History

LIVERPOOL NOW AND THEN

LIVERPOOL 08.

Liverpool and its seven streets.

The Castle is at the end of Castle street and you can see the original ‘Liver Pool’.

Year 1250.

History of Liverpool

In 2007 Liverpool will be 800 years old. The following list will tell you all about what has happened to this great city in those 800 years:

1200 to 1300

King John officially made Lyrpul (that was its original name) a town in the year 1207. 800 years ago Liverpool was nowhere as big as it is now, in fact it only had seven streets ; Castle Street, Juggler Street, Bank Street, Dale Street, Chapel Street, More Street, and Whiteacre Street. In 1235 Liverpool Castle was built at the end of Castle Street and stood for nearly 500 years.

1300 to 1400

Around this time, Liverpool was known as LYVERPOLE and was beginning to be an important place for shipping. It was so important that the Royal Navy sailed all their ships from here. In 1349 the deadly Black Death plague killed around 250 people in the City. This was nearly a 1/3 of the whole population of Liverpool at the time. If you go to the graveyard in St Nicholas Church, opposite the Liver Buildings, you should be able to find people buried there who died from the plague.

1400—1500

In 1406, the Tower of Liverpool was built—this building was used for many things but eventually became a gaol, (jail). Liverpool was fast becoming a good fishing village with fish like haddock, Mackerel, Lobster, Prawns and Oysters being caught and sold.

1500-1600

In 1560 Liverpool was battered by a great storm which damaged a lot of the waterfront. After the storm it was decided to rebuild the waterfront and put a bridge across the original “Pool” of Liverpool. This was the start of the very first dock which were to grow and grow to one of the biggest docks in the world.

1600-1700

In 1635 another bridge was built across the “Pool” and a harbour for ships to anchor was made. This harbour allowed much bigger ships to come and go to and from Liverpool's port. Eventually the ‘Pool’ was completely filled in and this was how the dock system was made.

1700-1800

In 1709 a ship called the ‘Liverpool Merchant’ sailed from Liverpool to Barbados. This ship was the first “slave” ship to leave Liverpool and was full of 220 men, women and children all from Africa. These people, known as Slaves, were to be sold to rich families in America . The Slave trade was a cruel and evil thing that lasted nearly 100 years until it was banned by the government. If you go to the Merseyside Maritime museum in the Albert Dock you can learn more about this subject.

1800-1900

Liverpool by now was one of the most important port in the world. Goods, like cotton, timber(wood), fruit, meat, vegetables, coal and many other things from all over the world were imported and exported through Liverpool docks. To get these goods to and from the docks railways and canals had to be built to all parts of England. Liverpool had become a very rich city but there were still a lot of very poor and sick people living in terrible conditions.

1900-1950

At the end of the 1800’s there were nearly 1 million people living in Liverpool. A lot of the poor people lived in very small houses or ‘cellars’ where rats and disease were common. Early in the 1900’s hospital, schools, churches, and orphanages were built to help the sick, poor and homeless. Old inner city houses were knocked down and new houses were built outside of the busy city centre.

1950-2000

The second world war finished in 1945 and Liverpool had suffered from a lot of bombing fro the German planes. This meant that large parts of the city centre needed to be rebuilt. A lot of the old buildings were gone and replaced with more modern type buildings. Liverpool became a cool and groovy place to be in the 1960’s with great pop bands like the Beatles and Everton and Liverpool football clubs doing well. Sadly in the 1970’s and 1980’s the docks weren’t as busy and Liverpool became a poorer city. Lots of people had no jobs and the future looked bad. But the 1990’s saw a change and new jobs were available for the people of Liverpool and the city was alive again.

2000-the future

Liverpool is now a great city to live in with lots of great things to see and do. You will be amazed at the list in the Things to Do section. Don’t forget that 2008 is a big, big year for Liverpool with loads of exciting events happening for the Capital of Culture year.

If you don’t live here or have never been please come and see for yourself I’m sure you will agree Liverpool is just LIVERCOOL !