. Another convent of the Sisters of Mercy is in Fairchough-lane; and two other convents are at Mount Pleasant and Great George-square. The Jews' synagogue, in Seel-street, succeeded a previous one on another site; was built, according to a lettering upon it, in A. M. 5568; shows a neat stone front, with tetrastyle Ionic portico; and has, over the door, a Hebrew inscription. The Jews' synagogue, in Hope-place, Hope-street, is a small brick edifice, with a handsome interior.
Cemeteries are attached to very few of the churches; and most of those which are so have already been noticed. The Necropolis, or Low Hill cemetery, in West Derby road, was formed in 1825, at a cost of about £8,000; occupies an oblong area of about five acres; is separated from the road by a lofty stone wall; has a stone-front entrance, in the Grecian style, with oratory on the one side, and minister's house on the other; includes a belt of colonnaded catacombs, 10 feet wide; and is elsewhere ornamented with shrubbery. The Toxteth Park cemetery, in Smithdown-lane, was formed about 1856; occupies 46 ½ acres; and contains three chapels for respectively Episcopalians, Dissenters, and Roman Catholics, all in the pointed style, the first and the second each at a cost of £700, the third erected in 1864. St. James' cemetery. in Upper Duke-street, was originally excavated as a stone quarry; was converted to its present use, in 1829, at a cost of £21,000; comprises an area of 44,000 square yards, enclosed by a stone wall and palisades, with four spacious entrances; contains three successive galleries of catacombs, an oratory, a minister's house, and many interesting monuments; and is beautifully adorned with walks, flower-beds, and shrubberies. The oratory is in pure Doric style, after the model of a Greek hypæthral temple, surrounded by a small flight of steps; and contains several well-executed monuments. The minister's house is a handsome stone edifice. A circular mausoleum, inclosing a marble statue of the Hon. William Huskisson, is near the centre of the ground; was erected in 1834; and consists chiefly of three-quarter fluted Corinthian columns, the surmounting dome, and a crowning cross. St. Mary's cemetery, in Walton- road, Kirkdale, occupies nearly three acres; has a very beautiful stone front, ornamented with armorial bearings, turrets, pinnacles, and various devices; and has, on the N side. a chapel with carved oak fittings and oak- ribbed ceiling,-and on the S side, a minister's house. Anfield Park cemetery, in the NE outskirts, beyond Everton, occupies much ground; is tastefully laid out with shrubs and trees; and contains mortuary chapels. The Jews' cemetery, in Deane-street, Fairfield, was opened in 1837; and has a gateway in the form of an arch, surmounted by a small distyle Doric portico.
Schools and Institutions.No reliable census of the schools of Liverpool has been taken since 1851; but the census of that year, if corrected for increase of population, is a key to a proximate estimate, both of the schools and of the attendance on them, at the present time. The public day schools, within the borough, in 1851, were 111 with 35,174 scholars; the private day schools were 359, with 10,190 scholars; and the Sunday schools were 109, with 22,733 scholars. One of the public schools was military, with 237 s.; 1 mariners', with 129 s.; 2 prison, with 211 s.: 2 corporation, with 2,248 s.; 3 workhouse, with 1,800 s.; 1 collegiate, with 625 s.; 3 others endowed, with 669 s.; 21 Church of England, and national, with 8,058 s.; 23 Church of England, and not national, with 6,472 s.; 1 Scottish Presbyterian, with 345 s.; 2 English Presbyterian, with 3 43 s.; 1 Presbyterian and British, with 263 s.; 4 Independent, with 1,367 s.; 1 Baptist and British, with 128 s.; 1 Quaker, with 450 s.; 4 Wesleyan, with 1,257 s.; 3 Wesleyan Methodist Association, with 509 s.; 1 Calvinistic Methodist and British, with 250 s.; 16 Roman Catholic. with 5. 389 s.; 1 Jewish, with 80 s.; 2 British and 1 other, aided by religions bodies but not denominational. with 1,052 s.; 4 ragged, with 668 s.; 2 orphan asylum, with 230 s.; 1 for the blind, with 88 s.; 1 for the deaf and dumb, with 56 s.; 1 of the mechanics' institute, with 812 s.; 1 penitentiary, with 27 s.; and 6 subscription, of no specific character, with 1,411 s. Thirty-four of the Sunday schools were of the Church of England, with 7,138 s.; 1 of the Church of Scotland, with 183 s.; 5 of English Presbyterians, with 758 s.; 2 of United Presbyterians, with 438 s.; 1 of Scottish Presbyterians, not defined, with 141 s.; 11 of Independents, with 2,415 s.; 10 of Baptists, with 1,948 s.; 2 of-Quakers, with 105 s.; 13 of Wesleyans, with 2,459 s.; 3 of New Connexion Methodists, with 543 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 171 s.; 5 of the Wesleyan Association, with 709 s.; 4 of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, with 1,661 s.; 1 of the New Church, with 70 s.; 10 of undefined Protestant congregations, with 2,282 s.; 1 of German Protestants, with 20 s.; and 5 of Roman Catholics, with 1,692 s.
The Corporation North schools stand at Bevingtonbush; are for boys, girls, infants, and male and female adults; and have two masters and three mistresses. The Corporation South schools stand in Park-lane; are for boys, girls, and infants; and have four masters and a mistress. The Collegiate institution, in Shaw-street, was built in 1840-3, after designs by H. Lonsdale Elmes, at a cost of £30,000; is in the Tudor style, very elegant; has a principal front 280 feet long, consisting of large centre and two slightly projecting wings; is pierced, along the front, with two ranges of lofty mullioned windows,-and, above the central porch, with a splendid lofty arch; has there richly carved canopied niches, containing statues of Lord Stanley and Lord Francis Egerton; is disposed interiorly in four stories, the uppermost one lighted from the roof; contains 48 apartments, all 25 feet in width, varying mostly from 20 to 50 feet in length, used as school-rooms, lecture-rooms, museum, and painting and sculpture gallery, -the last 218 feet in length; and includes an attached octagonal lecture-hall, 50 feet high, with two galleries, and containing accommodation for 2,300 persons. The institution comprises lower, middle, and upper schools, for the three great classes of society, each with separate apartments and play- grounds; and it has also evening schools for instructing adults in literature, art, and science.-The Liverpool Institute, in Mount-street, formerly known as the Mechanics' institute, was founded in 1835; was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1837; has subsequently undergone several extensions; is computed to have cost, altogether, £15,000; occupies, with courts and areas, nearly an acre of ground; presents a massive stone front, of centre and wings, with a bold tetrastyle Ionic portico in the centre; comprises a high school, a commercial school, a girls' school, a Government school of art, an evening school of art, and an evening school for instructing adults in literature, art, and science; contains a theatre, or lectureroom, for concerts and for courses of lectures, with accommodation for upwards of 1,500 persons; and is computed to have an income, chiefly from fees, of about £7,000.-Queen's College, also in Mount-street, and connected with the Liverpool Institute, was established in 1857, to afford local facilities for obtaining degrees from the University of London, and to impart instruction of a high kind in literature and science; and it affords a full collegiate course, by a regular professional staff, both in day classes and in evening ones, to students above 15 years of age.-The Ladies' College in Blackburne House, Blackburne-place, Hope-street, a short distance from the top of Mount-street, is also connected with the Liverpool Institute; and affords facilities to the fair sex for the extension of an ordinary education.-The Collegiate school, in North Bedford-street, is another important seminary for females.-The Royal Institution school, in Seel-street, is connected with the Royal Institution, afterwards to be noticed; has a handsome front, with tetrastyle Doric portico; contains excellent school-rooms; and gives a classical education to the sons of respectable persons.
The blue-coat hospital, in School-lane, was founded in 1709; was formerly a small building, called the Char ity school, educating and clothing 40 boys and 10 girls; is now an edifice so much enlarged and improved -as to educate, clothe, and board 250 boys and 100 girls; admits children, chiefly fatherless or orphans, at 9 years of age, and in due time sends them to trade or to service; forms three sides of a quadrangle, with somewhat imposing appearance; and includes a large hall, and a spacious chapel-room.&md. Waterworth's school, in Hunter - street, has an endowed income of £221.-The school for the blind, in Hardman- street, close to St. Mary's church for the blind, was originally founded in London-road in 1791; is a plain but neat building, with a stone front; has accommodation for upwards of 90 inmates; and includes dormitories, refectories, workshops, and sale-rooms.-The school for the deaf and dumb, in Oxford-street, was built in 1840; succeeded a previous one on another site, opened in 1825; is a somewhat plain building, with some Grecian decoration in its front; and both has inmates residing in it as an asylum, and many pupils who pay for their instruction as in other schools.-The female orphan asylum, in Myrtle-street, was established in 1840; is connected with the Church of England; educates, clothes, and boards about 155 orphan girls; and is a handsome edifice.-The male orphan asylum, in Hope-street, was established in 1850, for receiving and educating orphan boys born in Liverpool, or within 7 miles.-The Roman Catholic female orphan school, in Falkner-street, was erected in 1844; is supported, as its name implies, by Roman Catholics; educates and clothes about 100 orphan girls; and is a plain edifice, with some Gothic features.- The Roman Catholic male orphan asylum, in Beacon-lane, maintains and educates about 50 orphan boys, but has accommodation for about 200. The Roman Catholic college, or St. Edward's school, in St. Domingo-road, occupies a quondam residence called St. Domingo House, built on an estate bought with the proceeds of a French prize-ship from St. Domingo; was founded to afford a superior education to Roman Catholic children of the middle and the higher classes; and has attached to it a small chapel.-St. Francis Xavier's Collegiate school, in Salisbury-street, Islington, is another Roman Catholic establishment; and is conducted by a president and five masters.-The Liverpool industrial schools, in Kirkdale, were built in 1845, at a cost of £32,000; are in the Tudor style; afford industrial education to about 1,150 pauper children; and have, within their grounds, a model of a ship, for teaching the duties of seamen.-The industrial ragged schools, in Soho-street; the servants' industrial school, in Smithdown-lane; St. George's industrial school, a Roman Catholic one, in West Derby-road; the very numerous national schools and British schools, in all parts of the town; the Caledonian free school, in Oldham-street; the Hebrews' educational institution and endowed schools, in Hope-place, Hope-street; and eight ragged schools, in various localities, all rank, in some way or other, as public schools. Each of thirty-two national schools, and each of eight British schools, within the borough, besides each of some others in the suburbs, has departments for boys, for girls, and for infants; and each of about twelve more has departments for boys and for girls. The Royal institution, in Colquitt-street, was projected in 1814, to disseminate a taste for literary and scientific information; was established with a fund of £20,200, raised in shares of £100 and £50; took the name of
The Royal institution in 1817; received a charter from the Crown in 1822; has a large and neat, but comparatively plain suite of buildings; has very successfully conducted the schools, which we have already noticed as connected with it; has also maintained lectures, which were at first well attended, but have considerably declined; and has a very valuable and extensive museum, replete in every department of natural history, and containing upwards of 2,500 specimens of birds alone. The academy of design, the literary and philosophical society, the natural history society, the philomathic and the polytechnic societies, the chemists' association, and some other similar- societies, hold their meetings in its lecture-rooms; and literary and scientific soirees also have latterly, during the winter months, been held.-A school of medicine is attached to the Royal institution; and the students of it are, under certain regulations, admitted to the medical and surgical practice of the Liverpool infirmary, hospitals, and dispensaries; while its certificates qualify for examination at the authoritative centres of medicine in London.-The Gallery of art, in Slater- street, facing the Royal institution, was established with liberal aid from the Institution's committee; includes a fine saloon for casts, containing collections from the Elgin, the Egina, and the Phrygalian marbles; and has a noble upper gallery, containing a fine marble statue of Roscoe by Chantrey, the specimens of early art collected by Herm, and a great many pictures by the most eminent masters.-An excellent gymnasium adjoins the gallery of art.-The South District school of art, near the Ladies' college, is connected with the Liverpool Institute; is a government school of design and practical art, both for the elements and the higher branches; and has both day and evening classes, and separate classes for ladies.-The Institution exhibition-rooms, in Post-Office-place-a place so named from the post-office having been formerly situated in it-are occupied five months in every year, from August till December, by the exhibition of the works of living artists; and they have, of late years, had a display of British art inferior only to what may be seen in London.-Tooke's bazaar, close by these rooms, though not properly an institution, may be noticed as containing a most remarkable collection of wood carvings, facsimiles of ancient cups and vases, copies of the most famous Grecian sculptures, copies of ancient Roman bronzes, and numerous other kinds of artistic curiosities.-Mayer's Egyptian museum, in Colquitt-street, near the top of Bold-street, also contains a very rich collection of curiosities, chiefly antiquities of the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Grecian, the Roman, the RomanoBritish, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Mediæval times, together with a library containing nearly 2,000 volumes of r.are books, and nearly 900 volumes of manuscripts.
The Free library and museum in Shaw's-brow, near St. George's hall, was built in 1857-60, at a cost of £40,000, all defrayed by Sir William Brown, Bart.; stands on an artificial platform, constructed on a slope, to bring its basement on a level with that of St. George's hall; measures 222 feet in length, and 164 feet in depth; has a stone front of centre and slightly projecting wings, -the centre adorned with a hexastyle Corinthian portico, and the wings with Corinthian pilasters; has sides of Staffordshire bricks, with stone dressings; and contains, among other apartments, a vestibule, a central hall, a public reading-room, a students' reading-room, museum rooms, a class room, a lecture room, and a gallery of inventions. The vestibule measures 31 feet by 23; and contains a large grotesquely decorated Burmese bull, and a sitting statue of Egerton Smith. The central hall is 90 feet long, 53 feet wide, and 46 feet high; and is divided into nave and aisles by Ionic columns, which support the roof, and an arcade which carries the galleries. The free library is on the ground floor, to the right of the main entrance; has capacity for about 100,000 volumes; and 1s adorned, on the walls, by some fine paintings. The reading-room measures 100 feet in length, and 50 feet in width; is mainly lighted by two large sky-lights, and by windows in an attic raised on panelled segmental arches; but is divided, near the S end, by two Doric columns in antis, and is lighted there by two windows. The students' reading-room measures 40 feet by 28; and a reference library, N of this, and parallel to the principal reading-room, measures 75 feet by 27. The museum rooms are in the left wing of the building, both on the ground floor and up-stairs; they comprise one of 70 feet by 27, two each 50 feet by 27, and two each 40 feet by 28; and they contain a rich collection of subjects, arranged in departments. The gallery of inventions is decorated with ornate iron pillars and finely lighted from the roof; was not opened till 1863; and was visited, during the first nine months, by about 600,000 persons. Two models of Liverpool, as it stood in 1650 and in 1851, are in the model - room. - The Athenæum, in Church-street, was erected in 1799, at a cost of £4,000; had the merit of being the first institution of its kind in England; is a very neat stone structure; is disposed in news- room and library; and contains upwards of 20,000 volumes, including many rare and curious works.-The Lyceum, in Bold-street and Church- street, was built in 1802, at a cost of £11,000; presents to Bold- street a hexastyle Ionic portico, and to Church-street a tetrastyle Ionic portico; and includes a spacious news-room and a handsome library, - the latter lighted by an elegant dome, and containing about 50,000 volumes.- There are also six other public libraries and news-rooms, -the Liverpool, in Bold-street; the Atlantic, in Brunswick-street; the North Free lending, in Great Nelson-street; the South Free lending, in Upper Parliament-street; the Temperance, in the Elms, Toxteth Park; and the Seamen's, in Mann Island, George's-dock. The Medical institution, in Hope-street, was built by subscription, for the use of the medical faculty, at a cost of about £3,000; has a semicircular front, with a row of six Ionic pillars; and contains a good medical library for reference and circulation, a laboratory, an anatomical museum, and a lecture-room with capacity for about 350 persons.-The Apothecaries' hall, in Colquitt-street, is of recent erection, the property of a Joint-Stock company; succeeded a previous edifice injured by fire in 1845, and burnt down in 1846, with estimated loss of £20,000; presents a beautiful stone front of striking appearance, with two bold projections, the one over the first story, the other near the top; has, on the lower projection, figures of Galen, Hippocrates, Esculapins, and Hygeia, surmounting eight kneeling bulls, arranged in pairs; and contains a spacious hall, with a richly worked ceiling, supported by eight fluted and two plain Corinthian pillars. -The College of chemistry is in Duke-street, and trains students in the principles of chemical analysis. The Botanic gardens are at Edge-lane, on ground purchased in 1846 for £866; occupy about eleven acres, enclosed by a substantial stone wall; contain an elegant conservatory, 240 feet in length, and four smaller ones; and are laid out with considerable taste. -- The Zoological gardens are at West Derby-road; were opened in 1833; lie in a vale, engirt by an amphitheatre of sloping hills; are decorated by art, and traversed by winding walks; have appliances for amusement and recreation; and are so much the scene of sports, dramatic performances, and pyrotechnic displays, that they ought rather to be called pleasure gardens.
The Royal infirmary, in Brownlow-street, at the corner of Dover- street, was built in 1824, at a cost of £27,800, exclusive of the ground; is a very spacious edifice, both chaste and elegant; has a large green in front, enclosed by a stone wall and iron rails, separating it from the street; presents a principal front of centre and wings, with six massive Ionic columns in the centre; is three stories high, and all of stone in the front and in the sides; contains about twenty rooms for its committees, officers, and household; has a ward, in the left wing, for patients whose cases require immediate attention; is well arranged, throughout the second and the third stories, for the use of other patients; consumes daily about 6,000 gallons of water, raised by a steam-engine; and is maintained at an annual cost of above £5,000.-The Northern hospital, in Great Howard-street, was built in 1834, on ground given by the town council; succeeded a previous large building in the vicinity; is in the Tudor style, with projecting windows, lofty gables, and bold turrets; has a remarkably well-arranged and convenient interior; and admits surgery cases at all hours by day or by night. The Southern and Toxteth hospital, in Flint - street, affords medical assistance to the poor in its neighbourhood, contains accommodation for in-door patients, and admits surgery cases at any hour of day or night.-The Lock hospital, in Ashton-street, was opened in 1834; is a plain brick building, only one story high; and contains accommodation for 60 patients.-The House of recovery, in Brownlow - hill, near the parochial workhouse, was opened in 1806, for the admission of poor persons suffering under contagions diseases; is a large stone edifice. with plain exterior, but commodious and convenient interior; and is maintained from the poor-rates.-The Lunatic asylum, on the N side of Brownlow-hill, was erected in 1830, at a cost of £11,000; is hid from the street by intercepting high walls; has a front of recessed centre and projecting wings; contains accommodation - for 60 patients; and has extensive airing grounds and other sanatory appliances.-The North dispensary, in Vauxhall-road, is a handsome stone building; the South dispensary, in Upper Parliament-street, is a plain building, formerly a dwelling-house; and the two act in conjunction, and assist annually about 20,000 poor persons. The Lying-in-hospital and dispensary, in Myrtle- street, is a handsome edifice, erected in 1862, at a cost of £5,218; succeeded a previous house in Pembroke-place; and contains accommodation for 35 patients.-There are also an ophthalmic infirmary, a dental hospital, an infirmary for children, an hospital for diseases of the chest, a house of recovery for females, an hospital at Netherfield House for infections diseases, a dispensary for skin diseases, a hom¿¿opathic dispensary, a humane society's institution, and a -ladies' charity for lying- in aid to poor married women.
The Sailors' Home, in Canning-place, was founded in 1846, by the late Prince Consort, and opened near the end of 1850; was gutted by fire in 1860, and, after being restored, was reopened in 1862; is a very handsome edifice, in the Tudor style; provides lodging, board, and medical attendance, at reasonable charges, for sailors entering the port; and includes, for their use, a reading room, a library, a savings' bank, a chapel, and a nautical school. A bazaar held at it, for its benefit, in 1851, yielded upwards of £4,000. The number of its boarders, in 1863, was 6,011; and the amount of deposits in its savings' bank, £l3,444.- The Merchant Seamen's hospital, on ground belonging to the infirmary, was built in 1752, at a cost of £1,500; was intended for the support of decayed seamen of Liverpool, and of their widows and children; and is maintained partly by small contributions of all seamen sailing from the port, and partly by a large capital stock of unclaimed prize-money.-The Female penitentiary, in Falkner-street, was erected in 1809, for receiving and reforming penitent prostitutes.-The Home for fallen women, in Mason-street, Edge-hill, was established in result of efforts at midnight meetings to reclaim prostitutes; and has capacity for 100 inmates. The Benevolent institution, in North-street, Toxteth Park, and the Church of England Magdalen institution, in Mount Vernon-green, also were established for reclaiming fallen women.-A suite of alms-houses, near the cemetery of St. Mary, is built in the form of three sides of a square, and has a spacious area in front.-The Licensed Victuallers' association institution and offices, a short distance E of the Necropolis, are a two- story-building, of centre and wings, in the Tudor style; and include both an asylum for the aged, and a school for the young. -The Friendly Society's offices, in Prescot-street, between London-road and Old Swan, were built in 1865, at a cost of £7,200; are in the Italian pointed style, 127 feet long, and nearly 60 feet high; and have a portico, with pillars of Aberdeen granite.-The Needlewomen's institution is in Benson-street; the Liverpool establishment for needlewomen is in Great Oxford-street; the Nurses' institution is in Soho-street; the Nurses' training-school and home is in Dover-street; the Servants, institution is in Ersine-street; and St. Elizabeth's institute for the training of destitute children for domestic services is in Breckfield-road.-The Parochial workhouse, in Brownlow.hill, was opened in 1772; is a huge edifice, said to be the largest of its kind in England; has generally about 3,700 inmates; and includes a church, in which worship is conducted according to the rites of the Church of En gland.-The Toxteth-Park and the West Derby or Everton workhouses serve for the parts of the borough beyond Liverpool parish; the former is in Smithdown-lane, -the latter in West Derby-road; and they had, at the census of 1861, respectively 456 and 461 inmates.
Places of Amusement.The Theatre Royal, on the E side of Williamson-square, was built in 1772, at a cost of £6,000; was rebuilt in 1803; has a semi-circular front of stone, ornamented with the royal arms, and with various emblematic figures; and is interiorly commodious and splendid.-- The New Adelphi theatre, in Christianstreet, was opened in 1803, as an arena for horsemanship, under the name of the Olympic circus; was rebuilt for theatrical purposes, and took the name first of Queen's theatre, afterwards of the Victoria theatre; and had, for a time, a plain brick front, but now has a highly ornamented one, with columns, balustrades, and statues; and has also a rich interior.-The Prince of Wales theatre, in Clayton-square, was formerly Clayton Hall; was opened as a theatre in 1861; and has an elegant interior, with capacity for 1,600 persons.-The Alexandra theatre, between Lime-street and Pudsey - street, was built in 1866; measures 63 feet from the back of the boxes to the curtain; has spacious staircases all of stone, and corridors all tiled and fire- proof; and contains accommodation for 2,200 spectators. - The Colosseum, in Paradise-street, was originally a Unitarian chapel; was converted into a place of amusement in 1850; includes an old octagonal edifice, with octagonal lantern in its centre, and a new addition toward Paradise-street, with handsomely decorated front; is used nightly for theatrical exhibitions, or other public amusements; and has capacity for 3,000 persons.-The Royal amphitheatre, in Great Charlotte-street, is a very spacious edifice, with neat stuccoed front; is used variously for dramatic, melo-dramatic, pantomimic, and equestrian exhibitions; has a moveable stage, and an easily-surveyed circle for horsemanship; is used also for public meetings; and, when so used, can accommodate about 5,000 persons. The Concert hall, in Lord Nelson-street, is a fine edifice; is used ordinarily for musical performances and for lectures; has, throughout the winter, Saturday evening concerts, at a very moderate charge; and is used, on stated Sunday evenings, as a place of worship. -The Philharmonic hall, at the corner of Hope-street and Myrtle-street, was built in 1849, at a cost of about £18,000, exclusive of the site; measures 175 feet in length, 109 feet in width, and 72 feet in height; is in the Romanesque Italian style, with two principal stone fronts; has two colonnades on these fronts; is constructed interiorly somewhat after the manner of a theatre, with the orchestra in the position usually occupied by the stage; contains accommodation for 3,000 auditors, and 300 performers; includes a grand saloon, with refreshment rooms; is used for the musical performances of the Philharmonic society, which was established in 1840; and is noted for having had receipts of upwards of £3,000, in two evenings of Aug. 1850, at singings of Jenny Lind. Queen's hall, in Bold-street, and St. James' hall, in Lime-street, also are used for public amusements; and the former is used likewise for the exhibition of paintings.--The Wellington rooms, in Mount Pleasant, were erected in 1815; have a stone front, with semicircular centre, adorned with Corinthian columns; and contain a ball- room, a card-room, a supper-room, and several ante-rooms, all very elegant and ornate.-The Royal assembly-room, in Great George-street, is used for concerts, assemblies, and public meetings. -The Rotunda, adjoining the Lyceum, was formerly used for the exhibition of panoramic paintings; but is now a proprietorial billiardroom.-Crew's billiard-rooms, at the corner of Dukestreet and Slater-street, are a commodious stone building, with a fine stone sculpture of the Union arms in front; and were formerly the Union news-room.
Prince's-park, at the S end of Prince's-road, and contiguous to the S line of the borough boundary, was formed, as a site of villas and a place of public recreation, by R. V. Yates, Esq.; is of much extent, and very tastefully laid out; has its villas, or rather mansions, so placed as to enhance the beauty of the recreation grounds, without impinging on their area; contains a charming lake, and charming inequalities of ground, artistically beautified; and commands delightful views, over the Mersey, to the hills of Cheshire and the mountains of Wales. A fancy fair and flower-show was held in it in Aug. 1849, in aid of the infirmary and the N and S hospitals; and yielded £9,593.–The Dingle, a short distance beyond Prince's park, and immediately without the borough boundary, is a romantic dell. belonging to J. B. Yates, Esq., and extending to the Mersey; and is open to the public every Wednesday and Thursday.– Prince's parade, along the W side of Prince's dock, and separated from it by a lofty wall, is a pleasant marine promenade, 2,250 feet long, and 11 feet wide; is protected, on the side next the river, by iron posts, hung with chains, about 3 feet high; has, at convenient distances, seats or benches, – and, at each end, a covered shed; and commands an animating view of the Mersey and the Cheshire shore, down to the Bidston lighthouse. A similar promenade extends along the river- side, over the entire length of the Albert dock warehouses.– St. James' walk, along the W boundary of St. James' cemetery, is a raised gravel terrace, 1,200 feet long; and, though rather a town thoroughfare than a recreation promenade, possesses interest for commanding good and extensive views of both the town and the river.– The Volunteer parade-ground, in Hall-lane, has capacity for the exercising of 3,000 men, in both drill and artillery practice; and fields opposite to it are used for cricket matches.– The new gymnasium of the Athletic club is in Myrtle-street.– The race-course is at Aintree, 6 miles NE of the town; has a grand stand, which cost £20,000, and several smaller erections; and the races on it are held in July. –The public baths, on George's-pier, were erected by the corporation, in 1829, at a cost of more than £36,000; form a low stone building, with plain but chaste exterior, and with an illuminated clock; contain warm, tepid, and cold baths, in two departments for the two sexes; contain also a cold plunge bath, and convenient dressing-rooms; and are supplied with water from the river at high tide, received into a tank with capacity for upwards of 800 tons, – forced thence, by means of a steam-engine, into a capacious filter, –and conveyed thence, in perfectly limpid condition, through pipes to the several baths.– Commodious baths and wash-houses, erected subsequently to the baths on George's-pier, are in Cornwallis- street, Paul-street, and Margaret-street; and Oriental baths are in Mulberry-street.
Railway Works and Stations.Four railway systems, gathering up and concentrating branch-lines as they approach, have terminal communications with Liverpool. One is the Great Western, coming to Birkenhead, and communicating by ferry-boat with Liverpool landing stage; another is the Great Northern, and the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, coming originally to a station in Sefton-street, near the S docks, but extended since 1864 to a station at the end of Church-street, near the centre of the town; a third is the Liverpool and Manchester branch of the Northwestern, opened in 1830, the first passenger-railway in England, coming to a passenger-station in Lime- street, and sending off three branch-lines, for goods-trains, to respectively Wapping for the S end of the town, Waterloo-road for the N end of the town, and Bankfield-street, Kirkdale, for the N docks; and the fourth is the Lancashire and Yorkshire and the East Lancashire, coming to a station in Tithebarn-street. The station of the Great Western, though in Birkenhead, commands facile communication with Liverpool, both by its own excellent arrangements on the Cheshire side, and by the singularly effective construction of the landing-stages on both sides. Even the old station of the Great Northern and the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, at Sefton-street, gave good facilities of transit from London, Yorkshire, and Scotland; and was connected, by omnibuses, with an office in Lower Castle-street. The Lime-street station of the Northwestern was erected in 1836, on the site of a cattlemarket, whence Mr. Sadler rose in his balloon, a short time before his last and fatal ascent; is a magnificent and elaborate structure, extending in front from Gloucesterstreet to Lord Nelson-street; borrows splendour from confronting St. George's Hall; has a stone fa¿¿ade 330 feet long, enriched with thirty-six three-quarter Corinthian columns on rustic pedestals, and with other decorations; is pierced, in that fa¿¿ade, with four large gate arches, two of which are blank, while the other two, at the extremities, are the entrances; has its offices in a receding form, under a porticoed Doric colonnade, surmounted by an extensive balcony; and is covered, over its platform, by a fine arched roof, 70 feet in span, formed of iron, and spaced with windows. A tunnel, 6,690 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 17 feet high, extends hence to Edge-hill; and the trains are drawn up this tunnel by means of ropes and fixed engines, stationed at Edge-hill. A stupendous cutting occurs in the railway's course, at Olive-Mount, about 1½ mile beyond Edge-hill; and is, at one place, 70 feet deep. The branch line for goods to Wapping joins the main line at Edge hill; is upwards of 1½ mile long; and all passes through a tunnel, principally hewn out of solid rock, beneath the town. The trains enter at Wapping, by an open cutting, with space for four lines of rails; pass under piles of warehouses, floored on rows of cast-iron pillars; receive their loads through trap-doors in the floors of the warehouses; and, like the passenger-trains from the Lime-street station, are drawn up the tunnel by means of ropes and fixed engines stationed at Edge-hill. The branch-lines for goods to Waterloo-road and to Bankfield- street, also pass through tunnels. The tunnel to Bankfield-street was formed in 1864-6; and the station there stands opposite the entrance of Huskisson dock, and was erected in 1866. The Tithebarn-street station of the Lancashire and Yorkshire and the East Lancashire railways, serves also for the Liverpool and Southport, the Liverpool and Bury, and the Liverpool, Ormskirk, and Preston lines; is an edifice in the Italian style, 240 feet wide; and has a booking office 117 wide, with wings 193 feet. The goods station of the Great Western is at Duke's-dock; the goods station of the Great Northern and the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, is at Sefton-street; goods stations of the Northwestern are at Crown-street, Great Howard-street, Park -lane, Wapping, Waterloo - road, and Bankfieldstreet; a cattle-station of the Northwestern is at Edgehill; goods stations of the Lancashire and Yorkshire are at Great Howard-street, Love-lane, North docks, Sandhills, Bankfield-street, Sefton-street, Brunswick dock, Battery-street, and Canada dock; and goods stations of the East Lancashire are at Great Howard-street, and Sandhills bridge. A project for a pneumatic railway between Liverpool and Birkenhead, to pass 25 feet below the bed of the Mersey, was explained, near the end of 1865, by Sir Charles Fox, to a numerous and influential meeting in Liverpool, and approved.
Harbour and Docks.Capt. Collins, writing in the time of William III., says that ships, coming to Liverpool, put out part of their cargo at Hoylake, to render them light enough to sail over the flats into the Mersey; that the channel up to Liverpool was near Formby, had three fathoms on the bar at low-water, and was not buoyed or beaconed; that ships, on arriving at Liverpool, were left a-ground at low-water, and rode badly afloat in the flood of tide, on account of the strength of the tidal currents; and that they went up to the Slyne, where there was less strength of current, in order that they might ride better there. But, since Collins' time, the passage near Formby has been buoyed; a much better passage, which was not known in his days, and which enables ships three times larger than any of those in his period to enter the harbour without discharging any portion of their cargo, has been discovered; a series of brilliant lights, some afloat, others on hills and headlands, and all combining to render the approach and entrance of the Mersey as safe by night as by day, has been set up; a prodigious amount of improvement in the anchoring grounds of the harbour, rendering them good and facile at all states of the tide, has been effected; and a magnificent range of docks, easy of entrance, and giving ships as safe and smooth a berthage as the best natural landlocked harbour in the world, has been formed.
The docks and the ground connected with them form an estate, long under the management of a committee, and in the trusteeship of the town council. The committee consisted of thirteen members elected from the town council, and eight elected from the merchants and ship-owners; and its proceedings were subject to the review of the town council. But since 1857 the dock estate has been managed by a Board, elected by the rate- payers, and called the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Two harbour- masters superintend the shipping in the docks; a dock-master attends to the vessels in each dock, allots them berths, and assign's or orders requisite changes of place; and dock - gatemen and policemen perform the minor duties, for regulation of the docks, and for protection of property. The income of the Board, during the year ending in June, 1866, was £7,296 on capital account, and £840,050 on revenue account; the expenditure £1,192,624 on capital account, and £32,817 on revenue account; the amount of new loans contracted £1,760,395; the amount of old loans paid off, £87,305; and the amount of the available capital on the loan account, at the end of the year, £13,444,289. The dock-estate, as tabulated in 1864, comprises 277 acres of water-space in tidal basins, wet docks, and dry docks, and 738 acres in land, yards, streets, and sites of warehouses and other buildings; but the relative proportions of water-area and land-area are altered by new docks, in the extreme N, which were formed in the course of 1864-7. The total quayage of the tidal basins and the wet docks, in 1864, was nearly 19 miles; and the length of the river wall, from the extreme N boundary of the estate, near Primrose-brook, to the extreme S boundary, near the Dingle, is upwards of 6 miles. The docks are not, as in other ports, confined by warehouses and other buildings standing close to their margin; but are flanked, on their E or landward side, from end to end, by a good width of space into which both the principal commercial streets and multitudes of other thoroughfares run. A double line of railway, about 5 miles long, traverses the same side; sends off branches to the several railway companies' goods stations; and goes round several of the docks. Omnibuses run each way, from end to end, every few minutes, at a very moderate fare; numerous buildings, such as dock-masters' residences, customs' depôts, police-stations, pilots' offices, traffic - managers' offices, and other buildings for the business or convenience of the port, are on the dock quays, or in their near vicinity. A complete system of electric telegraph goes from end to end of the docks; has connexion with the custom-house, the dock-offices, and the exchange; and, as already noticed, communicates, through various stations along the Cheshire and Welsh coasts, with a terminal signal station at Holyhead. We shall notice the docks seriatim, in ascending order, from N to S.
The new docks, formed in the extreme N, in 1864-7, were undertaken, in consequence of pressing demands for increased accommodation by the steam-shipping trade and other trades; include the space of three previous small docks or basins, and a considerable area of adjacent land; comprise two new docks and a very large half-tide dock, surrounded by a noble pile of dock warehouses; have aggregately a water- area of upwards of 16 acres; involve a new river frontage, measured from Rimrose-bridge at Seaforth to the Canada dock, of about 1½ mile; and were formed by the constant labour of upwards of 1,200 workmen, with proportionate number of horses and waggons. – North Carriers' dock was opened in 1862; has a water area of 2 acres 3,423 yards, and a quayage of 641 lineal yards; is walled of durable stone, coped with granite; and is appropriated chiefly to the mahogany trade, and the inland carrying business. South Carriers' dock has a water-area of 1 acre 4,515 yards, and a quayage of 615 lineal yards; has, at its E end, a warehouse resting partly on stone piers rising from the dock's bottom; and is appropriated entirely to the inland carrying trade.– Canada Half- Tide dock was opened in 1859; has a water-area of 3 acres 4,380 yards, and a quayage of 468 lineal yards; is very substantially walled, with granite facing and coping; has, on its W side, two double locks, admitting small craft from an open basin at various states of the tide; has ingress and egress from and to other waters, by seven passages, with 13 pairs of dock gates; and is used chiefly as an auxiliary for the working of the North Carriers', the South Carriers', and the Canada docks.– The Canada dock lies to the S of the Canada Half-Tide dock: was opened in 1859; has a water-area of 17 acres 4,043 yards, and a quayage of 1,272 lineal yards; is very substantially walled; is entered, at the N end, through a lock 500 feet long and 100 feet wide, which can be used as a graving dock; is appropriated entirely to the timber trade; and has, on the E side, large yards, and spacious handsome offices, for the conducting off that trade. Canada Tidal basin serves as an entrance from the river to all the four preceding docks; and has a water-area of 6 acres 4,520 yards, and a quayage of 546 lineal yards.– Huskisson dock was opened in 1852; has a water-area of 14 acres 3,451 yards, and a quayage of 1,039 lineal yards; has, on the W side, spacious sheds and workshops, connected with the American and Mediterranean steam trade; is appropriated chiefly to that trade, but partly also to the timber trade; and communicates, at the S end, with Sandon Tidal basin, through two long locks, one of which can be used as a graving dock.– Huskisson Branch dock lies E of Huskisson dock, and has open communication with it; has a water-area of 7 acres 592 yards, and a quayage of 910 lineal yards; has, on three of its sides, spacious closed sheds connected with the North American and Mediterranean steam trade; and is appropriated entirely to that trade.
Sandon Tidal basin is one of a series of works, constructed under an act of 1844, and embracing Sandon dock and all the docks southward thence to the Salisbury, Collingwood, and Stanley; serves as an entrance from the river to Huskisson locks and docks, and to all the docks from the Sandon to the Clarence; and has a water-area of 6 acres 904 yards, and a quayage of 702 lineal yards.– Sandon dock lies directly landward from Sandon Tidal basin; has a water-area of 10 acres 100 yards, and a quayage of 867 lineal yards; and is appropriated partly to a miscellaneous export trade, but chiefly to the accommodation of vessels -under repair. Railways go along its S and E quays; two cranes, capable of lifting respectively 20 and 50 tons, are on these two quays; and six large graving docks, parallel to one another, and entered by locks, are on the N side. –Wellington Half-Tide dock has, on the N side, a double entrance from communication with Sandon Tidal basin; serves as an auxiliary to Wellington dock, and to other docks on the S; and has a water-area of 3 acres 813 yards, and a quayage of 400 lineal yards.–Wellington dock lies directly landward of Wellington Half-Tide dock, and is entered from it; has a water-area of 7 acres 4,120 yards, and a quayage of 820 lineal yards; and is appropriated chiefly to the North American and Mediterranean steam trade. Spacious closed sheds are on its N and S quays; and a high-level railway, with hydraulic cranes for the loading of coal, is on its E quay.–Bramley-Moore dock lies immediately S of the Wellington docks; has a water-area of 9 acres 3,106 yards, and a quayage of 935 lineal yards; and is appropriated chiefly to the trade with the United States of America. Sheds, partially closed, are on its N and S quays; a shed, with upper story for grain, is on the W quay; and a continuation of the high-level railway at the Wellington dock is on the Equay.–Nelson dock has a water-area of 7 acres 4,786 yards, and a quayage of 803 lineal yards; is surrounded with capacious closed sheds; and is appropriated to the steam trade with Ireland, Holland, the Mediterranean, and the West Indies.– Salisbury dock is entered direct from the river, with double entrance, divided by a pier, on which is a tower about 100 feet high, with illuminated clock and timeball; has a water-area of 3 acres 2,1 46 yards, and a quayage of 406 lineal yards;. serves chiefly as an auxiliary to several adjacent docks; communicates with these by seven passages; and, besides its main entrances from the river, has a lock-passage thence for barges going to and from the Leeds and Liverpool canal.–Collingwood dock lies directly landward of Salisbury dock, and is entered from it; has a water-area of 5 acres 244 yards, and a quayage of 553 lineal yards; and is appropriated chiefly to the coasting-trade.–Stanley dock lies directly landward of Collingwood dock, and is entered from it; has a water-area of 7 acres 120 yards, and a quayage of 753 lineal yards; and is subtended, on its N and S sides, by fire-proof warehouses, vaulted below the quays, rising five stories above quay-level, furnished with hydraulic machinery for hoisting goods, and possessing immediate railway-communication with the main railway-lines of the harbour.– All the docks noticed in this paragraph, beginning with Sandon Tide basin, were constructed by the late Mr. Jesse Hartley, are connected by railways, and are enclosed by well-built granite walls with gateways leading to the public streets.
Clarence Half-Tide dock is entered directly from the river; has a water-area of 4 acres 1,794 yards, and a quayage of 635 lineal yards; allows ingress or egress at half-tide; is used less for the berthing of vessels. than as a passage to adjacent docks; and has, on its N side, a crane capable of lifting 30 tons. Clarence Graving-dock basin lies between Salisbury dock and Clarence Half-Tide basin; has a water-area of 1 acre 1,056 yards, and a quayage of 291 lineal yards; serves as a passage from Salisbury dock to Clarence dock, and as a receptacle for vessels approaching or leaving contiguous graving docks; and has, on its W side, a gridiron for vessels requiring small repairs. Clarence Graving-docks extend westward from Clarence Graving-dock basin, adjacent to the S sides of Salisbury and Collingwood docks; are constructed in a substantial and elegant manner; and afford to strangers the very best opportunities of witnessing the manner and variety of repairs on ships. Clarence dock lies directly landward of Clarence Half-Tide basin; has a water-area of 6 acres 273 yards, and a quayage of 914 lineal yards; and is appropriated entirely to the steam-trade with the ports of the United Kingdom, chiefly those of Ireland. All the Clarence series of docks were opened in 1830; and all the quays of Clarence dock, and considerable portions of those of the half-tide dock, are covered with protecting sheds.– The Trafalgar dock was opened in 1836; has a water-area of 6 acres 2,643 yards, and a quayage of 1,020 lineal yards; is surrounded with commodious protecting sheds; and is appropriated partly to new steamers receiving their engines and boilers, or to old ones undergoing repair, but chiefly to working steamers in the coasting-trade.–Victoria dock was opened in 1836; is entered directly from the river; has a water-area of 5 acres 3,559 yards, and a quayage of 755 lineal yards; is appropriated partly to the general trade of the port, but chiefly to ships to and from the United States of America; and is the scene of a large emigration-traffic.–Waterloo dock was opened in 1834, and reconstructed in 1864; is entered from Victoria dock; has a water-area of 3 acres 2,146 yards, and a quayage of 533 lineal yards; and is appropriated to the American trade. A wind-mill stood at the E end of this dock, and was converted into a curiously constructed hostelry; and a destructive conflagration, in 18 42, known as " the great fire of Liverpool, " which destroyed warehouse property and goods to the value of nearly £500,000, and occasioned the loss of four lives, was in the vicinity.–Corn-Warehouse dock was formed in 1864; lies E of Waterloo dock; has a water-area of 2 acres 3,053 yards, and a quayage of 493 lineal yards; is appropriated entirely to the corn-trade; and is engirt on three sides with substantial, six-storied, fire-proof warehouses, possessing the best machinery for the conditioning and delivery of grain. Prince's Half-Tide dock was constructed in 1864, on the site of a previous work known as Prince's Tidal basin; is entered from the river by a central passage serving as a lock for small river-craft, and by two side passages each 65 feet wide; has a water-area of 6 acres 354 yards; gives entrance, on the S, to Prince's dock; and has, at the SE corner, a gridiron for the making of small repairs on vessels. The observatory noticed in our section on public buildings, and a life-boat, are at its NW corner.–Prince's dock was opened in 1821; is entered from Prince's HalfTide dock on the N, and from George's Tidal basin on the S; measures 500 yards in length and 106 yards in breadth; has a water-area of 10 acres 145 yards, and a quayage of 1,000 lineal yards; permits ingress or egress of vessels, by means of locks in its entrance passages, at half-tide: is appropriated to the general trade of the port, with vessels to all parts of the world; is surrounded with sheds for the protection of merchandise, –those along the W side having been erected at a cost of £14,000, and being closed, –those on the other sides being open; has cranes and other appliances to aid loading and unloading; has also, at each end, a dwelling-house, with suitable offices, for the dock-masters; and is completely enclosed with a lofty brick wall, pierced with gateways at convenient distances. The marine promenade, formerly noticed, and the landing-stage for channel steamers, afterwards to be noticed, are in front of this dock; and extensive new works, in connexion with it, were in progress in 1865-6. – Seacombe Tidal basin, between Prince's dock and George's Tidal basin, has a water-area of 1,805 yards, and a quayage of 188 lineal yards; was formerly used for the ferries to the Cheshire side of the river; and was originally constructed for the use of boatmen, fishermen, and small river craft.–George's Tidal basin was opened about 1770; has a water-area of 3 acres 1,852 yards, and a quayage of 455 lineal yards; is the chief resort of fishing-vessels for discharge of cargoes; and serves principally as an entrance to Prince's dock and George's dock.–George's dock was begun to be formed in 1767, and widened in 1799; occupies the site of a fort which, in 1749, mounted 14 guns; measures 236 yards in length and 100 yards in breadth; has a water- area of 5 acres 2,593 yards, and a quayage of 1,001 lineal yards; is appropriated to the general trade of the port; and has sheds, along its E and W quays, for the protection of goods. A great range of warehouses extends parallel to its E side; bears the name of the Goree warehouses; was erected in 1802, in place of other buildings then destroyed by fire; is five stories high; and, for the convenience of foot-passengers, has a ground floor arcade, called the Goree-Piazzas. The public baths, formerly noticed, a marine promenade, and the landing stage for ferry steamers, afterwards to be noticed, are on the docks' W side.–George's Ferry basin was constructed about 1770; has always been used as a place of shelter and for river-boats; has a water-area of 1,3 44 yards, and a quayage of 160 lineal yards; and includes an incline slip for the landing and shipping of goods out of and into ferry-vessels.
Manchester basin and dock are entered directly from the river; have jointly a water-area of 1 acre 3,478 yards, and a quayage of 684 lineal yards; are appropriated entirely to the carrying trade; have a complete system of sheds, warehouses, offices, and other appliances; and are enclosed within boundary wails.–Canning Half-Tide dock was originally a tidal basin; was altered into a wet dock in 1843; has two entrances from the river, divided by a pier, with index to show the height of the tide; has a water-area of 2 acres 2,688 yards, and a quayage of 429 lineal yards; and serves as an entrance to the Canning, Albert, and Salthouse docks.–Canning dock lies landward of Canning Half- Tide dock; is entered both from that dock and through a long lock or gut called George's dock passage, from George's dock; was originally called the Old Dry dock, and led into the old or pristine dock, whose site is now occupied by the Custom-house; was used as a tidal dock from about 1700 till 1811, when it became a wet dock with gates; took its present name of Canning dock in 1832, after having undergone extensive repairs; was, to a considerable extent, reconstructed in 1842; retains the level of the sill of the Old dock, as the datum of the port from which tidal and other levels are computed; has a water-area of 4 acres 376 yards, and a quayage of 585 lineal yards; is appropriated to the coasting trade of the United Kingdom; is flanked, along its E side, with an open shed; and communicates, on the SW, with two graving docks.–Albert dock was opened, by the late Prince Consort, in 1846; has a water-area of 7 acres 3,542 yards, and a quayage of 885 lineal yards; is appropriated entirely to the rich import trade from India, China, and South America; is surrounded with massive ranges of fire-proof warehouses, which present a fine appearance as seen from the river; and, together with the warehouses and the site, cost £782. 265. The warehouses have spacious vaults below quay-level, and besides stowage for wines, spirits, and other goods in the Vaults, have stowage, in the upper stories, for 234,950 bales of cotton. A granite islet separates the entrance to the dock into two passages, and is surmounted by a handsome lodge for the lock-keepers; and a spacious promenade extends, parallel with the dock, along the river.–Salthouse dock lies landward of Albert dock, and is entered from it; took the name of Salthouse from saltworks originally contiguous to it; was constructed in terms of an act of 1734; was altered and nearly reconstructed in 1844; was enlarged in 1855; has an irregular form, widening over some distance southward from the centre, and then rapidly converging towards- the SE; comprises a water-area of 6 acres 2,019 yards, and a quayage of 784 lineal yards; is appropriated entirely to the export trade, chiefly to India and South America; and is flanked, on the E side, by a very fine granite closed shed,–and, on the N and W sides, by covered sheds. –Duke's dock, immediately S of Albert dock, was constructed by the late Duke of Bridgewater, and used by his trustees and other canal- carriers for their numerous boats; and one end of it runs underneath the centre of a range of large warehouses.
Wapping basin lies immediately S of Salthouse dock, to the E of Duke's dock; was opened in 1855; has a water-area of 1 acre 3,151 yards, and a quayage of 454 lineal yards; is appropriated to an export trade, chiefly in connexion with adjoining docks; and has, along the E side, a fine closed shed for protection of goods. The formation of this basin, the enlargement of Salthouse dock, and the formation of Wapping dock, cost about £600,000, and were done for the double purpose of creating increase of dock accommodation, and of constructing an intermediate link for continuous connexion from the extreme northernmost docks southward to Brunswick dock. No such connexion previously existed, so that ships could not pass from N to S or from S to N, except by going out into the river; but now they can go continuously from dock to dock over a distance of about 4 miles.–Wapping dock lies immediately S of Wapping basin, and is entered from it; was opened in 1855; has a water-area of 5 acres 499 yards, and a quayage of 815 lineal yards; is appropriated to both the import and the export trades, somewhat of a miscellaneous character, but the imports generally of a highly valuable kind; has, along all the E side, a very fine range of fire-proof warehouses, fitted with prime hydraulic machinery for loading and unloading; and has, along the W side, occupying the entire space between it and the E side of King's dock, an excellent shed, 90 feet in span, closed at the ends, and lighted throughout the roof with thick glass.–King's dock lies between Wapping dock and the river; was opened in 1788; measures 270 yards in length, and 95 yards in breadth; has a water-area of 7 acres 3,896 yards, and a quayage of 875 lineal yards; is appropriated to the tobacco trade, and to the general trade of the port, both foreign and coastwise; and has, along all its W quay, an open shed, and between that and the river, the Queen's tobacco warehouse. This last is a large plain range of brick building, erected by the Liverpool corporation, and rented from them by government; and all the tobacco entering the port is lodged in it, till the qualities are examined and the duties paid. The buildings and machinery for testing chains, ships' cables, and anchors are situated to the N of the tobacco warehouse; and a marine promenade, called the King's parade, extends between the warehouse and the river. Queen's Half-Tide dock was originally a tidal basin, opened in 1788, and serving as an entrance to King's dock and Queen's dock; was altered into a wet dock and re-opened in 1855; is entered from the river by two passages, divided by a pier, and respectively 70 and 50 feet wide; has a water-area of 3 acres 3,542 yards, and a quayage of 445 lineal yards; serves as an auxiliary to several adjacent docks; has, on the N quay, a closed shed,–and on the S quay large masting sheers, with a sweep of about 60 feet from the centre, and capable of lifting 20 tons; and communicates, in the upper part of the W side, with two graving docks.–Queen's dock lies landward of Queen's Half- Tide dock and the two connected graving docks. but extends considerably further to the S; is entered either through Queen's Half-Tide dock, or by way of Coburg dock: was formed. to about one-half of its present extent, from the N end. in 1796; was formed, ever the rest of its extent, in 1816; was, at the same time, quayed on both sides, in a manner to suit the then timber trade of the port; was deepened and otherwise improved in 1857; has a water-area of 10 acres 1,564 yards, and a quayage of 1,214 lineal yards; is now appropriated to the general trade of the port; and has on the E and the W sides commodious sheds. Some ship-building yards, and a small dock for river craft are situated between Queen's Half-Tide dock and Coburg dock.
Coburg dock and Union dock were originally separate works, formed under an act of 1811; but they were made one work, with the name of Coburg dock, in 1858. The original Coburg dock was a tidal basin; was converted into a wet dock, with entrance-gates 70 feet wide, in 1840; and had a water-area of 4 acres 2,198 yards. Union dock lay landward of the former; was originally a wet dock; took its name of Union from its serving as a link between Queen's dock and Brunswick dock; and had a water-area of 2 acres 3,005 yards. The present Coburg dock has a water-area of 8 acres 26 yards, and a quayage of 1,053 lineal yards; is appropriated to the general trade of the port, but is usually occupied on most of the N side by the large Australian steam and sailing packets, and on part of the S side by the steamers trading to Portugal and Spain; and has, on the N side, partially-closed sheds, –on the S side, fine closed sheds,–and on the Eslde, a very powerful hydraulic crane.–South-Ferry Tidal basin was formed in 1830; has a water- area of 2,927 yards, and a quayage of 205 lineal yards; serves chiefly as a place of shelter for small river-craft; and has, on its quays, the principal establishment of the dock authorities for forming, repairing, and maintaining the works of the dock-estate.– Brunswick Half-Tide dock was opened in 1832; is entered from the river; has a water-area of 1 acre 3,888 yards, and a quayage of 491 lineal yards; serves as a passage to Brunswick dock; and has, on its N quay, a sheltering shed.–Brunswick dock extends N and S across the head of Brunswick Half-Tide dock; was opened in 1832; has a water-area of 12 acres 3,010 yards, and a quayage of 1,086 lineal yards; is appropriated, on its E side and part of its W side, entirely to the timber trade; has, on the N quay, an open shed, –and, on about one half of the W quay, a range of closed sheds for steam and other Vessels requiring their use.; and communicates, at the S end, with two fine graving docks.–Toxteth dock was originally a tidal basin, called the South basin; was; converted into a wet dock, and opened as such in 1842; has a water-area of 1 acre 469 yards, and a quayage of 393 lineal yards; is appropriated to the general trade of the port; and has, in the upper part of the N and S sides, capacious sheds, with lines of railway running into them, for the storage of mahogany and other foreign wood.–Harrington Tidal basin and Harrington dock were constructed about 1839; passed, by sale, to the general dock estate in 1844; have jointly a water-area of 1 acre 2,817 yards, and a quayage of 623 lineal yards; and are appropriated chiefly to the coasting and the inland carrying trades.–Herculaneum Half- Tide dock was constructed in 1864-5; is entered from the river by two passages, divided by a pier, and respectively 80 and 60 feet wide; has a water-area of 8 acres 4,809 yards, and a quayage of 540 lineal yards; and communicates, on the S side, through entrances 60 feet in width, with two very fine graving docks, each 750 feet long.–A resolution was taken, about the beginning of Nov. 186 6, to construct new works at a cost of about £1,000,000; to include a purchase of 150 acres for a system of new coal-docks, a Herculaneum dock at a cost of £154,000, new corn warehouses at a cost of £155,000, and new carriage-approaches to the river-levels at a cost of £170,000.–The total number of graving docks in the harbour is 20, with entrances varying in width from 32 to 100 feet; and they aggregately have a lineal length of 10,125 feet.
Prince's landing-stage, situated opposite the S end of Prince's parade, was opened in 1857; is suited to the embarking and landing of passengers by Channel-going steamers and by sailing-ships, and to the embarking and landing of merchandise in the traffic to and from Birkenhead; is constructed of a number of floating pontoons, bearing a fixed framework of timber decked over; measures 1,000 feet in length and 80 feet in width; rises and falls with the tide; and is approached by two iron bridges, one end of which is secured to the pier by a moveable joint or pivot, while the other rests on the stage. Waiting and refreshment-rooms, and offices for the underwriters, steam-ship companies, and customs officers, with life-boat house, are on the deck; horses and carriages can cross it; and accommodation is afforded by it for several thousands of persons.–George's landing stage, situated opposite the N end of the pier-head baths, was opened in 1847; is suited to embarkations and landings in and from the ferry steamers plying between Liverpool and various places on the Mersey; is constructed in the same manner as Prince's landing-stage; measures upwards of 500 feet in length, and 80 feet in width; stands at a distance of 150 feet from the pier; is approached, over that distance, by two swing bridges; has, on deck, refreshment and waiting-rooms, and a projecting shed; and cost, in the construction, about £35,000.– The South landing-stage, situated opposite Harrington dock wall, was opened in 1865; is suited to the embarking- and landing of passengers by the steamers plying to and from New Ferry; consists of a floating stage 120 feet long, and 30 feet wide; and is approached by an iron bridge 150 feet long, and about 60 tons in weight.–A proposal was a-foot, at the beginning of 1866, to construct a new Waterloo pier, to cost about £20,000, and to consist of a platform, 1,500 feet long, carried on 375 iron columns, in triple tiers, screwed into timber piles, and tied by lattice girders.
The entrance to the harbour is guarded by the North fort on the Liverpool side, and by the New Brighton fort on the Cheshire side. The North fort stands on the shore adjacent to the N end of Huskisson dock; is massively constructed of stone; bears, at its entrance, the inscription within a lozenge, V. R. 1854; and, at its seaward base, is washed by the tide to a depth of 30 feet. The entrance is on the E side, with projecting wings and battlemented towers; the doorway is approached over moat and drawbridge, and is arched; the centre of the fort is a square court-yard, on three sides of which are guard-houses, officers' rooms, stables, and other buildings; the bastions are semicircular sweeps of great thickness of wall, flanked by towers for heavy guns; the entrance to each tower is by a strong stone staircase, containing a casemate and artillery store; the aggregate outline of the fort seaward has the form of an arc of a circle; and the interior is always provided with ready-piled shells, and the hot-shot apparatus. The fort, besides affording a striking sight to strangers, in the display of its stores, guns, and other appliances for defence, commands a fine and extensive view of the river's scenery. New Brighton fort stands on Perch rock, projecting into the sea; and contains a battery mounting 18 guns, each of 32 pounds.
Commerce.Sufficient notice of the commerce of Liverpool till 1710, when its first dock was formed, has already been given in the course of our short history of the town. The vessels belonging to the port in 1710, exclusive of vessels frequenting it and belonging to other ports, amounted to 84, averaging 70 tons each, and aggregately employing 924 seamen; the extent of tonnage cleared out then, in British ships, from this port, was only a forty-secondth part of that from all the other ports in the kingdom; and the principal trade then, additional to the coasting trade with the ports of England and Scotland, was with Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the northern states of Europe. But a trade with America and the West Indies immediately afterwards arose; and this, together with increase of the previous trade, raised the number of ships in 1716 to 113, employing 1,376 seamen- A trade with Scotland, in the import of coarse cloths for the West India market, was now superseded by a greater trade in the same cloths, proceeding from spirited competition by manufacturers in Manchester. A contraband trade with South America, in supplying Spanish smugglers with British goods through Jamaica, sometimes to the amount of £1,500,000 a-year, greatly increased the export trade to the West Indies from 1722 till 1740; but was checked by the vigilance of the Spanish government, and eventually abolished by act of parliament. The slave trade with Africa was now partly in the hands of Liverpool, and, in the way of a very worst thing for a bad one, compensated for the stoppage of the smuggling trade; it employed 15 ships from this port in 1750; and it increased so rapidly that, in 1760, the aggregate trade with Guinea and the West Indies exceeded that of London. The exports in it were woollen and worsted goods from Manchester and Yorkshire, and hardware goods from Sheffield and Birmingham; and these were bartered on the coast of Africa for slaves, to be exchanged in the West Indies for rum and sugar. More duty was paid to the Crown, in 1758- 60, by Liverpool than by Bristol; 74 ships cleared out from Liverpool for the coast of Africa, in 1764, while only 32 cleared out from Bristol; and, in fact, more than one-half of the African trade of the kingdom was then in the possession of Liverpool. Other trades, less blameable, more prosperous, better stimulated, and more rapidly progressive, afterwards sprang up, particularly the trades to the East Indies and to the United States of America; and these, with increase of commerce in all directions, have raised Liverpool to the status of the greatest port in the world. Steamers were first introduced in 1815; and they alone, by their vast increase, have mightily aided the development of both the coasting and the foreign trade. The number of vessels which entered the port, in 1795, was 3,948; in 1805,4,618; in 1815,6,440; in 1825,10,837; in 1835,13,941; in 1838,14,820.–The amount of customs, in 1795, was £469,438; in 1805, £1,766,370; in 1815, £2,360,967; in 1826, £3,087,651; in 1835, £4,272,847; in 1840, £4,607,326- The tonnage of vessels frequenting the port, in 1831, was 1,592,436; in 1841,2,425,461; in 1851,3,737,666; in 1861,4,977,272.
The port, in its registrations and its duties, includes Birkenhead and Runcorn. The vessels registered at it, in the beginning of 1864, were 289 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 10,322 tons; 2,370 large sailing- vessels, of aggregately 1,274,933 tons; 37 small steam-vessels, of aggregately 1,294 tons, and 256 large-steam vessels, of aggregately 120,355 tons. The vessels which entered, during 1863, were 1,036 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 749,798 tons, from British colonies; 90 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 69,877 tons, from British colonies; 1,682 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 521,599 tons, from foreign countries; 1,007 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 505,177 tons, from foreign countries; 56 British steam - vessels, of aggregately 57,140 tons, from British colonies; 1 foreign steam-vessel, of 663 tons, from British colonies; 729 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 710,837 tons, from foreign countries; 81 foreign steam - vessels, of aggregately 43,641 tons, from foreign countries; 3,815 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 380,842 tons, coastwise; and 3,834 steam vessels, of aggregately 1,162,160 tons, coastwise. The vessels which cleared, during 1863, were 1,250 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 847,399 tons, to British colonies; 79 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 44,963 tons, to British colonies; 1,366 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 454,852 tons, to foreign countries; 1.095 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 526,304 tons, to foreign countries; 88 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 76,551 tons, to British colonies; 641 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 647,782 tons, to foreign countries; 85 foreign steam-vessels, of aggregately 45,540 tons, to foreign countries; 4,876 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 337,346 tons, coastwise; and 3,766 steam-vessels, of aggregately 1,064,055 tons, coastwise. The vessels which entered in the year ending in June 1866 were fewer than in one or two previous years; but their aggregate tonnage was about 600,000 higher than in any previous year. The amount of customs, in 1862, was £3,239,766; and the amount of light dues, £56,260. The number of principal custom officers, in the same year, was 2; of outdoor officers, 500; of examining officers, 129; of surveyors, 18; of clerks, 103. The salaries of collectors, in 1859, were £1,800. The accounts of the dock estate, for the year ending in June 1866, show the number of vessels then to have been 21,720; the tonnage, 5,58,322; the duties on tonnage, £215,882.
The imports of colonial and foreign produce, in 1863; comprised 4,476 oxen, bulls, and cows; 7 sheep, 17,568 tons of bones; 1,572,040 lbs. of cocoa; 10,106,579lbs. of coffee; 1,467,083 qrs. of wheat; 36,929 qrs. of barley; 43,067 qrs. of oats; 45,712 qrs. of Pease; 181,997qrs. of beans; 817,867 qrs. of maize; 1,991,238 cwts. of wheat, meal, and flour; 5,246,063 cwts. of raw cotton; 35,095 £ value of cotton manufactures; 6,276 cwts. of cochineal; 4,817 cwts. of indigo; 245,539 cwts. of madder, madder-root, and munjeet; 13,580 cwts. of flax; 1,157 cwts. of tow or codilla of flax; 247,086 cwts. of currants; 274,863 bushels of lemons and oranges; 92,975 cwts. of raisins; 60,453 tons of guano; 346,399 cwts. of hemp; 351,713 of jute and other substances of the nature of undressed hemp; 69,672 cwts. of dry untanned hides; 248,463 cwts. of wet untanned hides; 656,660 lbs. of tanned, tawed, curried or dressed hides, except Russian hides; 13,813 tons of mahogany; 27,834 tons of copper ore and regulus; 6,427 tons of partly wrought and partly unwrought copper; 1,296 tons of unwrought iron in bars; 1,014 tons of unwrought and rolled spelter; 3,492 cwts. of unwrought tin; 2,628 tuns of train oil, blubber, and spermaceti oil; 521,758 cwts. of palm oil; 7,246 cwts. of cocoa-nut oil; 6,692 tuns of olive-oil; -1,553 tuns of all kinds of seed-oil; 4,257 tons of oil-seed cakes; 1,483,637 cwts. of bacon and hams; 154,765 cwts. of salted beef; 45,865 cwts. of salted pork; 178,474 cwts. of butter; 347,845 cwts. of cheese; 5,527 great hundreds of eggs; 398,881 cwts. of lard; 8,481 tons of rags and other materials for making paper; 1,736,058 cwts. of rice, not in the husk; 443,727 cwts. of saltpetre and cubic nitre; 76,079 cwts. of clover seed; 135,154 qrs. of flaxseed and linseed; 60,329 qrs. of rapeseed; 159,906 Ibs. of raw silk; 79 lbs. of thrown silk; 558 lbs. of silk broad stuffs of Europe; 2,144 lbs. of silk ribbons of Europe; 793 pieces of bandannas, corahs, and other silk manufactures of India; 2,902,733 lbs. of pepper; 1,090 cwts. of pimento; 1,560,813 gallons of rum; 404,068 gallons of brandy; 54,666 gallons of geneva, 2,067,578 cwts. of unrefined sugar; 39,381 cwts. of refined sugar and sugar-candy; 455,264 cwts. of molasses; 322,286 cwts. of tallow; 4,571,759 lbs. of tea; 6,081,514 lbs. of stemmed tobacco; 14,398,068 lbs. of unstemmed tobacco; 1,279,239 lbs. of manufactured tobacco, cigars, and snuff; 569,577 gallons of red wine; 650,009 gallons of white wine; 223,944 loads of unsawn or unsplit timber; 285,668 loads of sawn or split timber, as deals, battens, boards; 15,219 loads of staves; 45,868,444 lbs. of sheep and lambs' wool; 3,398,888 lbs. of alpaca and llama wool; and 25,049 £ value of woollen manufactures.
The exports of British produce, during 1863, comprised 971,205 cwts. of soda; 630,422 £ value of apparel and slops; 197,481 number of small fire-arms; 4,039,471 Ibs. of gunpowder; 80,660 barrels of beer and ale; 52,813 cwts. of butter; 297,074 lbs. of candles and stearine; 9,197 cwts. of cheese; 573,473 tons of coals, cinders, and culm; 31,345,704 lbs. of cotton yarn; 1,215,033,020 yards of cotton piece goods; 1,087,461 £ value of hosiery and small wares; 154,260 packages of earthenware and porcelain; 5,648 barrels of herrings and other fish; 243,258 £ valne of glass; 1,752,032 £ value of haberdashery and millinery; 1,804,064 £ value of hardware and cutlery; 4,605 cwts. of unwrought tanned leather; 330,356 £ value of wrought leather; 85,341 £ value of saddlery and harness; 15,510,768 lbs. of linen yarn; 128,719,254 yards of linen piece goods; 278,435 £ value of thread, tapes, and small wares; 674,265 £ value of steam-engines; 847,678 £ value of other sorts of machinery; 218,665 tons of pig-iron, bar-iron, bolt-iron, castiron- and wire; 56,391 tons of railroad iron; 120,476 tons of all other kinds of iron; 19,669 tons of unwrought steel; 41,420 cwts. of unwrought copper; 187,440 cwts. of wrought or party wrought copper; 6,646 tons of lead and shot; 24,987 cwts. of unwrought tin; 851,022 cwts. of tin-plates; 964,533 gallons of oil-seed; 78,883 £ value of painters' colours; 35,538 cwts. of paper; 517,157 tons of salt; 40,796 lbs. of thrown silk and silk yarn; 470,523 £ value of silk manufactures; 584,558 gallons of British and Irish spirits; 103,752 cwts. of refined sugar; 568,551 lbs. of sheep and lambs' wool; 413,713 lbs. of woollen and worsted yarn; 20,484,677 yards of woollen cloths; 80,684,393 yards of worsted and mixed woollen stuffs; 12,210,752 yards of flannels, carpets, and kindred woollen fabrics; and 507,622 £ value of hosiery and other goods.
Trade and Manufacture.The head post-office¿¿ is at the Custom-house, in Canning-place; district post-offices¿¿ are in Scotland-road, Park-place, and Pembroke-place; receiving post-offices¿¿ are in Canning-street, Castle-street, Dale-street, Derby-road, Edge-hill, Everton, Great Georgestreet, Kirkdale, Oxford-street, Ranelagh-place, Regent'sroad, Richmond-row, and Upper Parliament-street; other receiving post-offices.† are at Breck-road, Kensington, Nether- field-road, Oldhall-street, Park-road, St. James'street, Vauxhall-road, Walton-road, and West-Derbyroad; and pillar letter-boxes, or subsidiary receiving offices, are in about thirty other places. The railway stations, the telegraph-offices, and the banking-offices have already been indicated in our notices of the railway works and the public buildings. Some of the chief hotels are the Adelphi, the Queen's, the Washington, and the Royal Railway, in Lime-street; the Angel, the Bull, the Commercial, the George, the Royal, the Alexandra, the Saddle, and the White Bear, in Dale-street; the Neptune and the Feathers in Clayton-square; the Stork, in Queen- square; the Union, in Parker-street; the Victoria, in St. John's-lane; the Waterloo, in Ranelagh-street; and Brotherston's Commercial, in Wood- street and Hanover-street. The first Liverpool newspaper was published in 1756; and the first Liverpool directory in 1766. Three daily newspapers and four weekly ones are now published, besides various sheets on shipping and mercantile matters, and some weekly periodicals. - Provision markets are held daily; general markets, on Wednesday and Saturday; the corn-market, on Tuesday and Friday: and fairs for horses and cattle, on 25 July and 11 Nov. The provision-markets are remarkably well-supplied; not only commanding a great sweep of country, for all sorts of produce, by railway and by canal, but also commanding vast imports of poultry, eggs, butter, and general farm-produce from Cheshire, North Wales, and the Isle of Man, and of live stock, bacon, grain, and butter, from Ireland and Scotland, by constantly plying steamers.
Manufactures are, in a chief degree, either repelled by commerce or subsidiary to it; they can ill thrive on so stupendous a scene of shipping and transit, where the labouring classes meet ready and sufficient employment in ways more congenial to them than under the confinement and restraints of factories; they are mainly driven off to more inland towns, where they receive imported raw materials from Liverpool, and whence they send back to it the manufactured articles for exportation; yet, in such departments as are immediately required for shipping interests, and even in some not much or at all connected with these, they are great and flourishing. Ship-building is carried on to a large extent; and it has produced, not only multitudes of first-class merchant vessels, and multitudes of merchant steamers, both of timber and iron, but also many large war-vessels for the Government. Steam-engines and other machinery, including engines of the best and most powerful kind for the largest steam-ships, are made in many extensive factories. The making of chain-cables and anchors, the working of iron and brass, rope-making, sail-making, and employments akin to these, also are. carried on in large establishments. Soap-making is so extensive that, according to an official return for 1839, the quantity made here, in that year, was 49,927,039 lbs., while the quantity made in London was only 38,885,058 lbs., and the excise duty on it was £320,000, while the total excise duty on all articles whatever, including this, was no more than £622,935. There are likewise several large sugar refineries, breweries, glass-staining works, alkaliworks, tar and turpentine distilleries, a large cotton factory, and a number of corn, rice, colour, and other mills. The making of chronometers, watches, and watch-movements also is very largely carried on.
The Borough.Liverpool borough, prior to the reform and the municipal acts, was conterminate with Liverpool parish; but it now, as already noticed, includes also the townships of Everton and Kirkdale, and parts of the parish of West Derby, and the extra-parochial part of Toxteth Park; and it is divided into the 16 wards of Scotland, Vauxhall, St. Paul, Exchange, Castle-street, St. Peter, Pitt-street, Great George, Rodney, Abercromby, Lime-street, St. Anne, Everton, West Derby, South Toxteth, and North Toxteth. The corporation consists of a mayor, 16 aldermen, and 48 councillors; and there are a recorder, a stipendiary magistrate, an assessor, a town clerk, and other officers. The numbers of the officials, with their respective amounts of salary, in 1866, were 4 judicial, with £3,225; 22 in the town-clerk's department, with £7,019; 55 in the treasurer's department, with £9,591; 3 in the auditor's department, with £660; 7 in the surveyor's, with £1,834; 6 in the district building surveyor's, with £949; 10 magistrate's clerks, with £2,385; 20 in the town-hall department, with £1,285; 19 in the law-courts and St. George's hall, with £1,204; 22 in the constabulary force, with £4,037; 67 in the borough jail, with £6,088; 30 in the markets' department, with £2,334; 10 for inspection of weights and measures, with £763; 2 for inspection of hackney carriages, with £205; 3 for inspection of gas-meters, with £293; 39 in the borough engineer's department, with £4,868; 82 in the water engineer's department, with £6,100; 3 connected with river craft, with £241; 3 in the billet master's office, with £213; 34 in the baths and wash-houses, with £2,139; 8 in the medical officer of health's department, with £1,284; 27 for inspection of nuisances, with £2,204; 12 in the scavenging staff, with £873; 33 in the corporation schools, with £1,499; 18 in the libraries and museum, with £1,544; and 1 in the botanic gardens, with £150. There are also, now paid by the Dock and Harbour board, but formerly paid by the Corporation, 17 for collecting the town dues, with £2,205; 2 for the Observatory, with £400; 3 for chain- cable-testing, with £222; 2 water bailiffs, with £220; and 9 for the North landing-stage, with £507. The corporation income amounted, in 1855, or two years previous to the transference from it of the dock estate, to £481,947; but amounts now to only about £190,000. The police-force was established in 1836; comprises borough, dock, and fire police; is formed, like that oft he metropolis, into divisions; comprised, in 1864,1 head constable, 14 superintendents, 94 inspectors, 903 constables, and 18 detectives; and cost, in that year, £73,606,–of which £15,426 were paid by Government. The crimes committed in 1864, were 4,326; the persons apprehended, 2,125; the depredators and suspected persons at large, 3,169; the houses of bad character, 1,518. The water supply required, in 1865, was 40,000,000 of gallons per week pumped from the Sandstone wells, and 78,000,000 per week drawn from reservoirs at Rivington, besides 60,000,000 per week for compensation; but the supply, owing to the rapid increase of population, was then becoming insufficient; and two projects were afoot to increase it,–the one to erect an additional reservoir at Rivington, at a cost of £110,000, –the other to sink two wells in the neighbourhood of Aintree-Bootle, and to tap the red sandstone of the Childwall-ridge, at a cost of £25,000, together with an annual working expense of £1, 500. Assizes and courts of quarter sessions are held in spring and summer; a district court of bankruptcy and a county-court also are held; borough sessions are held quarterly and intermediately; courts of passage and request, for the recovery of debts, are held weekly; and courts of petty sessions are held daily. The borough is a polling-place for the S division of the county; and, under the reform act, it sends two members to parliament. Electors in 1833,11,283; in 1863,16,476. Amount of property and income tax charged in 1863, £331,994. Real property in 1860 of the Liverpool parish portion, £1,425,965; of the Everton portion, £162,758; of the Kirkdale portion, £63,674; of the West Derby portion, £114,591; of the first division of Toxteth-Park, £135,750; of the second division of Toxteth-Park, £102,782. Pop. in 1851,375,955; in 1861,443,938. Houses, 65,781.
(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))
Linked entities: | |
---|---|
Feature Description: | "a large seaport town" (ADL Feature Type: "cities") |
Administrative units: | Liverpool Ch/AP/CP Liverpool Borough Liverpool RegD/PLPar Lancashire AncC |
Place names: | LIDERPOLE | LIFERPOLE | LITHEPOOL | LITHERPOOLE | LIVERPOL | LIVERPOOL |
Place: | Liverpool |
Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.