In the previous post, I talked about three of Liverpool's churches.

But there's so very much more to this city. So many cultures have laid down layers here. It's a veritable palimpsest.

1.

Let's start with imperial culture... The tricky one...

Liverpool was once the second city of the British empire. And you don't get such an "accolade" without getting your hands dirty.

Integral to the impressive amounts of maritime trade that the city handled was "a slave market -- one spearheaded by some of Liverpool's most historically celebrated figures. From the mid-1740s Liverpool was the largest slave trading port in Britain, accounting for 84.7 per cent of all slave voyages between 1793 and 1807. Mersey ships transported nearly 1.5m Africans into slavery both in Britain and abroad, as the city became a prime location for the buying and selling of human lives. Though the slave trade was abolished in Britain in 1807, merchants and their families continued to reap the financial rewards of their brutal business. Many of them had risen to prominent positions thanks to the wealth they had acquired, which they poured into industrial development, bolstering Britain's position as a dominant global power."

The article I've just quoted lists many of the prominent streets in the city that are named after "people whose source of wealth and power should not be forgotten".

Which brings us to Liverpool's "Georgian Quarter", a really impressive part of the city. I had not realized how many of these beautiful, homogeneous streets there were. The period spans the years 1714 to 1837 (covering the first four Georges, plus William IV). But, of course, houses continued to be built in that style even after the reign of Queen Victoria had started.


And they have their histories... Such is the case with 62 Falkner Street, built in 1840. This formed the focus of a fascinating study by historian David Olusoga, which charted its passage from the home of a "trader in slave-produced cotton" to post-war slum to gentrified des res.

I have no idea how we make restitution for the slaving era. No idea. But at least acknowledging its evils constitutes a beginning. In 2018 we visited Liverpool's impressive International Slavery Museum (currently closed for redevelopment). There are also now plaques pointing out the slavery-linked antecedents of certain streets.

Of course, you have to wonder whether there will be plaques in future years fingering the worst climate despoilers of our current era... Trashing the planet, I guess, is our equivalent of running an empire -- the unconscionable thing that many of us know is wrong, and yet corporately carry on doing, because that's how life is, and how do we stop it, and anyway, we all profit from what we're doing, and what a sacrifice it would be to stop...

Anyway, none of these slavery-acknowledgement moves on Liverpool's part is sufficient, of course. But at least they're making an effort. At least they're not attempting to use governmental power to remove references to slavery, racial discrimination, and the like from public places...

Meanwhile, what we're left with in Liverpool is some very beautiful houses:







2.

You can't visualize Liverpool without thinking of arts and popular culture (however you want to make that divide, assuming you do...).

A good primer is the installation known as the Hope Street Suitcases, which celebrates a range of talent connected with the Liverpool area. Commemorated here are the Liverpool Poets, the Beatles, Arthur Askey, E Chambre Hardman, Sam Walsh, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and many more... They all testify to a vibrant scene.


There are reminders everywhere of the globally famous:








Liverpool has the UK's largest number of museums and galleries outside London. Having been waylaid by the Catholic Cathedral, though, we had to be very selective in our trip to the Walker Art Gallery. Our target this time was the little Vivienne Westwood exhibition. Why? Because of our trip last year to Glossop, her birthplace...

She set up a store in Liverpool in 2003, and is fondly remembered on Merseyside. And what an extraordinary life she led... Here are three of the less weird items on display:




3.

Next, we have a layer of ethnic culture.

Liverpool has long had a buoyant Chinese community. (One of the figures celebrated in the Suitcases is Kwok Fong, aka Uncle Fong, who was prominent in providing help and support to Chinese and other Asian crews sailing out of Liverpool. It all reminds me of Pulang, an excellent Malaysian movie we saw back in 2018, not long after our visit to Liverpool.)









A hint of Layer 1 comes through in this story, sadly. As Beatrice Png mentions in the link above, the Chinese community was often dealt with in a high-handed, not to say cruel, fashion by the British authorities.

Liverpool also hosts a population of Italian descent. Our only personal experience of that was the arancine from Cose Buone, a little Sicilian street food place just down the road from the hotel. But what a good one. Yum... Another reminder of why you should ALWAYS encourage migrants...


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And then we sailed home, very happy with our visit...