Liverpool was first recognised as a town with the charter granted in 1207 by King John. King John, while in the North West of England on a fact-finding mission, discovered a ‘pool’ or inlet. This pool, as a natural sheltered harbour, made it a suitable location for a port. Thus, King John acquired the land as a port to assist with his Irish campaigns. The name Liverpool refers to the thick, sluggish maybe reddy coloured water of the pool.

The growth of the port was initially slow. However the 18th Century saw a massive expansion. London had problems of the ‘Black Plague’ and the Great Fire; thus, the country needed a new port of discharge for cargoes. Liverpool was the obvious choice especially with its proximity to the Atlantic, and hence the New World. The first commercial wet dock in the world was Canning Dock, built in Liverpool in 1715.

Trade passing through the port of Liverpool was varied, the city often deemed as the ’Gateway to the Empire’. Throughout the 18th Century strong trade ties linked Liverpool with the West Indies, North America, Africa and Europe. By the 19th Century trade with India and China was also important.

The growth of trade and thus jobs in Liverpool brought massive population expansion. Immigrant Irish (in massive numbers due to problems in Ireland such as the potato famine of the 1840s), Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian, Dutch, Germans and Poles all made Liverpool their home. Many of these people stayed but thousands more passed through the port on their way to the New World. Trading links with China also brought a large Chinese Community to the city. In fact Liverpool has the oldest ‘China Town’ in Europe.

Fortunes were made transporting people to the Americas and beyond. Shipping companies such as Cunard and White Star Line set up to transport these people. This exodus through Liverpool continued from the 18th Century until about the 1950s. The history of Liverpool is intrinsically linked to the fortunes of the city as a port. The port itself being reliant on world trading conditions. The vast wealth of the ship owners and merchants of Liverpool made the city very much one of contrasts. The wealthy lived in grand houses (still apparent in the Georgian houses of Toxteth and Sefton Park) and built many of the architecturally magnificent buildings throughout the city. However, there was also massive squalor in the slums. Overcrowding, malnutrition, filth and disease were commonplace, as they were in all cities of Victorian Britain.