Buildings on Bath Street, 1811
Buildings on Bath Street, by George Anthony, titlted 'The Site of Regent's Dock, Liverpool', 1811.
This was the Mersey shoreline, its wharfs, buildings and trade before the construction of Princes Dock (Regent's Dock) started in 1810. It opened 11 years later on the day of the Prince Regent's coronation (George IV) in 1821.
It looks like W.G. Herdman had used George Anthony's painting as a reference for his own work, an imagined view of the 'The Old Baths', in 1843. The baths were demolished sometime between 1810-1821, following the construction of the dock. W.G. Herdman (1805–1882) may have remembered seeing or visiting the baths as a child?
W.G. Herdman added-in details such as - fencing for the open-air baths and their watertank. He also removed the foreshoreline and the boats moored up on the wharfs. It does raise the question of why he needed to do this, as the original painting was probably done insitu or from sketches made insitu, when the baths were still there?
Perhaps the foreshore was the base of the fort which was taken down with the construction of Princes Dock?
The Site of the Regent's Dock in Liverpool, (Princes Dock), 1811, by George Anthony
http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0466d144.jpg
The Old Baths, 1843, by Herdman
http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscbe45a6a.jpg
Thomas Kaye's map of Liverpool, 1810.
The outline of the old fort is shown within the soon to be constructed Princes Dock. This, I think, is the same quay foreground in the 1811 painting, where the people are standing.
http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbc7ffc5b.jpg
