Liverpool

Hidden facts about the Liver Building and the Liver birds

2020-12-01 By Aidan O'Rourke 19 Comments

In mid-2020 I wrote a new and extended version of this article, which is one of the most popular articles on my aidan.co.uk site. In December 2020 I made a new video entitled 27 Facts about the Liver Building. It appears on my AVZINE YouTube Channel.

So if you watch the video above and read the article below, you will learn a lot about this amazing building.

But there are still some questions that are unanswered, which I list at the bottom of the page. If you have any answers please leave a message. In honour of Carl Bernard Bartels, I have also produced a German-language version of the video. Many thanks for watching and please subscribe to my AVZINE channel.

The Royal Liver Building is the most famous building in Liverpool and it is admired and loved by both local people and visitors. It’s located on the Pier Head, overlooking the River Mersey. Its two clock towers, and the two iconic Liver birds standing on top of them, can be seen from all over the city. It was constructed between 1908 and 1911 and is one of the so-called Three Graces. The other two are the Cunard Building, built 1914-1917, and the Port of Liverpool building, 1904-1907.

The Liver Building is one of the most familiar sights in Liverpool and you’ll find plenty of information about it in tourist guides and on websites. But certain facts about the Liver Building are shrouded in mystery, and there are some questions to which I’ve not found any clear answers. I will list them at the end.

1. The Liver Building is made out of reinforced concrete with a granite façade.

You’ll read that the Liver Building is made out of reinforced concrete. Its use of reinforced concrete for the structure of the building was ground-breaking at the time it was built. But it’s also important to know that the exterior is clad – or covered – in granite. The granite has a pale shade of brown, unlike the white Portland stone used on the Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings. I’ve heard people say this colour is not very attractive but I don’t find that. It’s part of its unique character.

2. The Liver Building is built on one-third of a filled-in dock.

I used to wonder, why is it that on Liverpool’s Pier Head, there are three magnificent buildings, rectangular in floor plan, standing side by side? And then I discovered that all three were constructed on what used to be St George’s Dock. It was drained and the site was prepared for new buildings.

Water Street and Brunswick Street were extended across the former dock, dividing it into three. Three buildings then appeared where ships used to moor. And here’s another hidden fact: if you turned the clock back a few centuries, and looked from St Nicholas church, the Three Graces would be out in the river. The entire Pier Head and dock system is built on reclaimed land.

Liver Building clock face at dusk 22.09.1999

The Liver Building and the Tower Building 22.05.2005

Liver Building facade and clock tower 23.05.2005

The Liver Building, Cunard Building and Cunard Liner Caronia

View along the Albert Dock towards the Three Graces. The new building constructed on Mann juts in on the right, obscuring the view of the Port of Liverpool Building

The Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building reflected in the Albert Dock (Image turned upside down and flipped horizontally)

3. The inner courtyard walls have been covered with a modern glass façade.

In 2011, I visited the Liver Building to take photographs for the book ‘Liverpool Then and Now’, and I was shocked to discover that the interior facade has been covered in a glass skin similar to a 1960s office block. I didn’t take a photograph of it, as I didn’t want to spoil the image I had in my mind. Since its completion in 1911 the Liver Building, like most commercial buildings, has been altered and renovated, but I’m not sure when the glass wall was added. That’s another one of my questions at the end.

4. The riverside clock tower has three faces, the landside tower has only one.

I’ve been looking at the Liver Building for many years but had never quite fully noticed that the four clock faces are split between the two clock towers. On the west tower, there are three clock faces looking north, west and south, respectively.

On the east tower, there is only one clock face, looking east over the city centre. And here’s another hidden fact: all four clocks are controlled by the same mechanism. I don’t quite understand how that works, so that’s another question, which I’ve added to the list at the end.

5. The clock faces are bigger than those on the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London.

The clock faces of the Liver Building are bigger than the ones on the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, completed in 1859. These are 23 feet or seven metres wide but the Liver Building clock faces are 25 feet wide or 7.6 m.

One information source stated that the clock on the front of Shell Mex House, further down the Thames, is bigger. But it’s not a proper clock face, just a section of the façade onto which clock hands and hour markers have been fixed. The Liver Building clock faces are proper clock faces made of metal and opaque glass, and they are recognised as the biggest in the UK.

6. It looks similar to some early skyscrapers in the United States.

The Liver Building is said to closely resemble the Allegheny Court House in Pittsburgh, built in 1884 and Adler & Sullivan’s Schiller Theatre in Chicago, built in 1891 and demolished in 1961.

I think it looks very similar to the Wrigley Building in Chicago, but that building dates from 1924. Could the Liver Building have influenced architecture on the other side of the Atlantic, just as Birkenhead Park influenced Central Park in New York?

7. The clock faces are the largest electronically driven clocks in the UK.

The Liver Building clocks are the biggest electronically driven clocks in the UK and this is a reminder that the building brings together both traditional and modern elements. The ornamented clock tower conforms to classic architectural principles you’ll see in world architecture, including Islamic architecture, but the mechanism of the clock is pure 20th century.

Liver Building clock face at dusk 22.09.1999

8. There are no bells inside the towers of the Liver Building.

There are bell towers on town halls and cathedrals including Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, and you can often hear them ringing. But inside the clock towers of the Liver Building, there are no bells. It made no sound at all until 1953 when a chiming mechanism was installed in memory of Royal Liver staff killed during two world wars.

The chimes were made using piano wires hit by hammers and the sound was amplified using a microphone, amplifier and speaker. This device gradually deteriorated and was out of operation for around four years. But in 2016, the chimes returned, thanks to the Cumbrian Clock Company, who are responsible for the maintenance of the clocks. They recorded the old chimes and saved the audio onto a hard drive. This sound is played throughout the day and the evening through a large speaker located under the cupola of the west tower.

It doesn’t sound quite like a real bell, but it’s better than no bell at all. I was intrigued to discover that when the building was under construction, there had been plans to put real bells in the tower and some space was set aside to accommodate them. But in the end, no bells were installed for fear that they would be too heavy for the new style of construction using reinforced concrete.

Composite image showing the tallest towers in NW England (05.05.2006)

9. The Liver Birds were designed by a German.

This fact was remained hidden from many many years. It was only in recent years that the identity of the person who created the metal cormorant-like birds was revealed. He was Carl Bernard Bartels, a German emigré artist born in Stuttgart. He came to live in England in 1887 after falling in love with the country. A competition was held to design and build the two birds that would be placed on the roof of the Liver Building, and he won.

A few years after the Liver Building was completed, the First World War began and there was a strong anti-German feeling. Carl Bernard Bartels was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien and deported in 1918. He returned to England in the mid-twenties and spent the rest of his life there. Carl Bernard Bartels created Liverpool’s most famous pair of icons, but this fact was kept hidden until the late 20th century because he was German. Inside the Liver Building, there is now a plaque in his honour.

Memorial to Carl Bernard Bartels, sculpture and designer of the Liver birds 1866-1955

Close-up of east-facing Liver Bird (Bertie)

West-facing Liver Bird (Bella)

West-facing Liver Bird (Bella) holding branch

So, those are what I believe to be the surprising facts – at least, they surprised me when I first found out about them. Let’s continue with more generally known facts.

10. The Liver Building was designed by local architect Walter Aubrey Thomas

The Royal Liver Building was designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas, a Liverpool-based architect who was born in New Brighton, Cheshire in 1864. He designed many buildings in Liverpool city centre. I was interested to discover he designed a listed building on Lord Street which has distinctive stripes and an arch.

The Liver Building and the Tower Building 22.05.2005

I took a picture of the Liver Building from the corner of Water Street, zooming in on the clock tower. There’s another building to the right, a white building. That other building is the Tower Building, which pre-dates the Liver Building by several years. You can see it in old photos. It’s quite similar, with arches and those ‘curled’ motifs. In fact, the Tower Building was also designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas, something that is rarely mentioned, even though it stands directly opposite the Liver Building and could be seen as its precursor.

11. The Liver Building is a listed building, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Liver Building is a Grade 1 listed building (not Grade 1*, as one person mentioned. There is only Grade II*). A Grade 1 listed building is recognised as being of outstanding architectural merit and of national significance. That’s certainly true of the Liver Building.

It is also recognised as an important part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City. That puts the area on a par with the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and Angkor Wat. But on the UNESCO list, it’s marked in red, because its quality and uniqueness are under threat due to proposed construction projects nearby.

The Liver Building 25.02.2009

“Festival des Flusses” am Pier Head, Liverpool , 2014

Liver Building and Moel-y-Parc transmitter

The Liver Building at dusk seen from the Mersey Ferry 22.03.2019

Liver Building clock towers at dusk 22.03.2019

Cunard and Liver Buildings seen across The Strand

Liverpool Liver Building with Isle of Man seacat

12. The clock faces have no numerals.

This may seem of little importance at first sight, but if we look at other historic clock towers, maybe ones that are slightly older, we find that most have numerals, either Arabic or Roman style, like the town halls of Birkenhead, Bradford, Rochdale and the Tower of Westminster (‘Big Ben’). With its plain clock faces, the Liver Building clocks look towards a more modern style.

13. The Liver Building clocks are called the George Clocks.

They’re called the George clocks because they were set in motion at 1.40 pm on Thursday, 22 June 1911, when George Frederick Ernest Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Prince of Wales, officially became King George V. The clocks were made by Gent & Co of Leicester.

14. One of the clock faces was once used as a dinner table.

There is a photograph of one of the clock faces, which was turned into a huge banqueting table during the construction of the Liver Building. Sitting at the table are senior people from the Liver Assurance Group and Liverpool Corporation. The clock faces were later hauled up to the top of the building.

15. For many years it was the tallest building in Britain.

The Liver Building is said to be the UK’s first skyscraper, though at just 13 storeys, it doesn’t seem like much of a skyscraper. Already buildings in the United States were reaching much greater heights. But it remained the tallest building in Britain for many years. It’s 322 feet or 98.2 m to the top of the spires. It remains one of the tallest buildings in north-west England.

Composite images of the tallest towers in NW England 05.05.2006

16. Each of the two Liver Birds holds something in its beak, but what is it?

The birds on the Liver Building have a wingspan of 24 feet or 7.3 metres and are 18 feet 5.5 metres high. If you look closely or zoom in with a camera, you will see that each Liver Bird is carrying something in its beak. It looks like a small twig or branch of a tree. It’s got four leaves. In most descriptions, this is identified as a piece of laver, or seaweed. The name ‘laver’ is a pun on the name ‘Liverpool’.

However, I’ve also read that it’s an olive branch. And the French language Wikipedia page states that the Liver bird holds in its beak a branch of genêt, the French word for broom, a type of bush with a yellow flower that appears in spring. Genêt is said to be a reference to the Plantagenet dynasty, who ruled England in the middle ages. Is this true? That’s another question to add to my list at the end! The Liver bird is a mythical bird, said to date back to 1207, when King John founded the borough of Liverpool by royal charter and used a bird on the seal.

17. It is named after the Royal Liver Assurance Company, but they are no longer in the building.

The building is named after the Royal Liver Assurance Company which was a friendly society. Around the turn of the 20th century they decided to construct a new building for their 6000 staff. It remained the headquarters until Royal Liver Assurance merged with the Royal London Group in 2011. The group subsequently moved out of the building. In 2019 it’s reported to accommodate around 2000 staff working in a range of companies.

Luxembourg-based investment group, Corestate Capital, bought the building for £48 million in February 2017 along with Everton F.C. majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. So, Liverpool’s most potent and best-loved symbol is a privately-owned office building. That’s an interesting fact. There must be very few other commercial office buildings with such an exalted status. Perhaps it’s symbolic, because Liverpool is a mercantile city whose wealth is built on business and trade (including, sadly, the slave trade).

18. The Liver Building was renovated in 2019 and also in the past.

In 2019, the Liver Building was renovated to bring it up to the standards required by today’s companies. Looking on the royalliverbuilding.com website, I see many changes have been carried out. There’s a photo of empty floor space with those semi-circular windows. But the building has not been preserved in its original state. That’s the way it is with working buildings, they have to be adapted for changing times, though seen from the outside, it looks as it did when it was first built.

Liverpool Liver Building and Pier Head with St Nicholas church

And now we move from facts to popular legends.

19. The birds are called Bella and Bertie and if they fly away, Liverpool will cease to exist.

I’ve read from many sources, that the birds are called Bella and Bertie, but who exactly called them that? We are told that if they break away from their shackles and fly away, that will be the end of Liverpool. This story sounds like it was inspired by the ravens of the Tower of London. It’s said that if they leave the tower, the kingdom and the Tower of London will fall.

The difference is that the ravens are real birds, whereas the Liver Birds are copper sculptures weighing several tons and they’re tied down with cables. The birds face in opposite directions. It’s said that if they were facing each other, they might mate and break their moorings, causing the downfall of the city. According to another account, Bella watches over the ships and their crews while Bertie watches over the city and its people.

A variant of this is that Bella is on the lookout for handsome sailors on the arriving ships, while Bertie is checking that the pubs are open. What must he have been thinking during the 2020 Coronavirus crisis! A typically Scouse piece of humour is that the Liver Birds flap their wings every time a virgin walks along the Pier Head.

Panoramic view of Liverpool from Royal Liver 360 – 22.06.2019

20. The views from the top of the Liver Building are fantastic!

There is no doubt that the views from the roof of the Liver Building are fantastic. When I wrote the previous version of this article in 2015, it wasn’t possible for the general public to enter the building and go up to the tower. Now it is! Read my review below to find out what I thought of the Royal Liver 360 visitor experience and why I was a little bit disappointed.

In 2019 Royal Liver 360 Tower Tours and Visitor Experience opened its doors. For the first time, visitors were able to go inside the building and ascend to the top of the tower. I did this in summer 2019 and I wasn’t disappointed, though I have one criticism! So here’s my quick review of the Royal Liver 360 tour and visit to the top of the building.

Liverpool City Centre seen from the top of the Liver Building-22.06.2019

I booked in advance on the website. The ticket cost £16. The journey to the top of the building starts in the basement. The entrance is to the right of the main entrance to the Liver Building. In the reception area, there is a ticket desk and an exhibition, which is worthy of a visit in itself. There’s an impressive wooden model of the Liver Building. On the display boards, there’s information about the history of the building with many photos.

Soon it was time to start the tour. Visitors are assigned into groups and led by a friendly guide. At this point, we notice that the health and safety procedures are rigorous. There is a briefing, warning of potential hazards and telling us what to do in an emergency. This is quite different from other older attractions.

I realise it’s for our safety but it does impinge a little on the experience. The guide counts some of us into the lift and we go up. We wait for the others and then proceed out onto a balcony below the south clock face. Here we get our first glimpse of the cityscape and of one of the Liver Birds – it’s Bertie, the one facing out over the city. We can’t see Bella, she stands hidden above the tower. Our guide provides information and plenty of humorous remarks.

Next, it’s time to go up the stairs and into the interior of the clock tower, with its clock faces on three sides. In this room high above Liverpool, they’ve created an auditorium with speakers and digital projectors. Soon the lights go down.

What follows is a state-of-the-art presentation on the history of Liverpool and the Liver Building from its construction at the beginning of the century, through two world wars and up to the present day. The visuals are good, including animated 3D Liver Birds as well as many still and moving archive images. The sound is immersive and very loud. We hear the foghorns of the ships, the bombs of WW2 and finally, the song ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ by Gerry and the Pacemakers. It presents Liverpool perfectly and truly expresses the pride people have in the city.

View north from the Liver Building roof 22.06.2019

Now, it’s time to go up to the top floor via a narrow staircase. Emerging into the daylight, we walk out onto the balconies and start to admire the panoramic views: the city centre to the east, the Pier Head, Albert Dock and River Mersey to the south, the view west across the river towards Birkenhead and the Welsh mountains and to the north and north-west, the docks, New Brighton and the Irish Sea. We are standing below the dome with Bella standing on top. We still can’t see her, but we can see Bertie on the other tower, standing with his back to us. He’s not being rude, he’s got an important job to do.

Many times I’ve looked across to the Liver Building from all parts of the city and from across the river. Now it is stunning to see the view in the other direction. I start to take photos and videos, moving around each balcony and back again. I’m about to start a video shot of the city when…

Liverpool city centre seen from the Liver Building

“The tour is finished now, can you make your way back down the stairs…”

And that’s my only criticism of the Royal Liver 360 tour. You are only allowed, I think it was around 10 to 15 minutes at the top before being asked to leave. I spent a whole evening on the Shard in London and a similar amount of time and spent a few hours at the top of the Rockefeller Center in New York.

Fifteen minutes at the top of the Liver Building just isn’t enough time. I realise there are space limitations as well as health and safety considerations, but I would pay extra to spend more time up here and I’m sure a lot of other people would too. Royal Liver 360 bosses, please take note!

A few minutes later I’m back down on the Pier Head again, looking up at the iconic clock tower and hoping for an opportunity to spend a longer period up there some time in the near future.

Looking up at the facade of the Liver Building

Blick nach oben auf die Fassade des Liver Building

Personal observations and reminiscences.

The Liver Building was begun in the same year my father was born, 1908. He was christened Bertie, presumably after the popular name of George, who became King in 1911.

I remember visiting the Pier Head with my mother in the 1960s and taking the ferry to Woodside. I was captivated by the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool building. They had just been cleaned and looked as if they were made out of icing sugar. They seemed to ‘sing’, I can’t quite explain it. At that time, all the buildings in Manchester were still covered in black soot from the factories. I can’t remember much about the Liver Building, except that there were rows of green Liverpool Corporation buses parked in front of it.

Another memory from the sixties is the opening credits of the Liver Birds tv series, starring Nerys Hughes and Polly James. The grimy Liver Building can be seen from the ferry. There is an iconic shot looking up at the glamorous Nerys Hughes standing on the back of a bus, with the tower of the Liver Building behind.

In recent years I’ve followed all the changes on the Pier Head, I’ve taken photos and video of many festivals, including the Giants, I took ‘now’ shot of the building for the book ‘Liverpool Then and Now’ and went inside to capture the view of where the Liverpool Overhead Railway used to be. That’s when I saw the glass interior wall for the first time.

I’ve done some drawings too, which I am featuring on this page.

I love the Liver Building, its design, its location, the Liver Birds that stand on top of it, and all the associations it has with the history of Liverpool. I will go on admiring it and taking photos of it, like every local person and every visitor to the city. I hope to find out even more hidden facts about the Liver Building, which I will add to this page.

But I have some unanswered questions, some facts about the Liver Building that remain hidden, or at least not 100% clear. Can you provide any information?
Who exactly named the Liver Birds Bella and Bertie?
How are the four clocks, including one in a separate tower, controlled by one mechanism?
Exactly what type of branch are the Liver Birds holding in their beaks?
Which clock face was the one used as a dinner table?
Since when clock tower had an amber coloured light? I seem to remember that in the past, the light was white. Was it?
When was the earlier renovation carried out, during which the glass interior façade was added?
In what year were the Three Graces first cleaned? Was it in 1968?
What is the exact weight of each Liver Bird?

And here’s one extra fact: At around 11 pm on the evening of Friday 26 June, 2020, while crowds celebrated Liverpool FC’s Premier League win, someone threw a firework at the Liver Building and it started a fire on the front of the building. Mobile phone images show a blaze in front of the semi-circular window below the west tower. The fire was put out by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. Comment: Setting fire to Liverpool’s most iconic building is not the best way to celebrate Liverpool FC’s win.

Deepen your knowledge of Liverpool by watching my Beatles video launched 09.01.2021. Click ‘YouTube’ to watch on YouTube and don’t forget to ‘like’ and subscribe!

Der walisische Einfluss in Liverpool, der Scouse-Dialekt und die “Welsh Streets”

2020-10-08 By Aidan O'Rourke

Artikel und Videopodcast in deutscher und englischer Sprache

Es gibt viele Verbindungen zwischen Liverpool und Wales. Es wird gesagt, dass viele Menschen in Nordwales Liverpool als ihre Hauptstadt ansehen, nicht Cardiff. Der walisische Dialekt hat den Liverpooler Dialekt beeinflusst. Die Grenze zu Wales liegt nur 20 Kilometer von Birkenhead entfernt. Man kann die Hügel in Wales von vielen Teilen der Stadt sehen, auch von Toxteth im Süden.

Der Blick von der A55 in Flintshire, Nord-Wales auf die Region Liverpool ist großartig.

Einwanderer aus Wales begannen im frühen 18. Jahrhundert nach Liverpool zu kommen.

Im Jahre 1813 lebten ungefähr 8000 Menschen walisischer Herkunft in Liverpool, etwa 10 Prozent der Einwohner.

Sie gründeten Gemeinden überall in der Stadt. Walisisch war dort die dominierende Sprache.

Wie in anderen britischen Städten gibt es Straßen, die nach Orten in Wales benannt sind, zum Beispiel Denbigh Road in Walton und Barmouth Way in Vauxhall.

Das wichtigste Symbol des walisischen Einflusses in Liverpool ist jedoch das Viertel der Welsh Streets in Toxteth, in der Nähe des Princes Park. Sie liegt ungefähr 10 Minuten mit dem Bus südlich des Stadtzentrums.

Die Straßen sind nach Ortsnamen in Wales benannt. Ich versuche sie auf walisische Art zu sagen: Die Wynnstay Street, die Voelas Street, die Rhiwlas Street, die Powis Street, die Madryn Street, die Kinmel Street, die Gwydir Street, die Pengwern Srteet, die Treborth Street, die Dovey Street, die Teilo Street und die Elwy Street.

Diese Straßen wurden im 19. Jahrhundert von walisischen Bauarbeitern gebaut. Die Häuser wurden vom walisischen Architekten Richard Owens entworfen, der auch viele Reihenhäuser in Liverpool, sowie Kirchen in Nordwales entwarf.

9 Madryn Street before 06.05.2018 renovation

9 Madryn Street 06.05.2018 vor der Sanierung

Im Laufe der Jahre ist das Viertel heruntergekommen. In den 2000er Jahren gab es Pläne, die Welsh Streets komplett abzureißen, auch das Haus, in dem Ringo Starr geboren wurde, Madryn Street 9.

Die Anwohner waren generell für die Sanierung und nicht für den Abriss, aber die Häuser wurden geräumt und für den Abbruch vorbereitet.

Die Beatles-Touren haben die Madryn Street weiterbesucht. Die Fans schrieben Mitteilungen an die Fassade des kleinen Hauses.

Die Organisationen SAVE Britain’s Heritage und der National Trust setzten sich für die Renovierung des Viertels ein, insbesondere wegen seiner Bedeutung in der Geschichte der Beatles.

Ein neuer Plan wurde von Placefirst ausgearbeitet. Placefirst ist ein in Manchester ansässiges Unternehmen, das Mietwohnungen entwirft, baut und renoviert. Rund drei Viertel der Häuser in den Welsh Streets wurden erhalten und renoviert. Heute sieht das alte Haus von Ringo Starr fast neu aus.

Im Oktober 2019 wurde die Umgestaltung der Welsh Streets durch Placefirst zum besten Wohnprojekt Großbritanniens im Wettbewerb der Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ernannt.

Der walisische Einfluss in Liverpool nahm im 20. Jahrhundert ab. Laut der Volkszählung von 2001 sind nur 1,17% der Bevölkerung in Wales geboren, aber es gibt noch viele andere Menschen, die walisische Vorfahren haben.

Für mich ist der Dialekt von Liverpool, der sogenannte Scouse, der deutlichste Beweis für den walisischen Einfluss in Liverpool. Seine Auf- und Ab-Intonation erinnert an den walisischen Dialekt auf Englisch oder an die walisische Sprache selbst. Beim Scouse-Dialekt können wir den Einfluss der walisischen Einwanderer aus vergangenen Jahrhunderten tatsächlich hören.

Es gibt auch einen irischen Einfluss auf den Scouse, aber das ist eine andere Geschichte.

Der Schutzpatron von Wales ist Sankt David oder Dewi Sant auf Walisisch. Der Tag des Heiligen David wird jedes Jahr am 1. März in Liverpool, in Wales und auf der ganzen Welt gefeiert.

The Welsh influence in Liverpool, the Scouse accent and the Welsh Streets

2020-10-07 By Aidan O'Rourke

There are many connections between Liverpool and Wales. It’s said that Liverpool is regarded by many people in North Wales as their capital, not Cardiff. The Welsh accent has influenced the Liverpool accent, and the border with Wales is just twelve and a half miles down the road from Birkenhead. You can see the Clwydian hills from many parts of the city including Toxteth in the south.

Looking west along Althorp Street, Dingle, Liverpool with a view of the River Mersey, the Wirral and the Clwydian Hills in the distance

The view over the Liverpool region from the A55 in Flintshire, North Wales, is magnificent.

Welsh people started to migrate to Liverpool in the 18th century. In 1813 around 8000 people or 10% of the residents of Liverpool were Welsh.

They created communities around the city and Welsh was the dominant language in those places.

As in other British cities there are streets named after places in Wales such as Denbigh Road in Walton und Barmouth Way in Vauxhall.

But the most important symbol of the Welsh influence in Liverpool is the area called the Welsh streets in Toxteth, next to Princes Park, about a 10 minute bus ride south of the city centre.

The street names, and I’ll try and say them Welsh-style, include Wynnstay Street, Voelas Street, Rhiwlas Street, Powis Street, Madryn Street, Kinmel Street, Gwydir Street, Pengwern Steet, Treborth Street, Dovey Street, Teilo Street and Elwy Street.

These streets were built by Welsh building workers during the 19th century. The houses were designed by Welsh architect Richard Owens, who also designed many terraced houses in Liverpool as well as churches in North Wales.

Over the years the area became became run down. In the 2000s, there was plans to demolish the Welsh Streets, including the house where Ringo Starr was born – 9 Madryn Street. Local residents were generally in favour of refurbishment rather than demolition. The houses were vacated and prepared for being pulled down.

9 Madryn Street 06.05.2018 before renovation

Beatles tours continued to the area, fans wrote messages on the front of the boarded up house.

The organisations SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the National Trust campaigned for the area to be renovated, especially because of its significance in the story of the Beatles.

A new plan was drawn up by Placefirst, a company based in Manchester that designs, builds and refurbishes homes for rent. Around three quarters of the houses in the Welsh Streets have been retained and renovated. Today, Ringo Starr’s old house looks almost new.

In October 2019 the Transformation of Welsh Streets by Placefirst was named UK’s Best Residential Project in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors awards.

The Welsh influence in Liverpool declined during the 20th century. According to the 2001 census, around 1.17% of the population were born in Wales, but there are plenty more people in the city who have Welsh ancestors.

For me the clearest evidence of the Welsh influence in Liverpool is the accent. The up-and-down intonation of the Scouse accent is similar to the Welsh accent in English or with the Welsh language, yr iaith Gymraeg. In the Scouse accent, we can literally hear the influence of all those people who migrated from Wales to Liverpool in past centuries.

There’s also an Irish influence on the Liverpool accent but that’s another story.

The patron saint of Wales is Saint David, or Dewi Sant in Welsh. Saint David’s Day is celebrated every year in Liverpool, in Wales and around the world, on 1 March.

The Leaving of Liverpool due to Brexit – Music video and interview with Zinney Sonnenberg

2020-07-12 By Aidan O'Rourke Leave a Comment

Music slide show video and musician interview

In July 2020 I made a slide show for a video by the singer Zinney Sonnenberg. The video was showcased on 04.07.2020 in the Global Liverpool Facebook Event. The song ‘Liverhearts – Where can I find me another river’ is about the songwriter’s love for his adoptive home city of Liverpool and the pain of having to leave it. For this feature I present the slide show video featuring my photos and the transcript of the interview.

Written by Aidan O’Rourke | Sunday the 12th of July 2020

ENGLISH VERSION | GERMAN VERSION .

For the music slide show video I chose around fifty of my photos of Liverpool. I wanted to find out more about Zinney Sonnenberg, so I did an Interview with him via Zoom. The Audio and the transcript appear here in English as well as German.

Aidan O’Rourke Productions · The Leaving of Liverpool because of Brexit – Zinney Sonnenberg audio interview

Interview transcript

First I want to ask: What is your name? Where are you from and where do you live now?
My name is Gerd Zinsmeister. My artist name is Zinney Sonnenberg. I’m originally from Saarland. It’s on the border triangle of Germany, Luxembourg and France. I’ve been living in Bavaria, Dachau, for a year, known for the concentration camp in Dachau.

What is your profession?
I’m a musician by profession and work at the Dachau Music School as a music teacher and teach guitar, piano and singing. Otherwise I record and play live in Germany, England and Holland.

What kind of music do you play?
My music could be described as folk music with influences from pop and rock and world music.

How long were you in Liverpool?
I lived in Liverpool for 21 years.

When and why did you move to Liverpool?
I moved to Liverpool on the 10th of August, 1998 with my wife and three year old daughter to do a course at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

What were your early impressions of Liverpool?
I immediately fell in love with Liverpool, a fantastic city with friendly, open-minded people, a very special light, a lively nightlife and a very special accent that I had to get used to.

Where did you live?
For the first three years we lived in Toxteth on Pengwern Street, behind Saint Silas School in the Welsh Streets area. Our home was the second to last house at the end of the street, with a view of the schoolyard of Saint Silas school. Later, we lived in Aigburth for fourteen years.

Why did you stay in Liverpool?
After my course at LIPA was over, we had acclimatised ourselves well to Liverpool. I worked as a nurse in a nursing home on Mill Street in Toxteth. My wife took a course at Arts College on Myrtle Street. Our daughter Zoe had already made a lot of friends at Windsor School.

How is Liverpool different from other cities?
As a port city, Liverpool is home to people from many cultural backgrounds. In my daughter’s class at primary school, there were children from thirteen different countries.

Architecturally, the centre of Liverpool is very compact. The River Mersey, which has been the main artery of Liverpool for decades, dominates the city. But the the most striking peculiarity is the humorous, friendly and open-minded mentality of the Scousers.

What are your top 10 recommendations for visitors?
There are many interesting attractions in Liverpool and many things to do. Be sure to visit the Antony Gormley exhibition ‘Another Place’ in Waterloo. In addition, the two cathedrals, connected by Hope Street, are well worth seeing.

All the museums in Liverpool are free, and above all the Maritime Museum, with its Slavery section, is an absolute must for every visitor.

The new museum in the docks is interactive and describes the history of Liverpool. On the second floor you have a wonderful view of the Liver Building and the mouth of the Mersey.

You should definitely dive into the nightlife of Liverpool. Just go along to the various restaurants, pubs, clubs, live music venues or comedy clubs.

For those interested in art, there is the Walker Art Gallery and the Tate at the Albert Dock. You can combine a visit to the Palm House in Sefton Park with a glass of wine in Lark Lane or Penny Lane. For football fans it’s an absolute must, once in your life, to hear ‘You’ll never walk alone’ in Anfield.

The sunsets in Liverpool are unique and so I would highly recommend a walk between Aigburth and Liverpool city centre.

What is your personal favourite place?
My favourite place in Liverpool is Otterspool Park. The walk that leads through the park and ends at the Mersey is a wonderful walk and means a lot to me personally because I used to take the dog for a walk there every day.

Describe your career on the Liverpool music scene.
After studying at LIPA, I worked at first in order to buy more recording equipment. I was able to buy an analogue tape machine from The Christians and later a computer that I could use to record.

In between times, I regularly went to open mike events and played two or three songs there. In 2004 I met Jeff Davis from Probe Plus Records in Berlin at a music fair.

In 2007 we released my first album ‘Fishing In The Pool’ on the Probe Plus label with my band called Sonnenberg.

Then we released two more albums, ‘The End of the Rain’ and ‘Into The Light’.

Between 2004 and 2018 I went on tour with the band or solo in Scandinavia, the UK, Germany and Holland and as a supporting act for Half Man Half Biscuit, I played mainly in larger venues in the UK, such as the Shepherds Bush Theatre or the Liverpool Academy

Why did you decide to leave Liverpool?
The sole reason for leaving Liverpool was Brexit. We didn’t want to live outside of the EU as second class citizens in Britain without the right to vote.

When did you leave Liverpool and where did you go in Germany?
We left Liverpool on the 19th of July, 2019. We then moved to Bavaria, to Dachau.

When and why did you write the song ‘Where can I find me another river?’ ?
I wrote the song ‘Liverhearts Another River’ in 2018. It’s intended to reflect my love for Liverpool, as well as the pain and sadness of having to leave my adopted home because of social or political circumstances.

In general, as a songwriter, you try to express your feelings or create some breathing space for yourself. In this case, it was the frustration with the political change in 2016 that influenced some of my songs between 2016 and 2019

Thank you very much! I’m sorry about Brexit. I hope that you can come back to Liverpool some time.

I will do.

Video: Beatles locations in Liverpool and Wirral

2019-01-07 By Aidan O'Rourke

This video is on the subject of Beatles locations in and around Liverpool and Wirral. The Beatles legacy is a huge reason for tourists to visit Liverpool. For me personally, I love visiting the locations connected with the Beatles as it helps me to discover more about Liverpool and I can relive the excitement and fascination of growing up with the music of the Beatles in the 1960s.

The video is narrated by me in English with German subtitles. I am using German because from 2019, the main focus of my main YouTube channel is German language. The subtitles will be of use to my students of German and those on my mailing list. I also hope to reach people in Germany who are interested in the Beatles, and who will find the German subtitles helpful and welcoming.

From 2019 all my videos will have a bilingual narration in English and German. I enjoy occasionally featuring other languages as well and in this Beatles video, I’m excited to be doing a Japanese version. A teaching colleague has helped with the translation into Japanese. I’ve given the video a Japanese look with Japan-influenced music by the talented young musician Bad Snacks, featured on the YouTube Audio Library.

To make the video I travelled all over the Liverpool region on various trips and photoshoots and I’ve been to nearly all the places connected with the Beatles where tourists like to go.

Of the many places I’ve listed so far, one of my favourites is the Casbah Coffee Club, which I visited for the first time in mid-2018. It’s an excellent place to visit as you can really experience what it was like to see John, Paul, George and Pete play in their early days.

I also love the Beatles’ childhood homes 20 Forthlin Road, home of the McCartney family,and Mendips, where John lived with his aunt Mimi. They’re fascinating to visit as they are both time capsules of the late fifties and early sixties. It’s not possible to take photos inside the houses, so I have only exterior photos.

Just before publishing the final version of the video in January 2019, I found out that there is going to be a new Beatles attraction on the grounds of Strawberry Field. The gates will finally open and fans will be able to find out about John and the other Beatles in a visitors centre. It looks great.

It was perhaps a controversial choice to include this Japanese-style background music in a video about a famous British band from the early sixties. However I wanted to highlight the Japanese perspective. The Beatles are very popular in Japan and many Japanese fans visit Liverpool. One of my goals is to build bridges and overcome barriers of language and culture. This is my way of doing it!

The background music is by an artist who calls herself ‘Bad Snacks’. Her work is available on the YouTube audio library and I think it is superb. I loved these two tracks when I first heard them. in fact some of the content of the video was inspired by this music.

The first track we hear is called Mizuki and has a bright, upbeat character with its Oriental style memory played using the sound of an Eastern instrument, perhaps a koto.

The second track is ‘Shibuya’ and it ‘interrupts’ the narrative in two places. The first time we jump to the little known Japanese garden in Calderstones Park. I wanted to emphasise aspects of Japanese culture in Liverpool. To be honest, there aren’t that many! When I first heard ‘Shibuya’ I immediately wanted to include images of the wonderful Japanese garden.

The second time we jump to ‘Shibuya’ we see the train to New Brighton. I got the idea of using an image of a train because in ‘Shibuya’ there is a hissing sound, perhaps from a train in Tokyo. That image and concept were taken directly from the track by the supremely talented artist Bad Snacks, or whatever her real name is. She is based in Los Angeles and I think she is destined for a very successful career as a musician. Try doing a search on YouTube to find her. She is a very talented young musician.

I hope this video will be seen and enjoyed by people in Germany and Japan as well as those living closer to home. It’s been great fun making this video, though it has taken a long time from its inception to final upload and publication on 8 January, 2018. Co-incidentally, 8 January 1947 is the birthday of David Bowie, another musician I am very keen on.

I love the Beatles music. I grew up with it as a child and two of my favourite songs or theirs are Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. They had a profound effect on me as a child and I’m glad I am able to pay tribute to them in this video.

On my Patreon page I plan to provide more background information and some interesting anecdotes that I don’t share with the wider public.

If you’d like to support what I’m doing, please visit www.patreon.com/aidanorourke

60 great places to visit in Liverpool – 120 second video online

2018-08-13 By Aidan O'Rourke

I wanted to present 60 of the best places to visit in Liverpool in a short video and here it is. These are some of my favourite attractions but there are many more!

As part of my research for the video I wrote descriptions of some of the locations but in the end, the descriptions weren’t used in the video.

St George’s Hall this magnificent neo-classical building contains a breathtaking hall and a prison museum. It’s one of my favourite buildings in Liverpool.
Sefton Park is a very special place to people in Liverpool, with a special atmosphere. The lake the palm house, the paths, fountains and pavilion give Sefton Park its unique character.
Birkenhead Park inspired the designer of  New York’s Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted. It has been restored and has beautiful open spaces. The Swiss Bridge and  Roman Boathouse have been restored.
Newsham Park is one of Liverpool’s lesser known parks but it has an idyllic character. It has two lakes and you can often watch model boats on the water.
The ‘Dome of Home’  – The Basilica of Saints Peter and Saint Paul is situated on the hill above New Brighton. Returning crewmembers always knew they were home when they saw its dome.
The Bluecoat is an arts centre in the centre of Liverpool. It was formerly a school. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Liverpool and also has a beautiful garden.
The Liver Building  is the most famous building in Liverpool. It’s a proud symbol of the city along with its two liver birds, designed by German emigré sculptor Carl Bernard Barthels.
The Cunard Building is the middle of the three graces and was once the luxurious terminal for passengers travelling by ocean liner. The Mayor of Liverpool has offices in this building.
The British Music Experience is housed inside the Cunard building and tells the story of British pop music.
The Port of Liverpool Building  is a stunning building both on the exterior and inside, with its balconies and interior atrium. There are many stained glass windows on the theme of Liverpool’s maritime history
The Museum of Liverpool. is housed in a controversial modern building and contains a fascinating collection that tells the detailed and fascinating story of Liverpool.
The Albert Dock once earmarked for demolition, this 19th century dock complex has become Liverpool’s most popular tourist attraction.
Bold Street is one of Liverpool’s most liveliest streets, with its bars, cafes, restaurants and shops. At the top of the street is St Luke’s, the Bombed Out Church,
The Mersey Ferry is perhaps Liverpool’s most famous tourist attraction. It still functions as a daily means of transport for commuters but only on weekday mornings and afternoons. The tour on the Mersey is a must for all visitors
The Cavern Club is where the Beatles played their early gigs, but today’s cavern club is not the original but a faithfully reconstructed one. Still, it looks and feels similar to the original.
The Beatles Statues on the Pier Head were created by artist Andy Edwards. Since their installation in December 2015 they have been visited every day by thousands of people who love to have their photo taken next to Paul, George, Ringo and John
Liverpool One is a shopping district in Liverpool city centre that was created from existing streets and buildings, with the addition of many new buildings.
The Philharmonic Hall is a stunning concert hall in a 1930s design. Here you can go to orchestral concerts as well as performances by legendary pop artists. The style and ornamentation are stuperb.
The view from Everton Park is stunning as you can see over the rootops of the city centre across the Mersey to the Wirral, with the Clwydian Hills across the Dee in North Wales. Everton Park is built on the site of a former residential district.
The view from Seacombe gives you perhaps the best angle on Liverpool waterfront. You can reach it on the Mersey Ferries river cruise or drive through the Kingsway Tunnel.
The view from Woodside ferry terminal is also magnificent and is closer to the waterfront. You can admire all the buildings along the Liverpool waterfront and watch cruise ships arriving and leaving.
The view from Port Sunlight Riverside Park is a relatively new viewpoing point as the park was created from a gigantic landfill site. From here the waterfront is to the north.
Lady Lever Art Gallery is my favourite art gallery in the North West as it presents a uniquely personal collection reflecting the tastes of founder Lord Leverhulme. There are many paintings and sculptures, some ancient, as well as furniture and ceramics.
Port Sunlight is a village with houses in a variety of traditional English styles. It was built by Lord Leverhulme to provide housing for workers in his nearby factory.
Birkenhead Priory is an ancient religious site that pre-dates virtually everything around it. The visitors center we can learn about the early history of this area and from the tower, look across the river and into the neighbouring ship repair docks.

My review of the Liverpool Albert Dock and Three Graces Walking Tour

2017-08-26 By Aidan O'Rourke

If you’re visiting a city and want to get the inside story on its history and attractions, who should you go to? A tour guide of course.

I know Liverpool well but I’m always interested in finding out more. That’s the reason why I went on a tour of The Albert Dock and the Three Graces. I wasn’t disappointed. I discovered many new facts.

For instance, I didn’t know that the Albert Dock is the largest complex of Grade 1 listed buildings in the UK, that it was a state-of-the-art building when first built in 1846. I knew already from a tour with historian Quentin Hughes that it was nearly demolished. That was in the 1970s when the Albert Dock was in a derelict state, the basins were silted up and the entire district was closed off. The proposal was to demolish the buildings, fill in the docks and replace them with a car park. Thankfully the Albert Dock was restored and is now Liverpool’s top tourist attraction. It is a unique place – inside the solid brick warehouses house restaurants, apartments, shops, the Tate Liverpool, the Beatles Experience and the Liverpool Maritime Museum, incorporating the Museum of Slavery. The Albert Dock is a must-see for all visitors to Liverpool and a regular haunt for those of us who live in or not far from the city.

There are many reminders of its past – the Dock Traffic Office with its Roman style portico – actually the pillars are hollow and made of cast iron. It was used as a studio for Granada Television. Round the corner there’s a curious ‘helter-skelter’ chute on the exterior of the building. I’d never even noticed it before. It was used to carry ice cubes from the upper floors to a cart where they would be transported to the homes of Liverpool’s wealthy families. The Pump House – now a restaurant – contained the hydraulic pumps used to open and close the lock gates. The Piermaster’s House has been furnished in the style of World War II, when Liverpool was a major target for bombing. You can imagine the Piermaster and his family listening to the wireless and then hearing the air raid siren echoing over the docks.

A few minutes walk away and we come to the three magnificent buildings which are the most famous symbol of Liverpool, often referred to as the ‘Three Graces’. They were built on the site of St George’s Dock. Around the turn of the 20th century it was filled in and two streets were extended across it – Brunswick Street and Water Street. dividing it into three rectangles. On each of these three sites, three buildings appeared: The Port of Liverpool building, the Liver Building and the Cunard Building, completed in 1907, 1911 and 1916, respectively.

The Port of Liverpool Building was designed by Sir Arnold Thornley and F.B. Hobbs and is magnificent inside and out. It was the headquarters of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board until 1994. Today the building is used by private companies. I was surprised to discover it is only Grade II* listed. It has many superb architectural features. The dome is similar to St Paul’s Cathedral and Belfast City Hall. Many people are not aware that it’s possible to go inside the lobby and admire the magnificent view up towards the inside of the dome. It is a building with ‘wow’ factor. The exterior made of Portland Stone.

It’s important to note that up until the 1960s the exteriors of all three buildings were blackened by air pollution. I will never forget visiting Liverpool in the late 1960s just after they were cleaned. The Port of Liverpool Building seemed to me like a gigantic wedding cake made of pure white icing sugar. Today, in bright, clear sunlight, the exterior for me has a ‘singing ringing’ effect. There are many parallels between architecture and music, but that’s another story!

Next door to it is the Cunard Building, which is also Grade II* Listed. This was once the terminal for wealthy passengers boarding transatlantic liners. They would complete their paperwork in the grand hall and make their way to the front lobby to await embarkation. Our tour guide painted a vivid picture of the hall, with its elegant interior and perhaps a string quartet playing tasteful music. Today that area is the British Music Experience, a permanent exhibition dedicated to the history of popular British Music. It’s not possible to go to the upper floors of the Cunard Building. This is a working office building, and surely one of the best addresses in Liverpool. The building was designed by William Edward Willink and Philip Coldwell Thicknesse, and was inspired by the Farnese Place in Rome. It was the headquarters of the Cunard Line until the late 1960s. Since 2015 it is owned by Liverpool City Council. The office of the Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, is in the Cunard Building. One interesting fact: It is slightly wider at the rear and so has the shape of an uneven rectangle. Like the Port of Liverpool building it is faced in Portland Stone.

The Liver Building is the most famous building in Liverpool. It is made of granite and so the exterior colour is rather dull. But due to its unique design and the two clock towers at either end, topped with the world famous Liver birds, it has become a powerful symbol of Liverpool. Local people are very proud of the building, which can be seen from many vantage points in the city and across the Mersey. It is a building of superlatives. It was Europe’s first skyscraper. It was the tallest building in Europe from 1911 to 1932. The clock faces are bigger than those on the Elizabeth Tower of the Houses of Parliament – more commonly known as Big Ben. The Liver Building is inspired by architecture of the USA, reflecting Liverpool’s rich transatlantic connections. It was designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas and is rightly Grade I listed. Two mythical Liver Birds at the top of the building soon became the symbol of Liverpool. They were designed by the German woodcarver Carl Bernard Bartels.

Originally from Stuttgart Carl Bernard Bartels settled in England and became a naturalised British citizen. He won the commission to design the mythical birds which were completed in 1911. Despite having British citizenship he was interned on the Isle of Man during the First World War and was deported in 1918, leaving his wife behind. He returned and spent the rest of his life in the UK.

The interior of Liverpool’s most famous building may surprise many visitors. Unlike the other two buildings, the Liver building has an interior space. After renovations, the lobby is contemporary in style, with some original features visible, including a plaque dedicated to Carl Bernard Bartels. Looking up through the glass roof of the lobby into the inside space, you will see that the interior walls have been covered with a modern style glass cladding. It’s invisible from the outside of course, but in my opinion, it spoils the character of the building. In my opinion the building should at some time in the future be restored to its original state.

And after we emerged from the side entrance of the Liver building, our tour came to an end. Our Blue Badge guide Tony Boner really entertained and informed us with his deep local knowledge and Liverpudlian sense of humour.

My advice to anyone, anywhere: Even if you’re a local, book a guided tour with a knowledgeable guide. You’ll learn many new things!

The Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building reflected in the Albert Dock (Image turned upside down and flipped horizontally)

Albert Dock Liverpool, looking across Canning Dock towards the Dock Traffic Office and the Pump House

Panorama of the Albert Dock with the Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool building on the far left.

View of the Three Graces before the construction of the Mann Island building (15 April 2002)

View along the Albert Dock towards the Three Graces. The new building constructed on Mann juts in on the right, obscuring the view of the Port of Liverpool Building

LIverpool Albert Dock and moored boats

Cunard and Liver Buildings seen across The Strand

View of the Port of Liverpool building from Canning St next to the Anglican Cathedral. On the right is the Queensway Tunnel ventilation building

Liverpool Pier Head, Three Graces and canal.

The Liver Building, Cunard Building and Cunard Liner Caronia

The Pier Head, Port of Liverpool Building and tourist signs

The Liver Building and Liver Bird 2002

The Liver Building in sunshine

Memorial stone inside the Liver Buidling lobby – Carl Bernard Bartels, Sculptor and Designer of the Liver Birds 1866-1955

View from Tranmere – Story behind the image

2016-07-26 By Aidan O'Rourke

One of the themes of the Eyewitness blog is ‘secrets behind the image’. In this post I am going to write about the creative and technical questions underlying this photograph of Rodney Street, in Tranmere, near Birkenhead on the Wirral.

About the location
I love to photograph cities. To be frank I find the man-made environment more interesting than the natural environment. I was driving through Tranmere, close to Birkenhead town centre, and glimpsed the view down a long straight street looking towards Liverpool.

The street is Rodney Street, Birkenhead, not to be confused with Rodney Street, Liverpool. The view is similar to the one in the famous photograph of the Ark Royal by the photographer Edward Chambre Hardman (1898-1988). He lived on Rodney St Liverpool and his home is open to the public. If you’re interested in photography I definitely recommend it.

The view here looking roughly east north east towards the centre of Birkenhead, with north Liverpool in the distance. I love the effect of the long, straight street with the houses on either side and north Liverpool skyline in the distance.

We can see the ventilation shaft of the Queensway (Birkenhead) Tunnel centre right. It overlooks the River Mersey, which is hidden in this view. Just to its left is the Tobacco Warehouse on the Liverpool side of the river.

Technical info
The photo was taken with my new Canon 750D DSLR camera, using the Tamron 16-300mm zoom lens. (I’ll review this camera in another post).

I took the photograph in Program Auto mode, which I use in most situations. The camera chose the settings of 1/160s f/6.3 ISO100. This indicates the light level was plus two thirds of a stop. (If you’d like to find out more about light level and why it’s important, why not take a look at one of my walks or courses.)

The lens was at focal length 70mm so it is roughly mid-way in its range from 18mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto.

Previously I used the Tamron 18-270mm lens which was excellent. The newer 16-300mm Tamron is even better as it gives you slightly more wide angle and slightly more telephoto than the previous one.

In this case, I was able to frame or crop the view at 70mm. For comparison, here’s the view taken at 16mm wide angle. It’s clear that to get the best effect, you have to zoom in, but not too far. I zoomed in so the street and houses were visible, as well as the skyline at the top.

This photo was taken in the evening. The sun is shining from the west – off to the left – and lighting up the tops of the houses. The street was mostly in shadow. I lightened up the street slightly in Photoshop. I also rotated the image by about 1.5 degrees.

For the symmetry of the composition, it’s important to stand in the centre of the street.

In summary
It’s not a perfect image. Coming from the left, the light leaves the street partly in shadow – It would probably have been better to take the image earlier in the day with the sun directly behind. However I don’t take photos for the sake of technical perfection or to win competitions. I simply take photos to capture the striking views I see around me. Whether they are of interest to the viewer is up to them!

Here’s the same view taken at 18mm

Featured book: Liverpool Then and Now

2016-06-13 By Aidan O'Rourke

The changing face of the city has been a dominant theme in my photography since the early days. It was fitting therefore that I was commissioned by Anova books in 2011 to take the ‘now’ photos for the book Liverpool Then and Now.

I was presented with a list of ‘then’ photographs drawn from various sources including the Liverpool Records Office and Anova’s own collection of heritage images. My task was to find the locations and take the ‘now’ photo from as close as possible to the viewpoint of the old photo.

Soon I had embarked on a fascinating journey of discovery through the Liverpool area as far as Southport in the north to Speke in the south.

I also crossed over the River Mersey to visit locations on the Wirral, and in the first half of September I took photographs from Seacombe ferry terminal of visiting cruise liners docked by the Pier Head. One of these images appears in the opening pages of the book.

Locations featured in Liverpool Then and Now include: the Royal Liver Building, the Albert Dock, Lord Street, Lime Street station, the Anglican Cathedral, Bold Street, The Strand and many more.

I also discovered many lesser known places including the former observatory on the Wirral, now a private residence, the Liverpool Institute, now LIPA, the Florence Institute in Toxteth, and the exact point where the East Lancs Road begins. The old photo depicts the opening ceremony. It took me a while to discover where it had been taken but eventually I found it.

Some of the places depicted in the old photographs were impossible to locate and had to be omitted.

And I can reveal one location is wrong! The fountain I photographed in Sefton Park is not the one in the old photo.

About three months after publication I was walking in Sefton Park and discovered that the fountain I should have photographed is the one next to the Peter Pan statue in the middle of the park. No one has noticed so far!

One of my favourite views was from Everton Brow I did the panorama and the editors decided to include it even though that old photo wasn’t a panorama.

In many places I found the people I met to be very warm and friendly, for example the man who lives near the ‘Florrie’ or Florence Institute who saw me taking a photograph, came out to tell me all about it, and gave me some leaflets.

The staff at the Town Hall were also very welcoming and helpful, and I was given a guided tour around the Liver Building and the former Speke Airport terminal, now a hotel.

Photographing Liverpool Then and Now was a great experience and I really got to know Liverpool very well indeed.

I was very proud when in mid-2012 I found the book, ‘my’ book, on the shelf in the bookshop at Lady Lever Art Gallery. I have also seen it on sale at the Walker Art Gallery, Waterstones, in the Albert Dock and at the Museum of Liverpool.

If you’d like to buy a copy of Liverpool Then and Now from Amazon.co.uk, please follow the link to the right. If you’d like a signed copy for yourself or as a gift please get in touch.

Part way through the project, local author and historian Mike Royden was commissioned to write the text. His descriptions are very interesting, and demonstrate his deep knowledge of the city. The team at Anova Books in London – editors Frank Hopkinson and David Salmo – did a great job. The layout is excellent and the quality of reproduction of the photographs is very good indeed.

I am very proud to have helped to create this visually fascinating book on what is arguably the UK’s most visually fascinating city.

The magnificence of Lime Street Station past, present and future

2015-12-31 By Aidan O'Rourke

Liverpool Lime St Station, August 2005 with office block, now demolished

Lime St Station is probably the best known and most used building in Liverpool. People from the suburbs and beyond take the train to Lime Street and so do those travelling from further away, such as Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and London.

There are two parts to Lime Street Station, the main line terminal at ground level and the underground station on the city centre loop line.

It’s not widely acknowledged that Liverpool Lime Street is one of the oldest stations in continous use anywhere in the world. When the Liverpool and Manchester railway opened in 1830, the terminus was at Crown Street to the east of the city centre. The site is now a green area. Lime Street Station opened for passengers in 1836. The present train sheds date from 1867 and 1879.

The view from the main entrance at the front of Lime Street is one of the most magnificent in any UK city, with St Georges Hall on the right.

This is the place where I meet the people who come on my photo walks, at the top of the steps outside the main entrance.

Liverpool Lime Street front entrance and new steps, meeting point for my photo walks.

Inside the station near the front entrance there are two statues by Tom Murphy representing Liverpool personalities, the comedian Ken Dodd and the former councillor Bessie Braddock. They were unveiled in 2009.

The north train shed is fronted by an ornate former hotel. This was the North Western Hotel, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, architect of Manchester town hall. Now this building serves as as a residence for students at John Moores University.

Next to the former hotel is the impressive main facade of the station. For many years, this frontage was spoilt by a row of shops that stood in front of it. In the 1960s an office block – Concourse House – was built on the corner. It was typical of the 1960s that a modern office tower could be constructed within a few feet of a precious heritage building from the 19th century. It also cast a shadow on the front of the station for much of the day.

Liverpool Lime Street Station at night with floodlighting.

In the 2000s, the building was demolished, along with the row of shops and a new area at the front was created with steps and ramps. It is magnificent and allows us to admire the magnificence of the architecture. It looks particularly good at night, when floodlighting is switched on.

Whilst the exterior has been beautifully renovated, the interior has remained less attractive, but in 2016 a new renovation is set to go ahead. The station will be closed for a period during the works.

I look forward to seeing the newly renovated Lime Street Station and to continuing to arrive and depart from one of the oldest and most magnificent railway termini in the world.

Virgin Train to London at Liverpool Lime St 30 Oct 2003

Virgin Train to London at Liverpool Lime St Station Platform 8, 30 Oct 2003

Virgin Train to London at Liverpool Lime St 27 Apr 2009

Virgin Train to London at Liverpool Lime St Station, Platform 8, 27 Apr 2009

Best view in the UK – Liverpool waterfront seen across Mersey

2015-12-20 By Aidan O'Rourke 1 Comment

Liverpool Waterfront seen from across the river Mersey at dusk

For years, the Liverpool waterfront has been one of my favourite subjects. I’ve photographed it quite a few times, especially at dusk. For me it’s the best view in the UK. Better than London, because the skyline is not so crowded and the river is wider. Better than Newcastle, although Newcastle’s great, with its series of bridges, and better than Glasgow which has quite a wide river but lacks the cluster of tall buildings that we have in Liverpool.

It’s been spectacular for decades. In the late nineteenth century, they decided to fill in St Georges Dock and create the reclaimed area of land known as the Pier Head. Three buildings were erected directly on the foundations of the three former docks, which explains why we have three architectural gems standing side by side.

Silhouette of the Liverpool skyline April 2005

Almost as soon as the Liver Building was finished 1911, it became a major landmark and symbol of the city. The Cunard and Port of Liverpool building were completed a few years after. Over the course of the twentieth century, more buildings appeared on the Liverpool skyline: The Anglican Cathedral, The Metropolitan Cathedral, St John’s Beacon, now known as Radio City Tower. A few were lost, including the Customs House, which was damaged in the war and could easily have been restored. The Liverpool Overhead Railway was another integral element of the waterfront which sadly closed in 1956.

In the 70s the ‘Three Graces’ were cleaned and for the first time, the pristine-looking white stone could literally shine in the afternoon sunlight. As a child on visit to Liverpool, I was visually captivated by the buildings – for me they seeme to sing. Out on the Mersey on one of the famous Mersey ferries, the waterfront even more magnificent than before.

Liverpool Waterfront from Seacombe 2003

But in recent years, still more new buildings have appeared at the north end of the waterfront, around Princes Dock, including the Beetham Tower, Katherine Tower. The Unity Building appeared just behind St Nicholas Church, now the oldest building on the waterfront.

Since 2004, Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City has been a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site

After some controversy surrounding the addition of a ‘fourth grace’, the Museum of Liverpool appeared in the second half of the 2000s. It stands at a respectul distance from the older trio, and the views from inside are stunning.

It seems the waterfront has never looked better. But there has been a threat to the UNESCO world heritage status. Officials have expressed concern at the height of proposed buildings that are part of Peel Holding’s Liverpool Waters development to the north of the waterfront. In late 2015 the situation wasn’t clear though Liverpool City Council were said to be ‘taking the threat seriously’.

In December 2015, the Liverpool Waterfront was chosen as England’s greatest place in the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Great Places award.

I’ve taken the view of the waterfront many times from both Woodside and Seacombe, the two ferry terminals on the Wirral side of the river. But perhaps my favourite view is at dusk from Magazine Promenade. I often go for a walk there and like to look back at the waterfront as the light fades. There’s nothing more magnificent than the skyline, its light shimmering above the water.

Liverpool waterfront with rainbow and rainy skies