ALBERT DOCK CHANGING FORTUNES Albert Dock, Liverpool Lancashire England

Changing fortunes and role in World War II

British Empire Dockyards and Ports, 1909

The enclosed design of the Albert Dock and the direct loading and unloading of goods from warehouses meant that the complex was more secure than other docks within Liverpool. As a result it became a popular store for valuable cargoes including brandy, cotton, tea, silk, tobacco, ivory and sugar. At the same time their openness to natural light and well ventilated stores meant natural goods such as hemp or sugar could be kept fresher, for longer.^[5] The dock came to dominate Liverpool's far eastern trade, with over 90% of the city's silk imports from China coming through it and more generally half of all the far eastern trade income.^[15]

Despite the great prosperity the dock afforded the city, within 20 years of its construction the Albert Dock was beginning to struggle. Designed and constructed to handle sailing ships of up to 1000 tonnes, by the turn of the century only 7% of ships into the Port of Liverpool were sailing vessels.^[9] The development of steam ships in the later 19th century meant that soon the dock simply wasn't large enough, as its narrow entrances prevented larger vessels from entering it.^[15] Its lack of quayside was also becoming an issue. Generally steamships could be loaded and unloaded far quicker than sailing ships, and in a cruel twist of irony, the dockside warehouses that had once made the Albert Dock so attractive, were now hindering its future development.^[5] None the less the Albert Dock remained an integral part of the dock system in Liverpool and in 1878 the pump house was built as part of redevelopment that saw the majority of the cranes converted to hydraulic use, whilst in 1899, part of the north stack was converted to allow for ice production and cold storage.^[16]

By the 1920s virtually all commercial shipping activity had ceased at the dock, although its warehouses did remain in use for the storage of goods transported by barge, road or rail.^[16][17] The onset of World War II in 1939 saw the Albert Dock being 'requisitioned' by the Admiralty and used as base for the British Atlantic fleet including submarines, small warships and landing craft. During the war the dock was struck on several occasions including a bombing raid in 1940 that damaged ships within it, and more destructively during the May Blitz of 1941 when German bombing caused extensive damage to the south west stack.^[17] By the end of the war almost 15% of the Albert Dock's floor space was out of use because of bomb damage.^[18]