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Colour photo of large red brick warehouse buildings held up by red columns. The buildings overlook a body of water with a number of small boats.

We Need to Walk About Empire.

A trail exploring what Liverpool’s buildings tell us about the city's links to the British Empire.

Historic England Education. Liverpool Hope & John Moores University. International Slavery Museum.

Did you know that Liverpool used to be called the ‘second city of the empire’ after London? This heritage trail will highlight Liverpool’s role in the British Empire and show you the impact that it had on the city, which can still be seen in its buildings and monuments today.

  • View the map below to explore the location of each of the sites on the trail.
  • Click on the numbered markers on the map below to explore an overview of each site.
  • Click on the tabs at the top of the page to explore each site in more detail.

The StoryMap is designed primarily for use in the Key Stage 2 classroom, alongside the FREE downloadable resources in our Teaching Activity: " What can Liverpool's buildings tell us about the city's links to the British Empire? ". We strongly advise teachers to read the " Information For Teachers " document before using any of the resources in this Teaching Activity.

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A body of water with boats in the foreground and red brick buildings around the outside

Albert Dock

The Albert Dock opened in 1846 so that ships arriving from the empire could have their cargoes of cotton, tea, silk, sugar and tobacco taken directly into warehouses. Some of these goods had been produced by enslaved Africans that ships from Liverpool had taken to Caribbean and American plantations in previous decades.  

Find out more about  The Albert Dock .

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Port of Liverpool Building

The Port of Liverpool building was built in 1907 on the site of Old George’s Dock, which had become too shallow for newer ships and had been filled in. It was intended to show off the wealth of Liverpool’s docks and their importance as a “link in the chain of empire”.

Find out more about the  Port of Liverpool Building 

3

Church of Our Lady and St. Nicholas

Before Old George’s Dock was built, this churchyard backed onto the river where sailors, ship fitters and dockers worked. This is why the Church is named after St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors. Many people worshipped here, including slave traders. Liverpool’s first known black resident, Abell, was buried here in 1717.

4

Liverpool Town Hall

The town hall was built in 1759 by a group of merchants who made their fortunes through involvement with the transatlantic slave trade and other commerce within the British Empire. It has a decorative frieze on the High Street side of the building, which features elephants, lions and the faces of African people.

Find out more about  Liverpool Town Hall. 

5

Exchange Flags square and World War One Memorial

Exchange Flags was a marketplace for maritime trade, but enslaved Africans were also bought and sold here.

The memorial helps us to recall those people, from across the empire, who arrived in Liverpool on route to the fronts in France and Belgium. Many empire soldiers and nurses died helping Britain in both world wars.

 

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Water Street and Martins Bank Building

Water Street was one of Liverpool's original seven streets - the main approach from the river. It became the place for shipping lines, brokers and banks, which profited from their links with the empire, to have their premises. These connections were symbolised in the buildings, for example, in the reliefs on Martin's Bank, which opened in 1932.

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Statue of Sir Alfred Lewis Jones

Jones made his fortune importing goods from the empire through the Elder Dempster shipping line. He also represented King Leopold of Belgium's private colony in the Congo in Liverpool. Leopold used a forced labour system in the Congo that cost millions of lives, but Jones used his position to block reports that exposed these deaths.

Find out more about the  statue to Sir Alfred Lewis Jones 

The Albert Dock

The Albert Dock was built in 1846 on land that had been reclaimed from the River Mersey. Four hundred years ago, if we tried to stand where the dock is today our feet would be wet because this land was covered by the river!  

The area around the Albert Dock was not always as you see it today. Liverpool was once a tiny fishing village on the banks of the River Mersey.  However, once British explorers began to venture out into different parts of the world, from the 1500s, and to take control of the land in the name of Britain and its royal family, things began to change.

 

Large parts of Africa, Australia, Asia, and North America, and some areas of South and Central America became part of the British Empire.  By 1913, it was the biggest empire that the world has ever known. Britain ruled over more than 25%, one quarter, of the world’s total population.

As the British Empire grew, so did Liverpool, especially these areas around the banks of the River Mersey.  The River Mersey was a gateway to the British Empire.  Ships travelled from Liverpool, via the Mersey and then the Atlantic Ocean, all over the world, carrying cargo like cloth, coal and salt from Lancashire and Cheshire.

These items were sold to the people living in the British Empire; traded for cargo like sugar, tea and tobacco, which were then brought to Britain, via Liverpool, and bought by British people. 

In 1648 the first cargo of tobacco arrived in Liverpool from America on board The Friendship, which was captained by James Jenkinson.  Tobacco is used to make cigarettes and it was very popular among British people!   It was also grown on plantations by enslaved African people as part of the transatlantic slave trade.

Liverpool was growing but she was about to become even bigger, richer and more important. Why? Liverpool was to become one of the cities most heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade. 

On 3 Oct 1699 one of the first known British ships involved in the transatlantic slave trade, the Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa.  When it arrived in Africa, the crew picked up 220 African people. The ship then sailed to Barbados, where the Africans were sold into  chattel slavery . 

This was just the beginning of Liverpool’s central role in the transatlantic slave trade. This port was a start and end point for thousands of voyages by ships which forcibly transported enslaved African people to the Americas.  Here enslaved African men, women and children were made to grow crops like tobacco, sugar and cotton, working in appalling conditions, without pay. When they tried to resist their enslavement, they were severely punished.

Due to its links with the British Empire and to the transatlantic slave trade, Liverpool’s importance to trade increased. The world’s first wet dock was built here in 1715.  The dock was as big as around seventy football fields and could hold over one hundred ships! The dock meant cargo could be loaded directly on and off Liverpool trade ships, making transporting things to and from the British Empire much easier and quicker.  Before the dock was built, ships were moored in the River Mersey, and cargo was transported via small boats to and from shore. This process could take up to two weeks!

By the 1790s Liverpool was the main port in Europe used by those involved in the transatlantic slave trade. In fact, more than one in ten of all enslaved African people ever forcibly taken over the Atlantic Ocean, went in a Liverpool built or owned ship.

Even after the transatlantic slave trade was abolished (made illegal) in 1834 Liverpool continued to have an important role in trade with the British Empire.

The Albert Dock was built during the period after the abolition of slavery, in 1846. It was special because for the first-time ships could sail right up to the warehouses around the outside. This made filling or offloading ships with cargo much easier. In fact, it halved the time it usually took to unload!

Many of the structures on Albert Dock are listed buildings. Visit the  Historic England website  and search "Albert Dock" to explore them.

Further explore the  History of Albert Dock .

Port of Liverpool building

The Port of Liverpool Building was built in 1907, on the site of the old George’s Dock, which became too small and shallow for newer ships to use.  It was filled in between 1899 and 1900.

It is one of Liverpool’s Three Graces.  The other two are the Cunard Building and the Liver Building. All three were built over 50 years after the Albert Dock but, like the Albert Dock, they were used by companies that were involved in trade and travel in the British Empire.

The Port of Liverpool building was built as the new headquarters of the Mersey Dock and Harbour Board who ran Liverpool Docks.  It was intended to look grand, to show off the wealth of the docks and to show how important they were as a ‘link in the chain of empire’.

Built into the stonework of the building are lots of clues about its link with empire.

  • A globe to show how far trade stretched - all around the world - from sugar and tobacco in the Caribbean to tea from China and cotton from the Americas.

Two kinds of ships:

  • A sailing ship of the sort used to transport goods around the British Empire, as well as enslaved African people, like we spoke about at the Albert Dock.
  • A passenger ship: At this time, Liverpool was still a very important port for transporting goods, but due to its location on the Atlantic Ocean, it was also a very popular choice for British people who wanted to travel to and from other parts of the world.  More than 247,000 outbound passengers travelled through Liverpool in 1904, twice the amount of London, Southampton, and Queenstown, in New Zealand, combined.  The Cunard Building next door was in fact built in 1914 as the headquarters for the Cunard shipping line and as a passenger terminal for those travelling on Cunard liners.

The Port of Liverpool Building is a listed building. Explore the  list entry .

Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas

This is the Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas. There has been a church on this site for over 800 years. Before the George’s Dock was built the churchyard of the Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas backed directly onto the river. The people that worked around here and who visited this church, were mostly sailors, ship workers, and dockers. This is why the church is named after St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors. To this day, the church maintains strong links with the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy.

At the top of the church tower, there is a gold ship!  As the Church tower was so tall, it was visible to the people leaving the port to travel around the empire and was one of the first things they saw when they arrived back.

Many of Liverpool's merchants were buried at this church, including men like Bryan Blundell, who became rich from his involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.  Blundell also became the Mayor of Liverpool and founded the Blue Coat School for orphaned and destitute boys. Lessons taught at Blue Coat included training in the kinds of skills that were needed in the shipping trade.  Some pupils became seamen after they left the school.

Some of the earliest black residents of Liverpool are also buried at the Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas, including. In fact, there has been a black community in Liverpool since at least the 1720s, which makes it one of the oldest in Europe.  In this churchyard, there is a commemorative plaque in the ground to recognise the burial place of an enslaved man known only as Abell. He was buried here in 1717, but the stone was only laid in 2020. He was the first known black resident of Liverpool.

The Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas is a listed building. Explore the  list entry .

Liverpool Town Hall

Liverpool Town Hall was built in 1759, as the offices of the Mayor of Liverpool, and other important local officials.  It was paid for by a group of merchants who made their fortunes through involvement with the transatlantic slave trade, and other trades linked to the British Empire. All the mayors of Liverpool between 1787 and 1807 were involved in the transatlantic slave trade. 

The building's connections to the empire can be seen on the side of the building.  The artwork features elephants, lions, crocodiles, and faces of African people. There are also golden pineapples hidden in the railings! Pineapples came from countries that were part of Britain’s empire. They were considered an exotic fruit and were something only rich people could afford.

The town hall is where Liverpool sometimes celebrated its imperial links. For example, as part of the British Empire Exhibition, held in London in 1924-25 to showcase of the power of British Empire, Liverpool council held its own celebration. This decision was ‘prompted by a desire to uphold the dignity of Liverpool amongst the greatest cities of the Empire’.

Liverpool Town Hall is a listed building. Find out more about its history, architecture and its links with the transatlantic slave trade, and other imperial trades, on the  list entry for Liverpool Town Hall.  

Exchange Flag Square and War Memorial

Exchange Flags was once an area where merchants gathered to buy and sell their goods.  It is named “Exchange Flags” because people swapped, or exchanged, “business cards” here that had the flag of their ship on them. There is also printed evidence to show that sales of enslaved African people happened in this area.

Exchange Flags has also been used as a place to celebrate the empire in Liverpool. For example, in 1935, during the Silver Jubilee of King George V, a mime play called ‘The Land of Everywhere’ was staged in Exchange Flags. The play invited the audience ‘to journey ….to the outposts of empire…. (and explore) the glories of our great dominion’.

Located on Exchange Flags is a memorial to those who fought and died during the First World War.  People from across the British Empire took on a variety of roles to support the war effort and thousands of them sadly lost their lives. Many service men and women from the British Empire, arrived in Liverpool on their way to fight. From Canada alone, white, black, and indigenous Canadian men and women arrived to serve in the armed forces as soldiers, messengers, and nurses. One example is Edith Monture, who was from the indigenous Mohawk tribe in Canada. She trained as a nurse in the United States and arrived in Liverpool in 1918. She then travelled to France to care for injured soldiers. Another example is Alexander Decoteau, a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation of Saskatchewan.  He was Canada’s first Indigenous police officer and a successful athlete, competing in the 5,000m race at the 1912 Olympics. Decoteau arrived in Liverpool in November 1916, before travelling to France where he used his speed as a messenger.  He was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele on 30 October 1917.

The Exchange Buildings and the area around it, including the war memorial, are listed. Explore the  list entry .

Water Street and Martins Bank Building

Water Street was one of Liverpool’s original seven streets.  Many of the banks that were founded here, and that had premises down this street, made their money from the empire and shipping. There are buildings called New Zealand House, India House, West Africa House, and Colonial House.

On the corner of Water Street is the Martins Bank building.  Banks had, for a long time, been linked to the transatlantic slave trade in Liverpool, but this building was built in 1932 when the Bank of Liverpool merged with Martins Bank. Even though the building was built almost 100 years after the transatlantic slave trade had ended, the architect, Herbert Rowse, included stone carvings that are reminders of the transatlantic slave trade.

One of the entrances to the Martins Bank building includes carvings of African children, who have leg braces attached to their ankles. These resemble the implements used to restrain enslaved people.

In recent years some Liverpudlians have been campaigning for the carvings to be removed.  Other people believe that the carvings should remain but that there should be an explanation, telling people more about Liverpool’s links with the transatlantic slave trade.

Explore other buildings with links to empire and the transatlantic slave trade in Liverpool on a  map created by the International Slavery Museum .

Alfred Lewis Jones Memorial Statue

This is a memorial that was erected in 1913 and dedicated to Alfred Lewis Jones (1845-1909).  The statue features lots of things that tell us about Jones’ life.

Alfred Lewis Jones was born in South Wales in 1845. He moved to Liverpool and began working for the African Steamship Company aged 12. He eventually became the head of the Elder Dempster shipping company.   You can see ships on the side and top of the monument.

The Elder Dempster company transported goods, such as cloth, salt, rubber, cocoa and even fruit, such as bananas! You can also see bowls of fruit on the monument. 

In 1898 Jones opened the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool because hundreds of people, including his staff, were falling ill from unknown diseases when they travelled abroad. This school was the first place in the world to research and teach about tropical medicine. 

Jones and his shipping company did a lot of trade with West Africa, including places that were part of the British Empire. Jones was also friends with King Leopold II of Belgium who personally ruled the Congo State in central Africa. King Leopold was cruel to the people of Congo, forcing them to work as rubber farmers and silver miners to make money for himself. If Leopold’s men thought the workers were not working hard enough, they would punish them by chopping their hands off, or even killing them. If the workers tried to hide or escape, he would inflict those punishments on their children instead. Leopold also ordered his men to kidnap children to work, or to become soldiers.

Edmund Morel, a young worker for Jones’s shipping company, realised that the company was helping to send weapons to Congo, which were then used, by Leopold's men, to attack and enslave the Congolese people. Morel raised his concerns with his bosses, including Alfred Lewis Jones. He was offered money to keep quiet but instead decided to leave the company and for many years he campaigned to end the violence he had uncovered.

The Alfred Lewis Jones monument is listed. Explore the  list entry .