Liverpool Conservation Area 22

Albert Dock



 Introduction & Contents 

CONSERVATION AREA 22

Albert Dock

Albert Dock, looking towards the Pierhead buildings



The famous Albert Dock Warehouses, opened in 1845, formed the first enclosed warehouse system in the Liverpool Docks.



They are the unquestionable climax of the dock architecture, and few Victorian buildings are of equal scale and splendour.



The only materials used are iron, brick and stone, making the buildings entirely fireproof, and they stand as a powerful monument to the maritime prosperity of the Port of Liverpool.
Capstan
In addition to the warehouses and the Dock Traffic Office by Jesse Hartley and Philip Hardwick, the Conservation Area includes Canning Dock, the graving docks, quay walls and locks.

Albert Dock Conservation Area was designated on 17 November 1976.
It is considered 'outstanding' in the national context by the Historic Buildings Council.

Picton, in 'Memorials of Liverpool', 1873 describes Jesse Hartley's dock walls: 'his walls are built with rough Cyclopean masses, the face dressed, but otherwise shapeless as from the quarry, cemented with hydraulic lime of a consistency as hard as the granite itself.



The Canning Graving Docks are two dry docks built in 1765 and enlarged in 1813 and 1842, and are the oldest section of the dock system to survive, as other early docks such as Salthouse (1734) and Canning (1753) were considerably altered in the nineteenth century.

The Dock Traffic Office The Albert Dock warehouses and the Dock Traffic Office are two of Liverpool's nine Grade I Listed Buildings.





The Liverpool Pilotage Office, 1883, probably designed by G. F. Lyster,
engineer to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board
Liverpool Pilotage Office The Dock Traffic Office was designed by Philip Hardwicke in 1846, with a top storey added in 1848 by Jesse Hartley.
The pediment and portico of giant Tuscan columns is built entirely of cast iron.


Watchman's hut at Canning Half-Tide dock

Cast iron was used extensively in the construction of warehouses, and also appears in graceful lamp-standards, railings, balusters, capstan, bollards, and in the swing bridges designed by Hartley to cross the dock entrance.
In 2011, following the deveopment of Liverpool One, a portion of the original Old Dock (opened in 1715) was opened to the public under the care of Merseyside Maritime Museum.
Tours have to be booked in advance and - so far - occur on just one day each week: surely a short-sighted decision...

Some photographs, taken in 2012, are available here 


Albert Dock Conservation Area Canning Street Conservation Area

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Liverpool Conservation Area 20

Canning Street


 Introduction & Contents 

CONSERVATION AREA 20

Canning Street

Nos. 3-17 Percy Street



Nos. 3-17 Percy Street is a terrace of stone-fronted houses designed as one palatial composition, with colonnades of Greek Doric columns.
The Canning Street Area was built during the first half of the nineteenth century and comprises the most extensive terraced residential estate of this date in Liverpool.

The whole area was laid out to a gridiron street pattern in 1800 by the Corporation Surveyor, John Foster, but building was slow, taking until 1835 before the plans for Canning Street and Falkner Square became a reality. However, a strong sense of visual cohesion was achieved throughout by the layout, the use of standard building materials and the unified stylistic treatment.

Late Georgian in style, the buildings are mostly of brick with stucco or stone mouldings, though some streets are entirely of stone, notably Percy Street with its delicate Grecian carved detail and cast iron balconies.

Canning Street Conservation Area was designated on 22 December 1971 and extended on 17 November 1976.
It is considered 'outstanding* in the national context by the Historic Buildings Council.
Canning Street looking east



Canning Street looking east.  Late Georgian terraces on the left, three-storey brick houses with Ionic porticoes c. 1835, and on the right a more imposing terrace in stone with fine iron balconies, on the corner of Percy Street.



Number 102, Upper Parliament Street
Number 102, Upper Parliament Street, now the Raquets Club, has a stone entrance designed in the Greek revival style, popular in the first part of the nineteenth century.

Number 48, Catharine Street
Number 48, Catharine Street has a fine projecting portico with fluted Ionic columns and delicate Greek decoration above.
The old Police Headquarters on Hardman Street
Number 8, Percy Street is Greek Revival in style, with huge stone Corinthian pilasters, and a cast iron balcony on the first floor.


Number 8, Percy Street
The oldest part of the Police Headquarters on Hardman Street was originally the School for the Blind, designed by A. H. Holme in 1851.
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