History

Liverpool spent five hundred years as a small port before it became a great one, and most of what it built in the century after that has since been pulled down. These are the pieces that cover it: what was here, what happened to it, and what you can still go and stand on.

The city's story

Start here. The long view from the 1207 charter onwards, and the fortress that stood in the middle of it for five centuries.

City Centre

History of Liverpool: From 1207 to the Modern City

Liverpool from its 1207 charter through the docks, the slave trade, Irish migration, the Blitz, decline and regeneration, and how each period shaped the city.

26 Aug 2026 · 13 min read

City Centre

Liverpool Castle: The Lost Fortress Under Derby Square

Liverpool Castle stood where Derby Square is now for nearly 500 years. What it looked like, how it was lost, and what still survives under the city.

26 Aug 2026 · 15 min read

City Centre

6 Liverpool Buildings That Actually Changed the World

Several Grade II and Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool introduced design techniques that became standard in international architecture.

19 Apr 2026 · 5 min read

How Liverpool moved

The river crossings, the railway in the sky and the airport, and what each of them was built to solve.

City Centre

History of the Mersey Tunnels: Queensway to Kingsway

How Liverpool and Wirral were joined under the river: the 1886 railway tunnel, Queensway in 1934 and Kingsway in 1971, and what it took to build each one.

26 Aug 2026 · 11 min read

Waterfront

History of the Mersey Ferry: 875 Years on the River

The Mersey Ferry from Birkenhead monks in 1150 to the Zeebrugge Raid, The Beatles, Gerry Marsden and the new Royal Daffodil, plus today's fares and times.

26 Aug 2026 · 12 min read

Waterfront

Liverpool's Overhead Railway: The Dockers' Umbrella

Liverpool's Overhead Railway carried dock workers above the waterfront from 1893 to 1956. What it changed, why it closed and what survives today.

30 Jun 2026 · 2 min read

South Liverpool

Liverpool John Lennon Airport History: Speke to 5.6m

How Liverpool Airport moved from Speke Hall’s fields to a modern terminal, with key dates, passenger figures and the buildings left behind in Speke.

2 Jul 2026 · 14 min read

Buildings, places and legends

The docks, the walking routes, the oldest rooms in the city, and the stories that turn out to be only half true.

Waterfront

Jesse Hartley: The Engineer Who Built Liverpool's Albert Dock

How Jesse Hartley's 1843 fire tests produced Liverpool's Albert Dock: fireproof warehouses, bonded storage, decline, near demolition and its survival.

27 Mar 2026 · 9 min read

City Centre

Liverpool Heritage Trail: Walking the City's History

Follow a practical Liverpool heritage walk from the Pier Head and Royal Albert Dock to the Town Hall, St George's Hall, Bluecoat and two cathedrals.

14 Mar 2026 · 8 min read

City Centre

How to Read Liverpool Through Its Buildings

Read Liverpool through its buildings, from the Three Graces and Royal Albert Dock to Oriel Chambers, Hope Street and the Georgian Quarter on foot.

21 Mar 2026 · 8 min read

Wavertree

Liverpool’s Oldest Places to Eat Are Rarely Just Restaurants

Liverpool's oldest places to eat began as coaching inns, stage-door pubs and merchant dining rooms. From Hackins Hey snugs to grand Edwardian dining rooms.

19 Mar 2026 · 3 min read

News

Liverpool Mysteries: Tunnels, Legends and Strange Stories

The Williamson Tunnels under Edge Hill, a cemetery in a quarry below the cathedral, and the Bold Street time-slip stories: what is documented and what is not.

24 Mar 2026 · 6 min read