At the turn of the century the population of Liverpool was almost 685,000, the trams were converted to run on electricity, with the network eventually stretching to all corners of the city, and some of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings were built. The Foundation stone of the Anglican Cathedral was laid by King Edward V11 in 1904 and the magnificent Liverpool Cotton Exchange opened in 1906. Erected on the filled in site of St George's Dock in 1907 was the first of what would become known as 'The Three Graces'. The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board opened its impressive Port of Liverpool Building in 1907, followed by the iconic Royal Liver Building, dubbed the UK’s first skyscraper, on the 19th of July 1911 with the Cunard Building completing the trio in 1916. This period, when it regarded itself as the 'second city' of the British Empire, marked the pinnacle of Liverpool's economic success. Urban districts such as Allerton, Childwall, Little Woolton and Much Woolton were added to the county borough in 1913 as Liverpool's economy was doing well. Work was plentiful in the construction industry, rail and road transport, shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, engineering and manufacture. Women were able to find work in factories, offices, teaching, nursing, shops, dress-making and tailoring establishments, although many of these employed only single women. The largest employment for women in 1914 was still domestic service with plenty of opportunities for cooks, kitchen-maids, housemaids and parlour-maids in the houses of the wealthy manufacturers and merchants. Liverpool's Bold Street, where the expensive ladies' outfitters and dressmakers, Cripps, was situated, was still known as 'the Bond Street of the North'.
It was however also an era of enormous turbulence and unrest, of strikes and riots, most notably Liverpool’s General Transport Strike of 1911, which involved dockers, railway workers and sailors, as well as other trades.This came to a head when police officers with batons charged up to 100,000 workers who had gathered to hear speeches from workers and union leaders outside St George’s Hall on St George’s Plateau on Sunday August 13, which became known as Bloody Sunday. The Pier Head was a hive of industry, bustling with dock workers, horses and carts as Liverpool now controlled much of the world's shipping and most of the world's largest ships were Liverpool owned, the SS Mauritania and SS Titanic being amongst them. Now with 40% of the worlds trade passing through Liverpool, the city and the world were shaken by the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, which saw the loss of more than 1500 lives. It had been the world's largest ocean liner and the pride of the Liverpool based White Star Line. She had been declared unsinkable and her loss rocked not just the confidence of the shipping industry, particularly on Merseyside, but, it seemed, the confidence of the entire world.
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| Men lining up to join the Liverpool Pals in 1914 |
At the beginning of the Great War more than 12,000 Liverpool men signed up to fight the war at sea resulting in men from Liverpool being on every single battleship between 1914 and 1918. On the 17th of August 1914 the 17th Earl of Derby urged businessmen to serve together in battalions of comrades as it was believed that workers would prefer to serve alongside their colleagues. Kitchener was hoping for 1,000 men in these Liverpool Pals groups and as queues rapidly formed at St George's Hall by 10am, 1,000 men had already signed up and within 36 hours he had 2,000. The Liverpool Pals were the first to be raised and the last to stand down from service and were so successful that towns and cities across the nation emulated them. Having been furnished with one of the largest regiments raised between 1914 and 1918 Kitchener was so delighted that he sent Lord Derby a telegraph which read ‘Splendid! I congratulate you. Go ahead, Liverpool!’ About 2,800 Liverpool Pals were killed and more than 13,000 Liverpudlians died in World War I. The ferries Iris and Daffodil took part in the top secret attack on Zeebrugge,Belgium on the 23rd of April, 1918 and sustained significant damage in the raid but both managed to return home. It was for their heroic service that both ferries were awarded the 'Royal' designation.
The British economy struggled in the aftermath of World War I, and many working class people suffered, with unemployment peaking at around 30% in Liverpool during the years of the Depression in the early 1930s with up to a third of men of working age unemployed. Although various infrastructure projects in the city during the inter-war period helped to alleviate some of the suffering, a survey in 1928 showed 14% of the population of Liverpool living in poverty. Poor people were living at bare survival levels and with Liverpool suffering a shortage of houses, overcrowding was common, as was slum housing. The council built Gerard Gardens and the Bull Ring to replace the unsanitary, overcrowded, slum and court property as part of the city’s expansion of council homes but nothing like enough to solve the problem. Speke Airport began operating in 1930 as the city saw its population peak in 1931 at 855,688.
In the inter war years Liverpool's landscape was transformed as the local authority laid out numerous housing estates on the urban fringe. By building 33,355 suburban council houses Liverpool Corporation did an excellent job with housing provision but failed to provide essential educational, transport, shopping and recreational facilities. Consequently these new estates were deemed bleak and isolated with many people finding it extremely difficult to adapt to their new environment and changed lifestyle. The outbreak of war in 1939 interrupted the work of planners and the building of Liverpool’s Catholic Cathedral stuttered in the early days of war. The German Blitz damaged Liverpool in particular, as the city had represented an obvious target both as a strategic port and as an active manufacturing centre. It became the second most bombed city in Britain with 4,000 casualties and had the highest civilian deaths outside of London. There was severe damage to the Overhead Railway, the Anglican Cathedral, Blacklers and Lewis's department stores with most of the buildings on Lord Street requiring repairs or rebuilding. The bombs destroyed the Customs and Excise building on Canning Place, plus many cinemas, the Central Telephone Exchange, the Corn Exchange and the Rotunda Theatre on Scotland Road.
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| The view down Lord Street |
The effects of the War were still keenly felt as Liverpool went into the 1950s. Rationing was still in force, areas of the city and its outskirts remained pock-marked with bomb sites, and life was only just getting back to normal. Normal meant long spring and summer nights playing street games until failing light heard parents calling their children home. Football and cricket played by tireless boys matched by energetic girls skipping through a large rope stretched from pavement to pavement. Autumn and winter nights in living rooms enhanced by the warm glow of gaslight and the comforting heat from the coal fire. Swapping comics with mates under the street light to read later in bed until nodding off, top and tailing in beds covered with overcoats for extra warmth. Listening to the radio, Mrs Dale's Diary for Mums and Boxing commentaries by Raymond Geldenning and Eamon Andrews on the BBC Light Programme for Dads. Television then began to infiltrate our lives, and the consumer society was born, with Home Shopping catalogues Freemans, Littlewoods, Grattan, Empire and Kays along with the birth of 'the teenager', Teddy Boys and rock 'n' roll. The young were earning a steady wage once they left secondary school and were financially doing quite well spending their money in popular hotspots for socialising, such as music venues and youth clubs.
The 1960s has been described as one of the most vibrant decades in the history of Merseyside, although there was still a lot of poverty about. The Liverpool Catholic Cathedral was officially opened in 1967 standing at the opposite end of Hope Street to the existing Anglican Cathedral, although only officially opened in October 1978. Cammell Laird was still a major shipyard and Ford and Vauxhall opened car manufacturing plants. However it was football and music that was to headline the city both nationally and internationally. Merseyside was vibrant, the centre of youth culture as the Mersey sound went on to dominate record charts around the world. In the world of football, Everton won the 1962-63 First Division Championship and the 1965-66 FA Cup Final and were then 1967-68 FA Cup runners-up. Liverpool were 1961-62 Second Division Champions, 1963-64 and 1965-66 First Division Champions and 1968-69 runners-up. Mersey Beat artists, headlined by The Cavern Club and The Beatles, dominated media coverage and the record charts all around the world. Liverpool was the city to be from and the likes of Jimmy Tarbuck went from relative obscurity to be the compere of The London Palladium overnight. Behind this euphoria however the city's economy, like a lot of the countries industries, was starting to crumble.
The decline on Merseyside would come in the 1970s as British manufacturing began to lose out to foreign competition. Many factories and businesses were starting to close which led to high unemployment in Liverpool and social unrest eventually broke out. Even the Docks, which had been the area that had provided Liverpool with huge wealth in the past, were in rapid decline. In 1981 Margaret Thatcher's government's response to the civil disorder in Liverpool was instigate a policy of 'managed decline'. Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine, dubbed 'Minister for Merseyside' was to be instrumental in beginning the regeneration of the city as he set up the Merseyside Development Corporation, which oversaw restoration of the city's Albert Dock and inaugurated a series of garden festivals, the first of which was held in Liverpool, in 1984. In 2012 he was awarded 'Freedom of the City' for his part in the renaissance of Liverpool.
Go to Part 5 - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/01/liverpools-resurgence-capital-of.html
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