Photographs of Old Liverpool: Part Two

 This article was originally published on hubpages in September 2009.

Detail from one of many public scupltures depicting Liverpool's complicated past.

Many of the places photographed here no longer exist, having made way for new enterprise, luxury apartments, hotels and shopping malls. 

The photographs here have been selected from my portfolio of student work, and were taken circa. 1985. Some of the prints have begun to discolour. I have tried to lighten and sharpen some of the images a little on computer, without changing the atmosphere captured in my husband's work.

I hope you enjoy viewing these images from a fading era.

Liverpool was once one of the most important ports in the world. People and goods from across the globe passed through this city on their way East or West, and some of them settled here. Liverpool has the oldest China Town in Britain, for example.

Exactly how much of Liverpool's wealth came from the slave industry is open to debate. That it was vast is indisputable. Slave ships from Africa docked here on their way to the Americas. On the return journey, the ships brought sugar, tobacco and cotton, amongst other goods, grown on plantations worked-on by slaves.

I once heard a tour guide try to gloss over the city's role in human trafficking. It was a taboo subject and best ignored, she said. But the legacy of the trade's wealth is all around in the wealth which permitted the city's elaborate historical architecture; and the stone sculptures reveal their own tale - one which should not remain silent.

August 23rd is now Slavery Remembrance Day.

Part of an old landing stage on the Mersey waterfront, now demolished.

Hidden portal, visible only from on the water. Tunnels allegedly lead to St George's Hall where slave auctions are reputed to have taken place.

Gate on the end of a derelict pier.

Repairs in a Liverpool dry dock; circa. 1985.

Sefton Park

Vandals later burned this Edwardian band stand to the ground.

The elegant Victorian palm house prior to restoration.

Echoes of a City's Past

Almost all derelict buildings have gone now, replaced by contemporary housing and new business premises. But until the mid-1980s, many skeletal buildings remained as a legacy from World War II.

Just off Dale Street, in the city's business quarter, stood these old auction rooms. Notice the wear of ages on the stone steps.

Monastic ruins in Lydiate, one of Liverpool's many suburbs.

Albert Dock Village, Liverpool.

Once, the Albert Dock was home only to pigeons, mud and the decaying remnants of its maritime past. Now it is a major tourist attraction with museums, the Tate gallery, shops, restaurants, bars and M&S Bank Arena (previously named The Echo Arena).