Liverpool port and docks

Watching the Timeshift on docks and dockers on TV made me realise we observed the Liverpool docks at a pivotal time. In autumn 1965 we moved to the Wirral peninsula just across the Mersey from Liverpool. Crossing the Mersey by ferry was a very cheap boat ride; 4d in old money( 2.5p after decimalisation ).

We would travel from Birkenhead Hamilton Square ferry terminal to Liverpool Pier Head. At that time there were two ferries, one at each station setting off at the same time to cross mid river. I always enjoyed sitting waiting for the ferry to cast off on a crossing of perhaps 5 minutes. Sitting on top deck in the open gave a great view of the river traffic and the cities.

At that time the transatlantic liners were still travelling from Liverpool. It would be quite usual to see 2 or 3 moored at Pier Head. This era was ending and within a few years they were gone replaced totally by air travel. At the time they seemed gigantic although I now realise cruise ships are often much larger.

Although containerisation had started most items were handled individually. I vividly recall during a dock strike driving through Birkenhead docks and seeing goods of all sorts on every spare piece of ground. Most were in pallets or other intermediate packaging. I guess all the perishables were in the many warehouses.

Generally Liverpool and Birkenhead didn’t handle bulk cargo such as coal, oil or grain. Oil was handled a little upriver at Eastham docks just by the entrance to the Mersey Canal. This was also handy for the giant Shell Thornton refinery at nearby Ellesmere Port

As containerisation spread the large Liverpool docks had to change. The Docklands Overhead Railway was already down ( I marvelled at the carriage in the museum ) and by 1970 the south docks had closed. These were south of pier head and not in as deep water as the north docks where the new Seaforth Container port was coming into action.

The south docks included the historic Albert Dock and there were many suggestions for how it might be preserved. I was a student in Liverpool in 1971 and one of our number secured permission for a small group ( three on the day ) to walk through the south docks. It was an eerie and rather sad experience through a deserted area with much still in place. I marvelled at the gigantic pillars of iron under the huge brick warehouses of the Albert Dock which surround a rectangular pool some few acres in size entered by a lock at one end.. The Albert dock is almost by pier head and we proceeded to walk through the whole complex emerging some miles upstream’; a journey occupying about a half day. ( we should really have been working but we could set our own timetables within reason, later I often worked at weekends )

I thought we were seeing buildings soon to be demolished. However some bold thinking rescued the Albert Dock now the home a wide variety of shops and restaurants including the Tate Northern gallery and two hotels Upstream of the Albert Dock the dock area was cleared and became the Liverpool Garden Festival  site Clearing a centuries detritus was expensive Much later we stayed in the Holiday Inn in Albert Dock. The rooms are rather bizarre with scoured brick walls and vaulted ceilings. We are talking walls of massive thickness, several feet at least, as the warehouses were built to take big loads.

The reputation of Liverpool as a hotbed of crime and violence was rather justified at that time. Although the Technology College had an enclosed car park everyone I knew had their car damaged at some time while parked there. One friend on a lower floor laboratory was quietly working away when a brick came flying through his window. There was a kind of perverse pride among locals in the crime and “scallys” were talked off in a way part admiring their cheek.

One impudent incident occurred when the college principal had just taken delivery of a new carpet., still in a roll. Two men in overalls turned up, carried it away and it was never seen again.

I was in a laboratory with 3 others and a fourth regularly joined us. I would never have gone to a dockers pub on my own but with 4 companions we tried it. We were very clearly unwelcome and after a quick drink we left for somewhere more suitable.