History
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back to earlier days

Middle Days from 1765 until 1900

Toxteth was an agricultural district of small farms for many years.  I do not have maps for this very early period but the Enclosures Act,  means that there is a very significant and clearly defined map of  the district dated 1765. ( I am working on presenting this map, but it needs a lot of work to make it usable).

This map enables us to see the limits of Toxteth Park properly.  Distinctive junctions such as the Dingle end of Park Road, the junction of Parliament Street and Lodge Lane and the latter joining Ullet Road allow us to relate the map to present day roads.  It is remarkably accurate and has been a great aid in delimiting the BOUNDARY of Toxteth Park.

In 1765 the Ancient Chapel is clearly visible on a map drawn up on behalf of the Earl of Sefton.  Also visible are the Old Pine Apple Inn and Mathers Dam all on Park Road. Closer to the city of side of Liverpool one discernable feature is a building shown as the White House, or as it was later known; Grove Cottage. This was apparently demolished as late as the 1960s when the site was recorded as ".... the patch of empty land in Mill Street between Harlow Street and Grain Street". It is just visible in the centre of this picture to the left of the now, sail-less, mill tower.

1769 was about when the first signs of industry began to appear, for in that year a request was made to the Earl of Sefton for "a spot of Ground for a Timber Yard" in Toxteth. It is interesting to note the number of timber yards still in the district, and of course, for many years the Harrington Dock was one of the most important for the shipping of timber.

1774 Parliament granted building leases to the 1st Earl of Sefton.  The intention was to develop a rectangle of land bounded by Mill Street to the West, Parliament Street to the north, Northumberland Street to the south and the river on the fourth side.
The new town was to be called Harrington in honour Countess of Sefton (daughter of the 2nd Earl of Harrington). But the name Harrington did not come into general use.  The new town was laid out by a local builder, Cuthbert Brisbrown on a grid system, with intersecting, wide, straight streets. The basic grid plan and many of the streets, though not the properties, survive to this day. One of Brisbrown’s earliest buildings was St James' Church (at the junction of Mill Street, Stanhope Street and St. James' Place). Work started on this brick-built church in 1774 and it opened for worship in 1775. Although dilapidated, this still stands in 2005.

1784 Most of the land was still under the control of the Earl of Sefton, and in the Court Roll of this year is a list of the officers elected on Thursday 22nd July 1784 to "represent and inquire on behalf of the Lord of the Manor, Sir Charles William Molyneux, Baronet, Earl of Sefton."

1767 Charles Roe's Copper works : Charles Roe & Co was established in 1767 in Sparling Street near Kings Dock (for Sparling Street see map 0z) and supplied copper and brass goods and equipment, including manillas, for trading in Africa. The business had smelters and a small purpose-built dock on premises at the bottom of Wellington Road  but in 1793 Roe and Company removed their business from the site and in 1794 this advert appeared in Gore's Liverpool General Advertiser on August 14th 1794, offering the premises for sale.

The site of Roe's Copper works was taken over by what was to eventually become the area's most famous industry; The Herculaneum Pottery. The pottery was established by Richard Abbey.  In 1796 the business was sold to Messrs. Worthington, Humble and Holland.  These men brought to Toxteth a group of Staffordshire potters and their families, under the guidance of a skilled thrower, Archibald Mansfield from Burslem. There is more on the pottery below under the 1833 heading.

1800 onwards saw Toxteth grow rapidly, its population went from 24,000 in 1831, to 60,000 by 1850 and 136,000 by 1900. The growth of the Lancashire mills and factories put huge trade through Liverpool.  The expansion of the dock system to accommodate this trade, led to an influx of casual labour and thousands more settled in Liverpool as a result of the Irish famines of the 1840s and the development of Liverpool as a leading emigrant port. 

1803 Part of Mill Street was built, although it did not extend as far as it does today, and it ended before it reached the site of what was to become St. Cleopas Church. At that time the narrow part which reached Beresford Road was called Wellington Place.

1810 the Mersey Forge was founded by Mr. Ralph Clay.  There was a volunteer corps belonging to The Forge known as the Regimental VIII or more popularly as Clay's Artillery, and its H.Q. was in some sheds at the bottom of Beresford Road. The Sefton Barracks were built in Windsor Street in 1871 as the new headquarters of the 8th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers, formed in 1859 from  these workers at the Mersey Forge.

1811 An advertisement in Gore's Advertiser, kindly sent by Caryl Williams, offers for sale by auction, 13 acres of Toxteth Park, for the purpooses of the construction of the township of Harrington. It mentions streets "intended to be called Bedford Street, Grafton Street, Stanhope Street, Hill Street, Warwick Street, Northumberland Street, and  Sefton Street. This refers to a lease granted in 1774 - see above.

Also around this same time parcels of land at the Dingle end of toxteth were being auctioned or sold and streets such as Byles Street (then called Whitfield Street) and the as yet unverified Whitley Street nearby were being developed. This advert from the Liverpool Mercury of December 1811 and speaksof the intended streets.


1820 Scotts Mill - the old mill of W.O. and J. Wilson was shown as being occupied by William Willacy in 1820 although it was apparently much older than this. On a map of 1835 the mill is shown as belonging to a Mrs. Scott and it was long known as 'Scott's Mill', this Mrs Scott being the third in a line of legatees of a lease of the   "three lives plus" type'.

1826  Park Street was developed in 1826 and the area bounded by Park Street, Mill Street, Northumberland Street and Park Road, including Essex Street and Prophet Street, was laid a Welsh doctor, John Hughes. He made extensive purchases from the Earl of Sefton and covered the area with a dense mass of houses of a very low quality.

1833 - the Herculaneum Pottery company was dissolved, the stock was sold off and the property was let to Case and Mort, who continued the business until 1836. After this it was held by Mort and Simpson who manufactured until the pottery finally closed in 1841.

1835 Toxteth Park was now bounded by Liverpool and the townships of West Derby, Wavertree and Garston. Its western side was the River Mersey. It was an extra parochial township and in 1835 under the terms of the Municipal Corporation Act ('An Act to provide for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales'), 9th September 1835, the nearest section of Toxteth Park (from Parliament Street to the Dingle), closest to the city centre, was incorporated into Liverpool.  It is perhaps important to understand that prior to this date what we now think of as a district, toxteth, was in fact Toxteth Park, self-contained and distinct, it was in no way a part of Liverpool.

So in 1835 1,056 acres of Toxteth became part of Liverpool (at the time itself only 1,858 acres, Liverpool also annexed 929 acres of Kirkdale, 693 acres of Everton and 674 acres of West Derby).  The municipal boundary was drawn at what is now Dingle Lane.  At some time after this street names which were duplicated within both Liverpool and Toxteth were changed to avoid confusion.  It seems that the older, existing streets had their names retained, not always those in Liverpool. Thus Bedford Street, Toxteth became Beaufort Street; George Street, Toxteth became Gelling Street. There was even a Rodney Street in Toxteth but this is not on more recent maps.  Listing of street name changes. The changes which I have traced so far can be found in this linked document.

1843 Mill Street finished at 192-193, just a few properties beyond the Northumberland Street junction, this is true on both sides of the road (Gores 1843 directory, numbering consistent with Gores 1860)

1849 the Mill Street boundary had advanced to what was to be Wellington Road, the area was opened through after 1815 but only built up in the 1830s. Even in the 1860 Gore's directory, Mill Street reaches only number 375 on the odd side and finishes at Wellington Road. The even side finished just past Park Street, at Yates Street - number 294.  (Park Street was developed in 1826).
 
1850 The land between Northumberland Street and Park Street was fully built up.

1866 Harlow Street was opened through and the block between Park Street and Wellington Road was developed in the 1850s and 1860s.

1870-1880 The area between Beresford Road and Park Hill Road was built over

1895 The further, more southerly, section of Toxteth Park (beyond Dingle) was finally incorporated into Liverpool in 1895. At this time the final 1,295 acres of Toxteth were absorbed along with 2989 acres of West Derby, 1904 acres of Walton on the Hill and 1838 of Wavertree. In all 5210 acres of Liverpool (see year 1835 above) swallowed 8026 acres of other parishes.

The OS maps for 1905-8 show a fully developed urban area of dense population and close-packed terraced housing interspersed with factories and, in the furthest areas winding roads faced by large individual properties built around the perimeter of the three large parks, Greenbank, Princes and Sefton.

Housing : The type of housing that made up the major expansion varied but the oldest was the worst. When Brisbrown laid his streets no thought was given to the interior of the blocks which were created, resulting in their being subdivided by "mean, narrow streets, filled with close, gloomy courts into which as many dwellings as possible were put irrespective of light and air giving the impression of an inferior character to this quarter of the town, which it has never been able to recover”.

The building land was controlled by a small number of individuals.  Low quality, cramped buildings and narrow streets resulted as landowners attempted to maximise profits as the demand for housing grew. Employment was not secure and most of the labouring classes were unable to afford high rents. Thus low rents meant low standards in building and sanitation.

The worst housing lay in the courts or back-houses. These consisted of a group of buildings, two opposite rows of up to 8 houses, built behind a street house, facing each other across a narrow court of from 6 to 15 feet. The houses were usually three storeys high, built back-to-back with the houses of the adjoining court. There was a narrow entrance from the street into the court, often in the form of an over-built archway, sometimes so low it was necessary to stoop to pass through it. Many of the structures were flimsy being built cheaply and only to half-brick thickness. Abstinence Street was just one such example, although it was one so bad that it was demolised before 1900. The arrangement of houses with windows in only one wall and shared walls on all of the other sides, is typical.

The arrangement of the courts prevented adequate ventilation and there was no proper sanitation, drainage or piped water supply. It was common for a court to have one water tap and one, maybe two, privvies and sometimes there was an outside cesspool. The houses were overcrowded, the courts often covered in rubbish and, not surprisingly, there was a high incidence of sickness. The Liverpool courts "provided ... some of the most dramatic examples of insanitary working-class housing..." in the country and in 1864 further construction of courts was banned. At that date Henderson Street was described as "a complete cesspool, moral and physical" with the spirit vaults of nearby Warwick Street exhibiting "some terrible spectacles of human debasement and depravity".  Eventually, in the face of public pressure, the council had to act and, Henderson Street was renamed to New Henderson Street!  Other streets (Carey Streeet for example) were simply closed or abolished. This is where the history of much of my family in Liverpool begins!
 

South of Park Street and east of Park Place and Park Road, housing was more recent, much of it built after 1850 - Hugh Shimmin wrote in 1862 "South of Park Street, you come on a very good class of house..." Land was bought for development and built up with rows of terraced housing for rent, much of it erected by the 'Welsh builders'.

Builders : In the 19th century large numbers of Welsh people moved into Liverpool, many with building skills and these made a great contribution to the provision of the working class and bye-law housing in Toxteth and other expanding areas of Liverpool between 1850 and 1900. They evolved a typical terrace house, usually six rooms - parlour, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms, quickly but well constructed in Welsh brick, made either in North Wales or in Liverpool from Welsh clay. Many of these are recognisable as the brick is pale in colour. The large number of Welsh builders and their employees may also account for what seems to be a large number of Welsh churches within Toxteth.  Some examples of  Welsh building are in :-

Docks:
The rapid expansion of the south docks, was one cause of population increase and the need for housing. The following docks are found within Toxteth.

Queens Dock was the only one built by 1800. Extended between 1810 and 1816 and also in 1865, it was for many years the main dock for the timber trade.

Coburg Dock this site was first developed in 1823 and it was completed in a major reconstruction of 1857-1858. It took in general cargo such as fruit and palm oil, in trade with West Africa and Portugal but from 1906 much of Liverpool's expanding grain trade was centred on the Coburg granary.

Brunswick dock opened in 1832 and was largely used as a timber dock. The opening of the north end's Canada Dock (not in Toxteth) later took away much of Brunswick's timber trade, as well as that of the Toxteth and Harrington docks.

Toxteth and Harrington opened in 1839 and 1841 respectively. Later Brunswick turned to  coal, meat, hides, heavy machinery and grain for the Coburg Granary but Toxteth and Harrington Docks declined, being described in 1875 as "shut out from the bustle of the outer world ... an oasis of quiet in the midst of the surging roar of commerce outside ... the only place in ... the Liverpool docks where the grass grows on the quays". Its isolation, however, made it useful for the storage of dangerous cargoes such as gun-powder.  Toxteth and Harrington Docks were revitalised in the 1880s, with double storey transit sheds, hydraulic cranes and hoists.

Herculaneum started life as a small dock to serve Charles Roe's copper smelting works in 1767 and from the mid-19th century it had developed so that by 1902 it boasted four huge graving docks for ship maintenance and repair. Its trading was mostly in coal and oil products and later its huge petroleum stores dominated the area.

Railways:

A feature of the O.S. map of 1906 is the extensive railway system along the line of docks. As early as 1841 the Dock Trustees had been empowered to make railroads along the quays. A railway network evolved along the docks and with it the construction of goods depots. In 1872 steam locomotives came into use on the docks and by 1886 locomotive drawn goods trains were in service, linked to the main line system.

Overhead Railway  The dockside teemed with lorries, drays, timber transporters, barrows, carts, buses, horse-drawn vehicles, cabs, carriages, pedestrians. The delays and frustrations caused by such congestion gave rise to ideas of an elevated railway line as early as 1853. Finally in February 1893 that the Liverpool Overhead Railway was formally opened. Situated on the lower reaches of Park Road, at Dingle, still well within the boundaries of the Park, Dingle Station was the southern terminus for the Overhead Railway.

Public buildings : With the exception of St James' Church, and the Ancient Chapel almost all of the public buildings on the 1908 map were put up in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to meet the needs of the growing community. Eight Anglican, three Roman Catholic and a number of non-conformist churches were erected between 1827 and 1904.

Hospitals : The Royal Southern Hospital, a teaching hospital was founded in 1842 in Greenland Street, just outside the toxteth boundary. It moved to its new building in Caryl Street, in 1872, a contemporary remarking that its "general effect is harsh and unpleasing". The City Hospital in Northumberland Street, "excellently planned", was opened in 1888 as a 'fever hospital' for the south end of town and a smallpox outbreak led to the setting up of the Park Hill Hospital at Dingle Point in 1885.

Baths : Public baths and wash-houses were opened in Steble Street in 1874. The Domestic Mission, founded in 1836 to help the poor and socially deprived, moved to its new building in Mill Street in 1892: in the same street the Florence Institute "to promote the welfare of poor and working boys" was opened in 1889.

Parks : Open spaces were within reach. Princes Road "a wide Victorian boulevard" was completed in 1846 to lead to Princes Park, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and given to the people of Liverpool by  Richard Vaughan Yates in 1843. Sefton Park and Greenbank Park are both entirely within toxteth and a small portion of Wavertree playground (close to the Smithdown Road entrance) lies within Toxteth.

Dingle, "one of the loveliest bits of scenery in the neighbourhood" is bounded by rocky slopes to the shore of the Mersey. The Dingle estate was purchased in 1808 by Rev John Yates, who In 1821 sold a part of the estate to James Cropper a Liverpool merchant, Quaker and slave-trade abolitionist.  Cropper created his own estate, Dingle Bank, later described by one visitor as a "Paradise in the North" and in an 1841 guide book as 'a sweet romantic dell'.

Yates and Cropper gave the public access to their grounds on two evenings a week, known as the 'Dingle Days' and even in 1907 restricted access was still granted "by permission of ... the Misses Yates", but by 1911 only Mrs Susan Cropper remains as a familiar name and West Dingle has become 'The House of Providence Home for Destitute Women and Children'. In 1920 the Mersey Docks and Harbours Board terminated the lease and the last members of the Cropper family left Dingle.  The Dingle Bank enclosure was broken up and partly demolished to make way for the Dingle Oil Jetties dumping was initiated and the houses were demolished or left to ruin. Today nothing remains as the whole has been buried under rubble, oil terminals, garden festivals, promenades and housing.

An extensive re-write of the Dingle Estate is now on-line, there is also a new suite of files on the Mersey Shore available.