The Royal Albert Dock is a complex of dock buildings and warehouses in Liverpool, England. Designed by Jesse Hartley and Philip Hardwick, it was opened in 1846, and was the first structure in the United Kingdom to be built from a combination of cast iron, brick, and stone without also using wood for any structural element. As a result, it was the first non-combustible warehouse system in the world. It was known simply as the Albert Dock until 2018, when it was granted a royal charter and had the honorific "Royal" added to its name.
At the time of its construction, the dock was considered to be revolutionary in its design because ships were loaded and unloaded directly from or to the warehouses. Two years after it opened, it was modified to feature the world's first hydraulic cranes. Due to its open yet secure design, the dock became a popular store for valuable cargoes such as brandy, cotton, tea, silk, tobacco, ivory and sugar. However, despite its advanced design, the rapid development of shipping technology meant that, within 50 years, larger and more open docks were required, although the Albert Dock remained a valuable store for cargo.
During the Second World War, the dock was requisitioned by the Admiralty serving as a base for ships of the British Atlantic Fleet. The complex was damaged during air raids on Liverpool, notably during the May Blitz of 1941. In the aftermath of the war, the financial problems of the owners and the general decline of docking in the city meant that the future of the Albert Dock was uncertain. Numerous plans were developed for the re-use of the buildings but none came to fruition and in 1972 the dock was finally closed. Having lain derelict for nearly ten years, the redevelopment of the dock began in 1981, when the Merseyside Development Corporation was set up, with the Albert Dock being officially re-opened in 1984.
Today the Royal Albert Dock is a major tourist attraction in the city and the most visited multi-use attraction in the United Kingdom, outside London. The five warehouses which make up the complex cover 1.25m sq ft in size, the biggest such group of Grade I listed buildings anywhere in the UK.
History Grand beginnings and early history
The history of the Albert Dock dates back to 1837, when Jesse Hartley first began the development of plans for a combined dock and warehouse system. The plans drawn up by Hartley and fellow civil engineer Philip Hardwick for the Albert Dock were at the time considered quite 'radical', as they envisioned the loading and unloading of ships directly from the warehouses. However, this idea was not new, and as far back as the 1803 Warehousing Act, legislation had been passed to allow this form of development to occur, whilst the concept was first actually used in the construction of St Katharine's Dock in London, which was opened in 1828. As part of the development process, Hartley was eager to test the fire resistance of any particular design by constructing an by dummy structure, filling it with timber and tar, and setting it alight. After testing several structural designs he settled on the combination of cast iron, brick, sandstone and granite. The design was submitted for planning permission in 1839 although it was not until 1841, when the bill authorising the design of the dock was eventually passed by Parliament, that construction was allowed to begin.
The site chosen for the dock to be built on was an area of land bordered by Salthouse Dock to the east, the entrance channel to Canning Dock to the north and by Duke's Dock to the south. The land earmarked for the site had to be cleared, with 59 tenants being evicted and numerous premises demolished including a pub, several houses and the Dock Trustee's Dockyard. Upon the clearance of this land both the Salthouse and Canning docks were drained to allow entrance passages into the Albert Dock to be constructed, whilst hundreds of "navvies" were employed to dig out the dock basin and construct the new river wall. The dock basin was completed by February 1845, allowing the first ships to enter the Albert Dock, although with the warehouses still under construction this was merely to allow these boats to "lay-up".
The dock complex was officially opened in 1846 by Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria and the man in honour of whom it was named. This event marked the first occasion in Liverpool's history in which a member of the Royal Family had made a state visit to the city and as a result the occasion was marked with a major celebrations. Many thousands of people turned out for the Royal visit with the newspaper The Pictorial Times noting the reception Prince Albert received:
His reception was most enthusiastic; balconies were erected along the line of procession, and these and the windows of houses were filled with gay and animated parties. There was a most brilliant display of flags, banners & c. [sic]. All business is suspended. There are 200,000 strangers in town, and all the inhabitants are in the streets. All is gaiety and splendour. (The Pictorial Times, 1846).
The Prince was taken on a processional tour through the city, including a visit to the town hall where the royal address was made, before departing aboard the ferry across to the Cheshire side of the Mersey and then northwards towards the Albert Dock. Again this stage of the procession route was laden with onlookers with The Pictorial Times describing the Prince's entrance into the Albert Dock:
From the Cheshire side of the river the Fairy crossed to the Liverpool side, and returned along the line of docks amidst the cheers of assembled thousands and the roar of artillery. The sight was really magnificent, all the ships in the docks were decked out in gayest colours and the river was crowded with boats filled with people. At half-past two the fairy entered the dock, where were assembled two thousand ladies and gentlemen, the elite of the town; they cheered enthusiastically, which his Royal Highness returned, and in order to gratify the crowd sailed round the dock. (The Pictorial Times, 1846).
Despite the official opening taking place in 1846, the construction of the Albert Dock was not fully completed until 1847. In 1848, a new dock office was built and the dock itself was upgraded to feature a hydraulic cargo handling hoist system, the first of its kind in the world. Over the next decade several more buildings were added including houses for the piermaster, his assistant, and the warehouse superintendent; and a cooperage. Warehousing in the dock was also expanded to meet the increasing demand by joining together the eastern and western ends of the Southern Stack.
Changing fortunes and role in the Second World War
The enclosed design of the Albert Dock and the direct loading and unloading of goods from warehouses, meant that the complex was more secure than other docks within Liverpool. As a result, it became a popular store for valuable cargoes including brandy, cotton, tea, silk, tobacco, ivory, and sugar. Their openness to natural light and well ventilated stores, meant natural goods such as hemp or sugar could be kept fresher longer. The dock came to dominate Liverpool's far eastern trade, with over 90% of the city's silk imports from China coming through it and more generally half of all the far eastern trade income.
Despite the great prosperity the dock afforded the city, within 20 years of its construction the Albert Dock was beginning to struggle.: "arguably out-of-date before they were built" Designed and constructed to handle sailing ships of up to 1,000 tonnes, by the start of the 20th century only 7% of ships into the Port of Liverpool were sailing vessels. The development of steam ships in the later 19th century meant that soon the dock simply was not large enough, as its narrow entrances prevented larger vessels from entering it. Its lack of quayside was also becoming an issue. Generally steamships could be loaded and unloaded far quicker than sailing ships, and in a cruel twist of irony, the dockside warehouses that had once made the Albert Dock so attractive, were now hindering its future development. Nonetheless the Albert Dock remained an integral part of the dock system in Liverpool, and in 1878 the pump house was built as part of redevelopment that saw the majority of the cranes converted to hydraulic use. In 1899, part of the north stack was converted to allow for ice production and cold storage.
By the 1920s, virtually all commercial shipping activity had ceased at the dock, although its warehouses did remain in use for the storage of goods transported by barge, road or rail. The onset of the Second World War, in 1939, saw the Albert Dock requisitioned by the Admiralty and used as base for the British Atlantic fleet. This included submarines, small warships, and landing craft docking. During the war, the dock was struck on several occasions by German bombs. This included one bombing raid in 1940 that damaged ships within the dock. More destructively, during the May Blitz of 1941, bombing caused extensive damage to the south west stack. By the end of the war, almost 15 per cent of the dock's floor space was unavailable due to bomb damage.
Post War history and decline
By the time the Second World War had finished the Albert Dock's future looked bleak. The owners of the dock, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), were in financial crisis and chose not to repair any of the wartime bomb damage, adopting an attitude of "if it's not broke don't fix it, and if it is broke we still won't fix it". At the same time a change in geopolitical orientation towards Europe, coupled with the advent of containerisation, meant the whole docking system in the city of Liverpool suffered as newer, stronger ports emerged elsewhere in the UK. Nonetheless the architectural and technological value of the docks was recognised in 1952 when the Albert Dock was granted Grade I listed building status.
Despite this recognition, the increasing debts of the MDHB meant that by the 1960s the company was eager to get rid of the Albert Dock. Having considered demolishing the buildings and redeveloping the land, the MDHB soon entered negotiations to sell the land to Oldham Estates, a property developer owned by Harry Hyams. Many plans for the site were developed including one that envisioned the development of a mini city that would provide 10m sq feet of letting space, hotels, restaurants, bars and underground parking in the drained dock basin. With the council reluctant to allow such a grandiose development to occur and with the huge public opposition to it (inspired at least in part by the work of Quentin Hughes), Oldham Estates were forced into scaling-down the plan and so in 1970 returned with a new vision known as "Aquarius City", which had as its centrepiece a 44-storey skyscraper. Once again the plan failed to develop and no sooner had it been announced, than the MDHB's financial problems reached crisis point, Oldham Estates withdrew their deposit and the whole scheme fell through.
With the MDHB on the verge of bankruptcy a decision was taken to shut down and sell off the whole of the south docks system. The warehouses were emptied and in 1972 the Albert Dock finally closed down. The Brunswick Dock gates, which separated the South Docks system from the River Mersey, were opened allowing tidal movements in and the process of the clogging up the docks with sewage polluted silt began. In many senses just as the Albert Dock's development had symbolised the prosperity in the Liverpool at the time of its construction, its subsequent decline after the Second World War symbolised the collapse of the local economy as a whole.