This map is on display at the Maritime Museum, though this version is a different one (and, dare I say it, a better one? ;)). It comes from the British Library's collection, which they've shared on Flickr. Re-use and attribution: https://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2024/04/curious-about-using-public-domain-british-library-flickr-images.html
Click the buttons with this icon to zoom to that part of the map.
Horwood's is one of the most detailed early maps on this website. Perhaps the most detailed. It has the outlines of individual buildings - even those no bigger than a house - and they are numbered.
Numbered addresses around Thomas StreetThis is still an age when transport was only affored by the well-off, and so almost everybody had to live within a short distance of their job. Or their job was carried out from home, and so home had to be accessible to its customers. Though we shouldn't look too deeply into these decisions - there simply wasn't the idea of zoning or suburbs in the way we'd think of them today.
The centre of industry was the Old Dock - already named as such but still in use. It sits pride of place in the centre of Liverpool, where the old Pool once ran, between the 'Old Dry Basin' (Canning Dock) and the Satlhouse Dock.
Old Dock and the central dock landscapeA notable feature of the south central part of the town are the roperies. Between Sparling and Crosbie Street, for example, there are three roperies. They belong to Messrs B&T Greetham, Mr Priestman, and Mr Molyneux. The roperies were long plots of land which were long enough to allow the plaiting and winding of ropes, and they've had a lasting effect on the city's landscape, particularly in areas near the river. These long plots are the origin of the long streets not only as just mentioned, but Bold Street too (where Mr Stanforth's and Messrs Johnson and Machells Roperies are labelled on this map).
RoperiesTo a historian investigating the expansion of Liverpool, this is a fascinating map. Although the landscape would already be made up of layers built upon earlier layers, there had never been any large-scale restructuring of the town. There are none of the sites we'd now call 'brown-field'. The place is compact; all land is used up. Only on the outskirts do things have room to breathe, and this is almost literally true as the wealthy sought escape from the crowding and smells of industry. You have to go out south-east, beyond Rodney Street, to find the large houses of the likes of Messrs Corrie, Penny and Glenton.
Large houses on the outskirtsIf the streets of Liverpool are becoming crowded, and the problems of urbanisation beginning to show, then the framework of public support systems is in evidence already. Up on Brownlow Hill we see the workhouse.
Brownlow Hill workhouseAnd there are almshouses just to the south of that.
Almshouses near Hope StreetCloser to the centre is the Infirmary and its large gardens, on the site today taken up by St. George's Hall. It's interesting how these public buildings live cheek-by-jowel with industry, as Mr Coventry's ropery runs between the Infirmary and St. John's Church on St. John's Lane.
Infirmary, Ropery and ChurchAs if to remind us that this map was made in the early days of industry, we can see the Leeds & Liverpool Canal snaking into the northern edge of town through a largely rural hinterland. It ends in a north Liverpool still mostly taken up with slightly larger premises, having been the place to escape to if you had the money. But already Mr Clark and Mr Blundell have built their coal yards here, near Webster's Brass Foundry, and someday soon this will be a much more industrial place around Leeds Street.
This is also where Liverpool's 'New Gaol' is, linking the industries with the 'industry' of incarceration, on the edge of town.
Leeds & Liverpool Canal and New GaolAll in all this is a key map in tracking the expansion of Liverpool as it really begins to boom. Already in place are some of the key landmarks which would shape the form of the landscape for centuries to come.
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