Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 2

The ‘Fab Four’

The most popular backdrop to ’selfies’ in Liverpool is undoubtedly the bronze statue of

the Beatles at the Pier Head on the waterfront.  You can visit many of the sites

associated with the Beatles, there is a Beatles Experience Museum, several themed

walks and tours, and of course the music. Oldies (like me!) can relive the ‘swinging

sixties’, while youngsters can get a feel for why their Mums, Dads and grandparents

went wild about these four Liverpool lads. 

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​​​​​Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 3

The Tragedy of the Arandora Star

A monument on the Liverpool waterfront commemorates a sad event in the history of

the city, one that will have particular poignancy for Italian and German colleagues 
The ‘Arandora Star’ was originally a luxury liner. She was re-purposed during WW2 and

set sail from Liverpool in July 1940 with over 1600 passengers and crew on board.

The passengers were mainly civilians, Italian and German nationals living in the UK

at the outbreak of war who had been detained and interned. Many were elderly and

infirm. They were being transported to internment camps in Canada. Grossly

overcrowded and with few lifeboats, the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland

and more than 800 lives were lost. Bodies were washed up on beaches for months

afterwards; many of the victims are buried in coastal graveyards in Ireland and Scotland.
You can see a model of the Arandora Star at the Maritime Museum, a short walk from the conference centre.

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 4

'Back-to-back' houses

This terrace in Duke Street Liverpool boasts modern urban apartments much sought-after

by young professionals who like to live and work in the heart of the city. Their sleek

external appearance belies their origins. They were built in the nineteenth century as

‘back-to-back’ houses, so called because the houses behind were mirror images,

separated by a wall, so that there was only one combined entrance and exit for each

house. Housing and sanitation conditions for the poor in nineteenth and early twentieth

century Liverpool were shocking. Fire was an ever-present danger. Each of these

doors would have served up to four families, one per floor, with the worst living conditions

in the basement or ‘cellar’. Two outside toilets or ‘privies’ and one water pump would have provided for the whole terrace. Diphtheria, cholera, typhoid and dysentery were commonplace. Infant mortality rates were among the worst in the UK, prompting major reforms in public health policies.

Most ‘slum dwellings’ were demolished from the nineteen fifties onwards, but a small number -such as these- were modernized and converted in an urban renewal programme. Duke Street is now home to many fine restaurants which delegates can visit in May 2023.

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​​​Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 5

Liverpool's 'Baltic triangle'

Liverpool has long and much cherished links with the Baltic countries. In the heyday of the city

as a major port, ships from Northern Europe would unload their cargo here. Dockside

warehouses housed grain, wood and other merchandise from Northern Europe. As the

shipping industry declined, some of the old storehouses fell into disrepair, but an enthusiastic

urban renewal project in the last few years has brought the area back to life. It is now a ‘hip’

quarter, and home to craft shops, artisan bakeries, cafes, restaurants and art studios. The

warehouse walls are a favoured site for graffiti and an ever-changing variety of street art.

The Baltic Triangle is a short walk from the conference centre. All that education can be thirsty work, so take some time out to enjoy a craft beer!

 

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​Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 6

The Chinese Arch

We Liverpudlians are proud of our historical association with Chinese friends and colleagues.

The Chinese Arch in Liverpool marks the entrance to ‘Chinatown’, home to the oldest Chinese

neighborhood in Europe. The arch was gifted to the city of Liverpool by Shanghai, where it was put

together by skilled craftsmen and women. It boasts two hundred dragons, five roofs and two magnificent

bronze lions, positioned in accordance with the principles of ‘Feng-Shui’. The arch commemorates long

and much-prized trade and cultural associations between the cities.

Chinese dock workers arrived in Liverpool in the early nineteenth century, when they traded silk and

cotton goods. The Blue Funnel shipping line employed large numbers of Chinese seamen. Inevitably

many succumbed to the charms of the local Liverpool women! A strong and much-loved community soon

developed, and several Chinese businesses thrive to this day.

Chinatown is a short walk from the Conference Centre. Well worth a visit when you attend ESPO in the Chinese ‘year of the rabbit’, 2023!

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 7

Roots, Rock, Reggae
The two metre statue of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley in the Baltic Triangle, Liverpool is the work

of local sculptor Andy Edwards, widely known for his iconic statue of the ‘Beatles’ (Fab Four) on the

waterfront. The work celebrates Marley and his message of love, peace and emancipation, but it is a

reminder too of the influence that musicians of African- and particularly Caribbean- heritage had on the

emerging popular music scene in Europe in the ‘fifties and ‘sixties. Paul McCartney has always

acknowledged the debt the Beatles owe to early pioneers such as Harold Phillips (1925-2000) who

settled in Liverpool and popularized calypso music in the post-war years. Phillips (nicknamed ‘Lord

Woodbine’) arrived in Britain as an emigre from Trinidad in 1948. Part of the first wave Caribbean

immigrants, he sailed on the celebrated ‘Windrush’ ship, and soon found work as a singer/guitarist and

music promoter in the Liverpool clubs. Here he came in contact with the young Lennon and McCartney

and arranged gigs for them in local venues. Lord Woodbine drove the Beatles to Hamburg in his

Volkswagen mini-bus in 1960 for their first overseas concert, where he played on stage with them as they

were enthusiastically welcomed by a young German following.
Check out some ‘positive vibrations’ in Liverpool at ESPO 2023
In the words of Bob Marley, ‘let’s join together and a-feel alright!’

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 8

Liverpool Medical Institute

The grand bow-fronted portico of the Liverpool Medical Institute recalls the glorious libraries

and seats of learning of ancient Greece. It was designed by local architect Clark Rampling

during a period when the ‘Greek revival’ style was in vogue and opened in 1837 as a library

and meeting place for local physicians and surgeons. This was not well received by the local

population, who not long before had engaged in fearsome rioting (the 1832 Cholera riots),

attacking a hospital and setting upon medical men who were widely thought to be sending

patients to their deaths in the fever wards so that they could use the corpses for dissection!

Much of this ill-feeling was stoked by a notorious local criminal case in 1826. Three casks

were found on Liverpool docks, labelled ‘Bitter Salts’ in readiness for transportation to the

medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland. On inspection, the casks were found to contain eleven corpses, and were traced to a cellar in the city where a further twenty-two corpses, injected and prepared for dissection, were stored. Two ‘body-snatchers’ were convicted, and distrust of medical men grew.

Surgery was particularly fraught, with huge mortality, often due to sepsis. The surgeons- all men- who operated gloveless in their blood-stained overcoats, caked with pus and exudate from the previous patient and prided themselves on their refusal to wash their hands between cases - were slow to adopt the teachings of Semmelweis in Hungary and Lister in Scotland on the need for asepsis.

The site of the Institute, at the end of Hope Street and immediately opposite the workhouse, where impoverished and destitute paupers could see the physicians and surgeons in their frock-coats and silk hats descend from their grand carriages on-route to medical meetings- fueled more resentment.

The Institute now houses a beautifully preserved Victorian lecture theatre (still in use, although the gas lamps have been converted to electric bulbs), a wonderful collection of rare medical books and a variety of surgical instruments dating back to its early days.

Don’t be alarmed, visiting doctors at ESPO 2023 will be warmly welcomed by Liverpudlians!

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 9

A Case History

 

The art installation on Hope Street by sculptor John King depicts a series of suitcases, hatboxes,

trunks and guitar cases, each inscribed with the name of a famous Liverpudlian. The work evokes

Liverpool’s history as a port, a site of both emigration and immigration. The great liners that

crossed the Atlantic would have ferried thousands of such cases between Liverpool and the ports

on the east side of North America and beyond. The ‘Hope Street Suitcases’ as they are known are

in the heart of the Georgian Quarter, where you can enjoy some of the best restaurants and bars

in the city. The building just behind is where the somewhat unruly pupils John Lennon, Paul

McCartney and George Harrison went to school. A few of the bars they frequented are nearby.

See if you can find their luggage when you visit!

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 10

Canada's Liverpool Children

Liverpool boasts some of the grandest and most spectacular nineteenth century buildings in the UK, but there are many reminders of the appalling poverty, overcrowding and ill-health that was the lot of the Victorian poor. Maternal and infant mortality indices were among the worst in Europe; infectious diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and tuberculosis took their toll on children and young parents. Despite the huge wealth of many of the merchants and ship-owners, destitute orphans roamed the streets, begging for food.

A group of well-to-do philanthropists established the ‘Sheltering Home for Destitute Children’ in the late nineteenth century and appointed Louisa Birt, a Scottish woman who had worked as an activist to support children and widows in London, as superintendent.

Under Louisa Birt’s care, the ‘Sheltering Home’ housed, fed and educated orphaned children, teaching them skills such as carpentry for the boys and laundry work for the girls. They were prepared for emigration to Canada. A sister home in Quebec received over six thousand Liverpool children who were settled with Canadian families or given employment until the practice petered out at the outbreak of the first world war. Many Canadians can trace their ancestry to this time.

The building in Myrtle Street is now used by the University. It is adjacent to the old ‘Children’s Hospital’ which was the early precursor of our modern children’s hospital, opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2014. If you get a ‘senior’ taxi driver when you arrive in Liverpool, he may remember having a tonsillectomy in the old Myrtle Street Children’s Hospital, a pioneering centre for pediatric surgery and anaesthesia.

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 11
The 'Royal Liver' Building
Many of the city’s hotels have terraces with magnificent views across the Mersey estuary.

The ‘Royal Liver’ building here with its two clock towers and the mythical ‘Liver Birds’ on the

spires has graced the waterfront since its construction in 1911 to house offices of the Royal

Liver Assurance Company. At nearly one hundred metres tall, and one of the first buildings

to be made of reinforced concrete it was hailed as a ‘skyscraper’ in the local press at the

time.

The ‘liver birds’ have become recognizable emblems of the city. Legend has it that one is

male - Bertie - and is looking toward the city to see if the bars are open; while one is female

- Bella - and she is looking out on the river to see if she can spot any handsome sailors

coming in to port.

They were crafted in granite by the Bromsgrove Guild, a company very much to the fore in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement in design during the early twentieth century. The original design was by Carl Bernard Bartels, a sculptor and wood-carver from Stuttgart. Legend has it that if the birds take flight, the city of Liverpool will disappear.

Don’t fret, they are well anchored, and will be very much in evidence when delegates visit in May 2023.

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 12
Liverpool 'Ropewalks' and the 'Bridewell'
The ancient craft of ropemaking was based in the ‘Ropewalks’ quarter of the city.

The streets are long and narrow, so that the ropemakers could pay out the ropes as

they twisted them and prepared them for the ships. Warehouses on either side of the

streets housed products such as tea, tobacco, and rum that had been loaded from

the nearby docks. Many of the old warehouses have been carefully restored and

re-purposed and are now home to chic craft shops, bistros, and gastro-pubs.

In the nineteenth century the area was notorious for its taverns and houses of ill-repute.

One reminder of that time is the ‘Bridewell’ or prison lock-up, where errant sailors

who had partaken of too much rum were arrested and detained. The ‘Bridewell’ is

now a popular bar serving top quality local craft beers. The windows, for obvious

reasons, are a little small! A plaque inside commemorates the visit of novelist

Charles Dickens, who enrolled as a special constable here to give him a better insight

into the criminal underworld which he depicted so faithfully in his works. Modern day

fare is rather better than the inmates would have had in days gone by, and ESPO

delegates who choose to relax at the Bridwell after a long day at the academic

sessions are assured they can leave of their own free will!

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 13
Saint Luke’s, the ‘Bombed-Out Church’

One of our best recognized landmarks and meeting points is a stark reminder of the

devastation that Liverpool, along with so many European cities, suffered in WW2.

Once a parish church and a magnificent gothic structure famous for its stained-glass

windows, its bell-tower and ornate plaster work, it was destroyed in the ‘May Blitz’ in 1941.

The ruins burned and smouldered for days, leaving only the masonry shell intact.

For many years after the war the roofless remains were left as a memorial to the dead.

The interior became derelict and was soon overgrown with weeds and trees. The site

has been much improved in recent years and has become a centre for arts, culture,

garden parties and celebratory events.

The statue in the garden - ‘All together now’ – is by local sculptor Andy Edwards,

and recalls the famous ‘Christmas Truce’ in WW1 when soldiers on each side of the

trenches suspended fighting to play a game of football.

Now a symbol of hope and renewal, St. Luke’s (www.slboc.com) is a short walk from the waterfront along Bold Street, a lively thoroughfare with some of the city’s finest 19th century shop-front facades.

The garden bar and café are good spots if you need a break from all the academia!
 

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 14

The Hahnemann Hospital

Situated in the heart of the city’s Georgian Quarter, this spectacular building in Hope Street, with

its airy windows and distinctive tall chimneys, was completed in 1887 and gifted to the people of

Liverpool by the wealthy merchant Sir Henry Tate. Sugar refineries that processed the raw cane

brought to the port from the sugar plantations in the Caribbean were the source of great wealth

for many Liverpool merchants, of whom Tate was the best known.

Originally a hospital dedicated to the principles of homeopathy, for which Sir Henry was a strong

enthusiast, the building was a wonder of its time and, apart from the distinctive heating and

ventilation system, was the first in Britain to have hydraulic elevators.

It was called the Hahnemann Hospital to honour the founder of homeopathy, Christian Hahnemann.

Born in Meissen near Dresden in 1755, Hahnemann studied medicine in Leipzig, Vienna and

Erlangen, and worked for a period in Sibiu, Romania as personal physician to the Governor of

Transylvania, Samuel von-Brukenthal. It was during his time in Romania that Hahnemann

developed his theories of ‘treating like with like’.

The hospital was taken over by the newly established national health service in Britain in 1947 and

continued to serve the people of Liverpool until the nineteen seventies. It is now used as

accommodation for students.

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Ray's Rambles Blog - Post 15

The Anglican Cathedral

Liverpool’s skyline boasts two magnificent cathedrals - one to serve the Roman Catholic

population and one for the Anglican community.

The Anglican Cathedral is the venue for our ESPO networking event. Seventy years in

construction, it was completed as recently as 1978 and is one of the finest Gothic Revival

buildings in Britain. Amidst the splendid sculptures and the awesome stained-glass windows

in the nave, you will find a red telephone box. This is a reminder that the young architect,

Gilbert Scott, who won a competition to design the Cathedral, also won fame as the designer

of the red telephone boxes that were such a symbol of Britain and were found on every street corner in the days before mobile phones!

Among the many luminaries buried in the nearby cemetery is Catherine (‘Kitty’) Wilkinson, the ‘Saint of the Slums’. Kitty was a widow living in abject poverty during the cholera epidemic of 1832. Understanding - long before many doctors did - the importance of disinfecting bedding, and one of the few who had a boiler in her home, she opened her kitchen to the women of Liverpool so they could have clean bedding, bringing about a dramatic reduction in mortality from cholera. With Dr. Henry Duncan, an early public health doctor, she went on to open public wash-houses where the poor could wash their clothes. Thus Liverpool paved the way for public baths and washing facilities which became commonplace all over Europe. She was presented with a silver teapot by Queen Victoria. Her gravestone reads:

CATHERINE WILKINSON. Died 11 November 1860, aged 73. Indefatigable and self-denying. She was the Widow's friend. The support of the Orphan. The fearless and unwearied nurse of the sick. The originator of Baths and Wash-houses for the poor.

The medical students recently voted to name one of their lecture rooms in her memory.

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