HISTORY
Today, the Hope Street area is admired for its Georgian and Victorian architecture, the tranquillity
of its public squares and open spaces, as well as the diverse range of cultural activity which takes place.
The historical development of the Hope Street area is, however, directly linked to the rapid
economic expansion of Liverpool as a whole from the eighteenth century onwards.
As the culture of capital flourished Liverpool was, above all else, about money; it was one of the largest and richest ports in the world in the
late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and its major buildings could only exist because of the
wealth of their builders. This wealth was accumulated by merchants and ship-owners as money from
trade, and the abhorrent slave trade in particular, poured into the town.
The great buildings of Liverpool, including the elegant terraces and town houses of the Hope
Street area, were representations of the power that this wealth created for a few local
politicians, landownwers and business leaders (roles often played simultaneously by the same man).
So it is the rich, powerful and famous, whose names appear in the history books or on the heritage
plaques, that provide a framework for the 300-year history of the Hope Street area of Liverpool.
However, this website is dedicated to the slaves who lost their liberty and lives in the quest for profit;
the quarry workers who dug out and carried the stone; the shipwrights and dockers who
worked on the quayside; the construction workers and labourers who laid out the streets and
built the buildings; the domestic servants who sold their labour in return for food, drink and
a roof over their heads; the nurses and care workers who staffed the orphanages and hospitals;
the cooks, cleaners and caretakers who kept the great medical, educational and religious
institutions functioning; and the bar workers, waiting-on staff, ticket-sellers and porters who
facilitated the leisure time of others.