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Liverpool waterfront by night, as seen from the
Wirral.
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Northwest England. The city is governed by Liverpool City Council, one of five councils within the Metropolitan county of Merseyside. The population of the borough in 2002 was 441,477, and that of the Merseyside conurbation was 1,362,026. Whilst it has lost most of its manufacturing base, Liverpool is still internationally famous as a port. In sporting terms, it is home to the internationally-known football clubs Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C.. In the year 2008, Liverpool will hold the European Capital of Culture title. Liverpool is one of England's core cities.
Liverpool is Great Britain's fifth-biggest city. In the late 19th century, Liverpool laid claim to being the 'Second Port of the Empire', handling more goods than any city outside London.
Liverpool is situated along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, with the city centre located about 5 miles inland from the Irish Sea. Liverpool has a varied topography being built across a ridge of hills rising up to a height of around 70 metres above sea-level at Everton Hill. The city's urban area runs directly into Bootle and Crosby in Sefton, Huyton and Prescot in Knowsley. It faces Wallasey and Birkenhead across the River Mersey.
History
- Main article: History of Liverpool
11th century
Any settlement present was too small to be mentioned by name in the Domesday Book.
13th century
King John's Charter of 1207 created the Borough of Liverpool.
16th century
By the middle of the century the population was still only around 500.
17th century
Slow progress in trade and population growth. A number of battles for the town were waged during the English Civil War, including an eighteen-day siege in 1644. In 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament.
18th century
As trade from the West Indies was added to that of Ireland and Europe, Liverpool began to grow. The first wet dock in Britain was built in Liverpool in 1715. Substantial profits from the slave trade helped the town to prosper and rapidly grow.
19th century
By the start of the century, 40% of the world's trade was passing through Liverpool and the construction of many major buildings reflected this wealth. The population continued to rise rapidly, especially during the 1840's when the Irish began arriving by the thousands due to the Great Famine. By 1851, approximately 25% of the city was Irish-born.
20th century
During the first part of the 20th century, Liverpool was pulling in emigrants from across Europe.
During World War II there were eighty air-raids on Merseyside, killing 2500 people and causing damage to almost half the homes in the metropolitan area.
Significant rebuilding followed the war, including massive housing estates and the Seaforth Dock, the largest dock project in Britain.
In the 1960s Liverpool became a centre of youth culture. The city produced the distinctive Merseybeat sound, and, most famously, The Beatles.
Economically however the city has been in decline since the 1950s with the loss of numerous employers and from the 1970s onwards Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries went into sharp decline. The advent of containerization meant that Liverpool's docks became largely obsolete. In the early 1980s unemployment rates in Liverpool were amongst the highest in the UK.
In 1974, Liverpool became a metropolitan district within the newly created metropolitan county of Merseyside, it had previously been in Lancashire.
At the end of the century Liverpool was concentrating on regeneration.
21st century
Regeneration continues, with the city winning the accolade of European Capital of Culture for 2008. Capitalising on the popularity of the 1960s pop group The Beatles and other groups of the Merseybeat era, tourism has also become a significant factor in Liverpool's economy.
Culture
Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as "Liverpudlians" and nicknamed "Scousers", though this term is often (erroneously) used to cover other Merseysiders. They are noted for their distinctive accent and dialect, called Scouse.
Liverpool has a vibrant artistic life. Several pre-Raphaelites are among the important paintings in the Walker Art Gallery. Sudley House contains another major collection of pre 20th century art [1]. The Tate Liverpool gallery houses the modern art collection of the Tate in the north of England. The Liverpool Biennial [2] is a festival of arts held (as the name implies) every two years. The festival generally runs from mid September to late November and comprises three main sections; the International, The Independents and New Contemporaries although many fringe events are timed to coincide. It was during this event in 2004 that Yoko Ono's work "My mother is beautiful" caused widespread public protest by exhibiting photographs of a naked woman's pubic area on the main shopping street. Despite widespead protest the work remained in place.
A flourishing orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performs in its own hall, the Philharmonic Hall. The city also became well known for the Liverpool poets, of whom Roger McGough and the late Adrian Henri are among the best known. These three poets, sold more than a million copies of their first book of poetry The Liverpool Sound. Also from Liverpool is a writer, poet and author, who lives in Crosby, called John Haines, who uses the pen name Josh Rogan for fiction.
The city is also home to several successful theatre companies, such as the Everyman & Playhouse and the Unity Theatre [3].
SuperlambBanana, a well-known sculpture in the Albert Dock, recently relocated
In 2003, Liverpool was awarded status as European Capital of Culture for 2008 and property developer Grosvenor started a £750 million regeneration of part of the city centre. In light of Liverpool receiving Capital of Culture status, an effort has been created to bring the people of Liverpool together on an online dedicated Liverpool based forum called SpeakLiverpool.
Sport
Liverpool has two Premier League football clubs: Everton F.C. at Goodison Park and Liverpool F.C. at Anfield. Liverpool is historically the more successful of the two, having won 18 league titles, the European Cup five times and the FA Cup six times. Everton have won nine league titles and the FA Cup five times.
Liverpool Harriers, who meet at Wavertree Athletics Centre are one of five athletic clubs. Liverpool has a long history of boxing that has produced John Conteh, Alan Rudkin and Paul Hodkinson and hosts high level amateur boxing events. Park Road Gymnastics Centre provides training to a high level. The City of Liverpool Swimming Club has been National Speedo League Champions 8 out of the last 11 years. Liverpool Tennis Development Programme based at Wavertree Tennis Centre is one of the largest in the UK[4].
Important landmarks and buildings
Pier Head area, seen from the Albert Dock
The built environment of Liverpool contains over 2,500 listed buildings (26 Grade I and 85 Grade II*) it is the inheritance of high-minded public spirit since the later 18th century, largely with Dissenter impetus, that has resulted in more public sculpture than in any UK city aside from Westminster, more listed buildings than any city apart from London and, surprisingly, more Georgian houses than the City of Bath.
In 2004 Liverpool's waterfront was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the justification is Liverpool's importance in the development of world trading system and dock technology.
Amongst its superlatives: Liverpool has the largest panel of stained glass in the world (in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral), the largest brick building in the world, and the first enclosed integrated dock system in the world. The Anglican Cathedral has the longest nave, largest organ and heaviest and highest peal of bells in the world.
Architects well represented in Liverpool: Giles Gilbert Scott, Peter Ellis, Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, and John Foster. Sir Edwin Lutyens is represented by the completed crypt of his projected Metropolitan Cathedral, which was built to a simpler design by Frederick Gibberd.
View of Liverpool's Anglican cathedral
Theatres
Ritual sites
Education
In Liverpool primary education is available in various forms supported by the state include secular, Church of England, Islamic, Jewish and Roman Catholic. Currently no specific Islamic secondary education is provided.
One of Liverpool important early schools was The Liverpool Blue Coat School was founded in 1708 as a charitable school, it continues today. Liverpool College[5] is the leading private school. Another of Liverpool's notable senior schools is St. Edward's College, a former private high school located in West Derby.
Liverpool has three universities, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Hope University. It also has a university college, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, which has re-located to Ormskirk in South-West Lancashire. Liverpool John Moores University is one of the polytechnics given university status in 1992 and is named after the owner of the Littlewoods retail group. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine was founded to address some of the problems created by trade, today it continues as a post graduate school and is one of only two institutions on planet Earth that house the de facto standard anti-venom repository.
The University of Liverpool awarded the first ever Philosophy PhD in Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality to Anthony McWatt in July 2005.
The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts which was set up by Sir Paul McCartney in 1996, to train artistes and technicians, in the building which formerly housed the Liverpool Institute for Boys.
Transport
There are three tunnels under the River Mersey: one railway tunnel, the Mersey Railway Tunnel, and two road tunnels, Queensway Tunnel and Kingsway Tunnel. There is also the Mersey Ferry, made famous by the song Ferry Cross the Mersey by Gerry and the Pacemakers. In fact the song is now played on the ferryboats themselves every time they prepare to dock at Liverpool.
In 2001, Liverpool Airport, situated near Speke in the south of the city, was renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport, in honour of the late Beatle John Lennon. The airport's logo consists of a sketch that Lennon had drawn of himself, and the words "Above us only sky", lyrics from his song Imagine. The airport was the starting point for many Beatles tours in the sixties, and image of the boys boarding planes there were seen throughout the world. In 2002 716,000 passengers used the Port of Liverpool, with the Isle of Man and Ireland being the two most important passenger routes.
Liverpool is served by the Merseyrail railway network. The sections in the city centre are mostly underground. It has two lines: the Northern Line, which runs to Southport, Ormskirk, Kirkby and Hunts Cross, and the Wirral Line, which runs through the Mersey Railway Tunnel and has branches to West Kirby, New Brighton, Ellesmere Port and Chester. The city's main railway station for longer-distance services is Lime Street station.
Historically, Liverpool had an extensive tram network; however, this was dismantled in the 1950s. From 1893 to 1956, the Liverpool docks were served by the Liverpool Overhead Railway. A number of other railway lines, such as the Canada Dock Branch from Edge Hill to Kirkdale, no longer see passenger services, or have been removed completely, such as the North Liverpool Extension Line.
In 2001 a plan to build new a light rail system, Merseytram, was developed, although after central Government refused to underwrite the project, it was cancelled in November 2005 due to spiralling costs.
Famous Liverpudlians
A great many famous names have been associated with Liverpool; for a list, see List of famous people from Liverpool.
Liverpool has also played a large part in UK (and sometimes world) Pop Music culture since the 1960s. For a list of some noteworthy groups from the area, consult the list of famous bands from Liverpool.
Media
Because no television broadcasters are based there, Liverpool could be seen as poorly represented in the media when compared with other major UK cities. The ITV region which covers Liverpool is ITV Granada, which based in Manchester. The BBC's regional news is also based in Manchester. This arrangement has always been controversial locally and one which will likely become more so with the BBC decision to build new national facilities in Manchester, increasing Manchester's influence over regional media.
Liverpool is the home of the TV production company Mersey Television which formerly produced the now-defunct soap opera, Brookside, and currently produces Hollyoaks for Channel 4 and Grange Hill for the BBC. Mersey Television is owned by All3Media.
The city fares better with regards to other media. The city has two daily newspapers: the Liverpool Daily Post in the morning and the evening Liverpool Echo, both published by the same company, the Trinity Mirror group. The Daily Post, especially, serves a wider area, including north Wales. Radio stations include BBC Radio Merseyside, Juice FM and Radio City as well as Magic 1548. The last two are both based in St. John's Beacon which, along with the two cathedrals, dominates the city's skyline. The independent media organisation Indymedia also covers Liverpool.
Liverpool has also featured in many films, for instance see List of films set in Liverpool.
Economy
The economy of Liverpool is beginning to recover from its long post WWII decline. Between 1995 and 2001 GVA per head grew at 6.3% annum. This compared with 5.8% for inner London and 5.7% for Bristol. The rate of Jobs growth was 9.2% compared with a national average of 4.9% for the same period, 1998-2002.
Like the rest of the United Kingdom the city has seen a large growth in service industries and has several major call centres. The activities of the port have left the site with a communications infrastructure that had for a long time exceeded requirements. Growth in the areas of New Media has been helped by the existence of a relatively large Computer game development community.
Tourism is a major factor in the economy and will be of increasing importance in the run up to the Liverpool years as European Capital of Culture. This has led to a great increase in the provision of high quality services such as Hotels, restaurants and clubs. The buildings of Liverpool not only attract tourists but also film makers, who regularly use Liverpool to double for many cities around the worlds and making it the second most filmed city in the UK.
Districts of Liverpool
Districts of Liverpool include:
- Aigburth, Allerton, Anfield
- Belle Vale, Broadgreen
- Childwall, Clubmoor, Cressington, Croxteth
- Dingle
- Edge Hill, Everton
- Fairfield, Fazakerley
- Garston, Gateacre, Grassendale
- Hunts Cross
- Kensington
- Kirkdale, Knotty Ash
- Mossley Hill
- Netherley, Norris Green
- Old Swan
- St Michael's Hamlet, Sefton Park, Speke, Stoneycroft
- Toxteth, Tuebrook
- Walton, Wavertree, West Derby, Woolton
Parliamentary constituencies and MP's
- See also: List of Parliamentary constituencies on Merseyside
Liverpool has five parliamentary constituencies: Liverpool Garston, Liverpool Riverside, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool Wavertree and Liverpool West Derby. At the 2005 general election, all were held by the Labour Party, and are represented by Maria Eagle, Louise Ellman, Jane Kennedy, Peter Kilfoyle and Robert Wareing respectively.
See also
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool under GFDL
