INSPIRATION: LIVERPOOL DOCKS

Space constraints in the last issue meant that we couldn’t go into much detail about Liverpool’s extensive and hugely interesting dock network. The borough of Liverpool was founded in 1207, but it was the increase in trans-atlantic trade and the silting of the nearby River Dee that turned it into the northwest’s premier port. The first wet dock was built in 1715 and, by the Victorian era, Liverpool had been dubbed the ‘New York of Europe’. Until the 1950s and 1960s, Liverpool was a bustling and important port, and while the amount of seaborne freight handled there has dwindled, there’s still plenty of maritime activity with cross-river ferries, services to the Isle of Man and ocean liners.