Liverpool, Merseyside.

Following on from the previous post, I travelled north up the Wirral Peninsula from Port Sunlight and under the River Mersey via the Birkenhead Tunnel to arrive in the City of Liverpool for the final chapter in this series.

(I was looking at going on an organised day tour of the city about six weeks after this set was taken but it wasn't working out at all. I found a cheap train fare but connection times in York were poor and hotel accommodation was expensive in the city centre.)

I had an idea while I was in Port Sunlight to join the motorway home via a small diversion to visit Liverpool, instead of retracing my journey back to Chester. The only problem was that I didn't have a street map and I was relying heavily on my memory from eight years before when a friend who lived in Warrington, at that time, showed me around.

(The weather turned nasty in this two hour visit and I had to run back to the car in a severe rainstorm.)

The road into Kings Dock (overlooked by the 20th century Cathedral) 

Thankfully, my sense of direction took me to the car park that we used on that day (Kings Dock) albeit upgraded from what seemed like a building site to something more suitable for the 800th anniversary of the City in 2007 and The European Capital of Culture in 2008.

"Duck-bus" ... on land ....

... and water ( "We all live in a yellow duck marine" )

At this point, I feel that readers of this blog would be expecting me to constantly repeat myself waxing lyrical about how a certain site ....  "had a roman fort that became a church and fought over in the middle ages and is now invaded by an army of tourists " !!!

The history of Liverpool is not like that at all, it is a little more dark and one that the locals would not be proud for be to repeat about the former European Capital of Culture. The area was established on the east side of the River Mersey in 1207 AD and remained quite small for about 500 years.

Harbour masters house.

The City began to grow and become a success as a result of the infamous slave trade which led to the shipping business developing into the movement of more conventional cargo by the 19th century.

History has a strange way of maybe not repeating itself here but ..."what goes around, comes around" as a result of an Irish famine in the mid 19th century and a housing act in 1919, Liverpool became overrun with immigrants.

St Georges Hall was built during the mid 19th century and the large neo classical building was ideal to host civic functions and receptions.

The adjacent square is the perfect location to celebrate the forgotten heroes of the past ...

.... and those that are remembered

Brothers together

The not so neo classical building that people would like to have seen toppled in the past !!

The 1969 Radio City Tower has had a chequered past of under utilisation and creativity.  It's original purpose was to be a ventilation shaft for a nearby market, but with a strange turn of events it became a revolving restaurant. After a few valiant business attempts, the structure lay empty for at least 15 years. A £5 million pound renovation took place in 1999 and has since been used as a Radio station and more recently as a location to view in the City of Culture development.

One of the most famous buildings is The Royal Liver building constructed at the beginning of the 20th century. Legend states that if one of the two Liver birds fly away, the city will cease to exist. Notice how the bird is well secured ....

"Hey, Where's my mate ?" !!

Liverpool is more famous now for the music events of the 1960's of what was called a development of The Merseybeat or Beat music. In it's own way, it changed the direction of music ...

... and I thought that beat was only about guitars and drums .... not a seat !!!

It cost me money to photograph this !!

John Lennon of The Beatles ... stands in Mathew street ...

... thinking about some of his songs he wrote with Paul

Another group called Gerry and The Pacemakers gave the city another massive tourism boost by penning the song "Ferry across The Mersey" ...

"Passenger Terminals bigger than the boat ... do they know what's on the other side"!!

The ticket office and The "Mare - sey" (local accent !)

Hey,  I'm first in the queue for my ticket !!

Mixing culture with theme park !!

Mixing culture with business park !!

 "Now if I can just get these two buildings out of the way ... it'll be how I remember it !!! ....