Tag: Liverpool

This ticket is on display at the Museum of Liverpool and I thought that it was one of the most powerful items that they are currently exhibiting. It’s already inevitably an emotional reminder of the 97 people who lost their lives at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, a tragedy where so many lost their lives just because they wanted to watch football.

However, this ticket is even more poignant as it belonged to Andrew Sefton, a 23 year old who had travelled to Sheffield with four friends to watch the match. He was in pen three of the Leppings Lane end stand and he lost his life in the tragedy. Sefton’s favourite football player was Tottenham’s Gary Mabbutt and he attended the funeral on behalf of the club. The BBC have some more information and final pictures of Sefton at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-34452149.

This poster dates to 1947 and called for the nationalisation of the docks, which wasn’t an unreasonable demand given that the new Labour Government had started on a widespread process of bringing services under public control. I have limited knowledge of employment practices at the docks after World War Two, but casualisation was still a thing at this point, namely that workers weren’t guaranteed a fixed wage as there were multiple companies employing port workers at the time. It wasn’t until the 1960s and the Devlin Report that it was agreed that the port would guarantee hours, or instead pay a top-up payment, and the unions would drop some of their restrictive practices.

Shirley Williams said in the House of Commons in May 1966:

“As the House may recall, this goes back to the Report by Lord Devlin’s Committee of Inquiry last year. That Report was generally recognised as a major landmark in the troubled history of labour relations in the docks. Its basic recommendation was that the time had come to put an end to the present casual system of employing dock workers. Of course, the dock labour scheme as we now have it was a considerable advance on the completely casual conditions which existed before the war.

The present scheme does not go far enough. The majority of dock workers are still engaged on a daily basis. They may be working for a different employer every day of the week and their earnings are likely to fluctuate substantially from week to week. As the Devlin Report showed, it is impossible in these conditions to build up stable labour relations or to secure progressive and efficient management. It is to the credit of both sides of the industry that they immediately accepted the main recommendations of the Devlin Report.”

Dotted around Liverpool are these Superlambananas, smaller versions of a much larger artwork on display in the city. These two are located outside the Museum of Liverpool and were my favourite two designs, for obvious reasons for anyone who listens to me droning on about how great Poland Ukraine are. There were 124 of these mini versions placed throughout Liverpool between June to August 2008, most of which are still on display in some shape or form.

Decked out in the colours of the Polish national flag.

Slava Ukraini.

I’ve visited this historic venue before, but its interior is of note and so I thought I would surprise and delight the group by taking them here. It takes its name from the Philharmonic Hall which is diagonally opposite and it was constructed between 1898 and 1900 for the Cains Brewery. Robert Cains had done well, he had started his business in 1858 at a young age by buying a pub and brewing his own beer, with over 200 pubs in the empire by the end of the century. On that subject, we visited the former brewery site during this weekend, but more on that later. Incidentally, these metal Art Nouveau gates are apparently one of the best examples in the country.

It’s a Grade I listed building and designed to be part of the Gin Palace design of pubs which were constructed in the late Victorian period. Many original features remain, including the marble counters and the mahogany fireplaces.

It’s a Nicholson’s pub, so I wasn’t overly excited in advance at the beer options. They had four real ales, but all a little generic. In fairness to Nicholson’s, the pub is reasonably well reviewed and so clearly most customers are happy with the whole arrangement. Although they did upset one customer who commented:

“Unfortunately the staff knew little to nothing about beer and couldn’t pour a pint, I felt embarrassed for them! I’ve never seen a pint pulled in such a way..”

I was humoured by the pub’s answer:

“It seems as though you are referring to a new member of the team who had been learning how to work on a bar as they never had before. I don’t think embarrassment is the emotion in this situation, but patience and empathy as alternatives”.

I went for half a pint of the Tribute from St. Austell Brewery, a reliable beer and it was well-kept and at the appropriate temperature.

For those who don’t want to enter through the decadent gates, there’s also another entrance with a suitable amount of character with its mosaic floor.

There’s perhaps a need for some restoration to parts of the building, but it still hasn’t lost its grandeur.

The highlight for Bev, who wandered off to get permission from staff to have a little look in, was the male toilets with their imitation marble. I make no comment, but she doesn’t get out much. I think that the group were impressed at our surroundings and Steve was busy taking photographs for other groups in the pub, but he’s very social like that.

This is a delightful pub, although it is part of a national chain and there’s perhaps nothing particularly exceptional about the food or drink. However, the service was friendly, the beer was well kept and there was no shortage of history in the building. Probably more of a venue for visitors to the city, but recommended for those who haven’t been and want to see a fine Victorian pub building.