Thursday 29th July 1819
Thursday July 29th We passed this morning in surveying the Assembly rooms Botanical Gardens Docks &c &c we then took a sail on the water for some time we passed the evening quietly at the hotel.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Assembly Rooms: Completed in 1816, the Wellington Rooms is a neo-classical building on Mount Pleasant which was designed by Edmund Aitkin as the Assembly Rooms of the Wellington Club. It is now derelict and in 1999 was placed on the National Heritage At Risk Register. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Rooms,_Liverpool The image below was taken in 2017.
2017: Wellington Rooms, a Panoramic view across Mount Pleasant. Author Rodhullandemu, the copyright holder, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wellington_Rooms_2017.jpg
According to Hidden Liverpool, “It was the venue for high-society balls, college dances and parties and was at the heart of Liverpool life. The Wellington Rooms closed in the 1920's, but remained a place of entertainment, becoming the Embassy Rooms, Rodney Rooms, the Rodney Youth Centre and the Irish Centre, which many people still know the building as today. The building closed in the late 1990s, when a property developer took over the lease. Attempts were made to renovate into a boutique hotel but planning permission was refused. The residual portion of the developer's lease passed to the Crown in early 2011. Liverpool City Council, which owns the freehold of the site, has served a number of notices on the leaseholder. The Wellington Rooms was included in the Liverpool Echo's Stop the Rot campaign. A campaign is now under way to save the building and bring it back into use, and a local design practice have undertaken work to explore new uses; Dance Liverpool's dance centre and an office, function room, restaurant and University use.” http://www.hiddenliverpool.org.uk/memories/map/item/120-wellingtonrooms
The Botanic Garden was founded in Liverpool in 1802. A key founder was William Roscoe who, at considerable physical and financial risk to himself, fought to get the Transatlantic Slave Trade stopped.
1815 – 1817: William Roscoe, oil on canvas, by Martin Archer Shee. Walker Art Gallery, Accession number WAG 3130. The author died in 1850, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Archer_Shee_-_William_Roscoe_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Other founders were medical doctors Bostock and Rutter, John Shepherd (an expert in fern propagation), William and George Bullock, Thomas Nuttall (a plant collector). Many of these men were non-conformers, linked as Unitarians. Botanic gardens evolved from ‘physic gardens’ – like the Chelsea Physic Garden in London which was founded in 1673 – and here the medicinal properties of plants were studied and taught. As Britain had started to trade with the whole world and with the consequent growth of the British Empire, plants were coming into Liverpool from all over the world, so it was a logical step to create a place for the increasing collection. And this was how Liverpool’s first botanic garden came to be. The Corporation provided a five acre site at the top of Mount Pleasant, just off Crown Street (roughly where Abercromby Square is today), and a private organisation was formed with 300 shares at 12 guineas each, and an annual subscription of two guineas. In May 1802, the garden opened, with Roscoe giving the inaugural speech, which is 65 pages long and can be found in the Liverpool Central Library.
1808 - The Glasshouse -From The Merseysider Magazine, http://www.merseysidermagazine.com/site/local-history/liverpool-botanic-gardens/
In the early 1980s the Militant Tendency dominated the Liverpool Council and viewed the gardens as ‘a collection of flowers for middle class people’. Its closure was blustered through arguing that their focus was on ‘Jobs and Services’ and nothing else. Liverpool’s unique plant collection and horticultural masterpiece was lost. The gardens closed in October 1984. https://asenseofplace.com/2014/10/07/mr-roscoes-garden/ All 6 skilled botanic gardeners were put out to cut the Counci’’s grass verges.
An excellent article by the Merseysider Magazine expands: “By 1808 a large glasshouse had been built 240ft long (24ft high in the centre section) with 5 temperature zones. 4823 different species and cultivars can be seen listed in their first plant catalogue. John Shepherd was the first Curator of the collection and to him is due a lot of the credit for the success of the gardens. To him is attributed the concept of a rockery for displaying plants in their natural habitat. The Herbarium was started with plants from the gardens, 30 years before Kew initiated theirs. Later on herbarium collections were received from many parts of the world. An example is Johann Forster’s collection brought back from the Pacific when he voyaged with Captain Cook. In 1827 it was reported: “No Public Garden in the UK is in a higher state of cultivation, and in no similar institution are stove and greenhouse plants in a more healthy and vigorous state.”
“By the late 1820’s the City was starting to surround the gardens and the consequent pollution was starting to threaten the health of both the plants and visitors. They had also run out of space and by 1831 they had chosen a new location and started the move to this new site, again outside the city limits to Edge Lane in Wavertree. The move was completed by 1836. They even moved mature trees using horses and carts, which must have been quite a sight moving along the tracks!” http://www.merseysidermagazine.com/site/local-history/liverpool-botanic-gardens/
The Docks: The Old Docks, originally known as Thomas Steers' dock, was the world's first commercial enclosed commercial dock. Built in 1715, it solved the problem of how to load and unload a cargo ship when the tide was out. Although Liverpool vessels were involved in the slave trade before the dock opened, it would have served ships involved in the Africa-America trade, propelling Liverpool to world leader of this trade. The dock led to Liverpool's establishment as the leading European port and subsequent world trading port. In the early 19th century, the dock was considered too small for the growing size of shipping using the port; the quays were too narrow; the city's sewage polluted the dock's water; and the narrow wooden drawbridge across its entrance channel caused traffic jams. Sentiment saved the Old Dock for 20 years, but the Old Dock closed on 31 August 1826 and was filled in. Remains of the original dock which can be seen under Liverpool One shopping centre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Dock
Other docks included The Prince's Dock, below,
Circa 1830: The Prince's Dock, Liverpool. Engraving by F.R. Hay after Harwood. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SEPrincesDockFRH18.jpg
The New Dock,
Circa 1830: Liverpool from the Mersey. Commencing at the New Dock to the North. Engraving by Mr R. Brandard after S. Austin. Esq. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SELiverpoolFromMersey18a.jpg
The Duke’s Dock,
The Duke's Dock, & Warehouses, Liverpool, Engraving by Higham after Harwood, https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/
The Kings Dock, which was designed by Henry Berry and opened in 1785. Further warehouse buildings were added by John Foster, Sr.. The dock was closed in 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Dock,_Port_of_Liverpool
The George’s Docks, built in 1771, were essentially redundant by the 1890s. It was the third dock built in Liverpool, and was too small and too shallow in depth for the commercial ships of the late 19th century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%27s_Dock
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?