Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries
År: 1902
Forlag: Cassell and Company, Limited
Sted: London, Paris, New York & Melbourne
Sider: 384
UDK: 338(42) Bri
Illustrated from photographes, etc.
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35i
THE S.S. CAMPANIA AT LIVERPOOL.
Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd.
THE DOCKS OF LIVERPOOL.
I I VERPOOL is an imposing rather than
a beautiful city. A place is great, it
may be said, in proportion as it appeals to
the imagination. Regarded thus, Liverpool
stands high in the ranks of the world’s cities.
It has many splendid buildings and noble
institutions. That cluster of buildings of
which St. George’s Hall is the magnificent
centre is not easily matched for grandeur in
any town in England. But Liverpool is a
city irregularly laid out, and the hasty visitor
is mostly struck by the haphazard arrange-
ment of the streets and the lines of dreary
warehouses here and there. Comeliness is
not wholly sacrificed to the utilitarian, but
it is certainly less evident. In many cases
the fine buildings are lost in narrow streets
or among a huddle of old unlovely structures.
In this respect, of course, Liverpool is by
no means peculiar, but it has sharper con-
trasts between the grandiose and the squalid
than are generally to be noted.
But outward appearance is no clue to the
greatness of the city. Liverpool is the centre
of a stupendous, worldwide trade ; it lives,
moves, and has its being by reason of its
traffic with the distant continents of the
globe. However parochial may seem its
day-to-day existence, its interests are so
extensive and cosmopolitan that the outlook
of its citizens must, of necessity almost, be
spacious and inspiring. Its streets are a
reflection of the universal ramifications of
Liverpool’s mighty trade; the foreigner is
very markedly to the fore among the busy
throng. The commerce of the city is
sensitive to a degree to the fluctuations of
the world’s markets, but particularly so are
those homes of thrills and excitements the
Cotton and Corn Exchanges.
Yet, for all its gigantic and far-reaching
trade, Liverpool is comparatively young. The
era of its prosperity dates back not much
further than a hundred and fifty years. In
1571 a writer described' it as “a decayed
town,” whatever that may mean ; and a print
of a hundred years later exhibits an un-
imposing little village. About the end of
the seventeenth century the income from the
Corporation estates reached the princely sum
of thirteen pounds. The eighteenth century
saw the town set fairly on its legs. At the
beginning of the nineteenth century the
population was 80,000; at the end it was
over 640,000.
But the real history of Liverpool is the
history of the docks. The first dock was
begun in 1709. This old or wet dock, which
contained an area of 3 acres 1,890 yards,
and which was completed in 1715, has long
ago disappeared, the present Custom House
being erected on its site. Following the Old
Dock, others were built, and Liverpool rose
gradually in the ranks of British seaports.
The completion of the Duke of Bridgewater’s
famous canal was a very material help to