Yes, the 'Old Dock' was constructed in the bed of the tributary river- 'the Pool'- that curved round from the site of Canning Place, along today's Paradise Street and Whitechapel, where, at its head, the land was little more than a swamp. Whitechapel, in fact, was called Frog Lane "the strains from which (creatures) ever rose at dusk and did never cease till dawn".
The Williamson family drained this swamp when they laid out the square that still bears their name around 1700 but it is said that flooding was common in the area for years afterwards and that damp conditions prevailed in the cellars along Whitechapel and Paradise Street until fairly recent times..
There was a degree of criticism when the Old Dock was formed a few years later, many saying that, instead of creating just one dock, the course of the old Pool should instead have been excavated, deepened and widened and wharves created all along it, as was later the case in Bristol. This would have produced the remarkable effect of shipping coming right into the old town and their masts rising above the surrounding houses and shops- a wonderful concept!
Perhaps, too, such a splendid feature would not have been so casually done away with as was the case with the Old Dock and the new buildings rising all around the area today would have been wonderfully complemented bt this waterway running through their midst.
As it is, I agree that it is utterly unpardonable that the Old Dock was not not re-excavated as part of the redevelopment, as it so very easily could have been- a monument not just of major importance in Liverpool's history, but of that of Britain and beyond, for it set the standard for the way things would be done in the future and thus and changed the history of the world.
But that's the Grosvenors for you. Go here-
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http://www.chesterwalls.info/newgate.html
- th learn how they trashed the largest and most completely preserved Roman bath house complex in Britain to erect their ghastly Grosvenor Precinct in the heart of Chester.
I agree, also, that the Customs House could easily have been restored. It suffered the same fate as the Museum- gutted by incendiaries, true, but with its shell complete and relatively undamaged. The Museum was wonderfully restored so why not the Customs House? What would it serve as today, as a centrepiece of Liverpool's world-reknowned waterfront buildings? A gallery, museum, civic centre, concert hall... who knows? It's too bad.
http://www.chesterwalls.info/gallery/customs.html
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