LIVERPOOL IS CONFIDENT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 111, 3 February 1934, Page 18

LIVERPOOL IS CONFIDENT

Recent Works of Progress

Typical of Liverpool’s refusal to admit defeat in face of unfavourable conditions has been its continued development during the past t'ew years of serious trade setbacks. This Merseyside community, with a population on both sides of the estuary of about 1,250,000, has gone on pouring millions of pounds into making its seaport a worthy outlet fo.r the products of Britain’s largest industrial area—the north and midland districts of England, people by sonic 20,000,000 and producing cotton, wool, iron, steel, coal, and innumerable manufactured articles. As a shipping centre, Merseyside has suffered heavily from restriction of foreign trade. Yet confidence in a return of world prosperity has encouraged Liverpool to carry out extensive enlargements and improvements to its 40 miles of docks, rendezvous of giant liners and grimy tramps from a.ll corners of the globe. More than 100 acres.of muddy waste have been reclaimed and an insignificant: tidal stream harnessed in the service of industry. Laud alongside new wharves has been prepared to invite more industrial undertakings requiring waterside and railway facilities. To better communication between the two shores of tin' Mersey, the twin cities of Liverpool and Birkenhead have spent about £8,000,00 on a subterranean tunnel, the biggest project of its kind in Great Britain. Tlie length of the tunnel is nearly three miles, and its external diameter 4G feet 3 inches. The ruling gradient is 1 in 30, and at tlie deepest point under tlie river the bottom of the tunnel is 150 feet below high-water mark. Though whirring wheels of industry and the busy clatter of the dockyards are characteristic of Merseyside, Liverpool is proud of its reputation as a city of line buildings ( of historic landmarks, and of culture. For a time slums were a blot on the landscape of the city. They had ael cumulated with the rapid development

of the port and encouraged by the miscellaneous character of its dockside labour. In marked contrast were tlie numerous magnificent modern buildings of shipping and insurance companies, and fine civic edifices. Much demolishing of slum property has, however, been accomplished in recent years, and is now to be crowned by a £7,000,000, len-year clearance and rebuilding plan, recently announced. Unsanitary houses, totalling more than 12,000. come under the scheme, which provides for rehousing 63,000 persons in 15,692 new dwellings, one-third of them self-contained cottages in th.? suburbs. The scheme also provides tor demolition of other property not classed as unsanitary, so that reconstruction can meet town-planning requirements Liverpool’s crowning architectural feature is St. George’s Hall. A- huge festival hall is terminated at either end i by the Law Courts. St. John’s Gardens open up a wide space in front of the building. Tlie Cathedral, started in 1904 and still under construction, is notable as being the only English cathedral of the twentieth century. The architect is Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who gained the appointment in a public competition when he was only in his early twenties. ’ A notable dwelling of Merseyside,is 62 Rodney Street, birthplace and childhood home of William E. Gladstone This is but one of the “sights” which make Liverpool a favourite tourist centre. In its early days of seven centuries ago, Liverpool was a fishing village But early inhabitants were Danes who . have left their mark in place names in the surroundings. Const ruction of canals linking Liverpool with tlie inland industrial centres greatly increased the importance of the port in the eighteenth century. With the advent of steam power came even greater activity, and it was from Liverpool that in 1840 the first ocean steami ship line began to ply the Atlantic.