King John's
letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, but by the middle of the 16th century the population was still only around 500. The original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough.The original seven streets were laid out in a H shape:Bank Street (now Water Street)Castle StreetChapel StreetDale StreetJuggler Street (now High Street)Moor Street (now Tithebarn Street)Whiteacre Street (now Old Hall Street)
In the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. 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, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. As trade from the
West Indies surpassed that of Ireland and Europe, and as the
River Dee silted up, Liverpool began to grow. The first commercial
wet dock was built in Liverpool in 1715.
[3][4] Substantial profits from the
slave trade helped the town to prosper and rapidly grow. By the close of the century Liverpool controlled over 41% of Europe's and 80% of Britain's slave commerce.
By the start of the 19th century, 40% of the world's trade was passing through Liverpool and the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. In 1830, Liverpool and
Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity rail link, through the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The population continued to rise rapidly, especially during the 1840s when
Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the
Great Famine. By 1851, approximately 25% of the city's population was Irish-born. During the first part of the 20th century, Liverpool was drawing immigrants from across Europe.
Inaugural journey of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, the first ever commercial railway line
The Housing Act 1919 resulted in mass council housing building across Liverpool during the 1920s and 1930s. Thousands of families were rehoused from the inner-city to new suburban housing estates, based on the pretext that this would improve their standard of living, though this is largely subjective. A large number of private homes were also built during this era. The process continued after the
Second World War, with many more new housing estates being built in suburban areas, while some of the older inner city areas where also redeveloped for new homes.
During the
Second World War there were 80
air-raids on Merseyside, killing 2,500 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. Much of the immediate reconstruction of the city centre has been deeply unpopular, and was as flawed as much town planning renewal in the 1950s and 1960s - the portions of the city's heritage that survived German bombing could not withstand the efforts of urban renewal. Since 1952 Liverpool has been twinned with
Cologne, Germany, a city which also experienced aerial bombing during the war.
In the 1960s Liverpool became a centre of
youth culture. The "
Merseybeat" sound which became synonymous with
The Beatles and fellow Liverpudlian rock bands of the era catapulted the city to the front of the popular music scene.
From the mid-1970s onwards Liverpool's docks and traditional
manufacturing industries went into sharp decline. The advent of
containerization meant that the city's docks became largely obsolete. In the early 1980s
unemployment rates in Liverpool were among the highest in the UK. In recent years, Liverpool's economy has recovered and has experienced growth rates higher than the national average since the mid-nineties.
Previously part of Lancashire, and a county borough from 1889, Liverpool became in 1974 a metropolitan borough within the newly created metropolitan county of Merseyside.
At the end of the 20th century Liverpool was concentrating on regeneration, a process which still continues today. To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife organised a competition to choose county flowers, the sea-holly was Liverpool's final choice.
Capitalising on the popularity of the 1960s rock group The Beatles and other groups of the Merseybeat era, tourism has also become a significant factor in Liverpool's economy.
In 2004, property developer Grosvenor started the Paradise Project, a £920 m development centered on Paradise Street, which involved the most significant changes to Liverpool's city centre since the post-war reconstruction. Renamed 'Liverpool 1', the centre opened in May 2008.
In 2007 the City celebrated the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, for which a number of events were planned. Liverpool is a joint European Capital of Culture for 2008. The main celebrations in September 2008 involved La Princesse, a large mechanical spider which is 20 metres high and weighs 37 tonnes, and represents the "eight legs" of Liverpool: honour, history, music, the Mersey, the ports, governance, sunshine and culture. La Princesse roamed the streets of the city during the festivities, and concluded by entering the Queensway Tunnel.
