Dullest explore ever? Maybe, but these structures are due to be demolished to make way for a new cruise ship terminal, so worth a final look.
The interest is mainly historical - the landing stages were a test bed for the use of reinforced concrete in the docks, paving the way for the much more famous Liver Building (the first large concrete-framed building in the UK).
To see what we’re talking about, first an old photo and the current satellite view.
The jetty is the bit sticking out on the left.
Constructed entirely of wood it was built in 1900 by L.G. Mouchel and A.G Lyster, the son of the G. F. Lyster who remodelled the half-tide entrance of Princes Dock (behind the tower block on the left).
Its purpose was to provide a tying-up place for vessels waiting to enter the dock as well as to load and unload goods.
Partially behind and to the right of the jetty are the two landing stages, which are just concrete platforms supported on wooden legs.
Together the jetty and stages formed the northern end of the floating Princes landing stage, which in those days extended right up to the jetty.
The main trade in this section of the waterfront was with Ireland, as can be seen from the names on the transit sheds.
By 1936 the cattle pens visible on the landing stages in the 1920 photo had been replaced by sheds, and the cranes on the jetty had gone.
The jetty and landing stages were last used in 1981.
Pictures are from a couple of visits with different (borrowed) cameras.
For more pictures see @georgie’s post from 2010, https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/princes-landing-stage-liverpool-may-2010.50466/
This also has background on Princes Dock and its long floating landing stage, as well as some interesting comments.
View of the jetty from the Princes Half-Tide Dock next door.
The cranes visible in the 1920 photo above were hydraulically powered, made by C&A Musker, who had a factory (long demolished) in the Tuebrook area of Liverpool. One of the original plans.
The cranes ran on tracks, which are still there, parallel to a spur off the line to the Riverside terminal.
Nothing much else to see on top except a wheeled gangplank - the collapsed thing on the left is the remains of a little hut.
One level down is a blocked off tunnel in the dock wall which used to emerge in front of where the tower block now stands.
The little tunnel next to it, which is blocked off after a few yards, was probably for services such as pressurised water for the cranes.
The pipes ran down a platform on the left of the view below.
At regular intervals wooden troughs cross below the top deck. I’m guessing these carried pressurised water to hydrants (now gone) for the cranes.
Hydraulic cranes had a system of joined feed pipes which allowed some movement, but eventually had to be unplugged and shifted to another hydrant if they moved too far.
There are also drains at regular intervals, maybe for the expelled water.
Views towards town.
A ramp which originally led up to the top deck.
Heading further down we take the stairs.
Some of supports and beams look like concrete but are in fact just barnacle-encrusted wood (said to be greenheart, the favoured wood for lock gates).
Under the gap between the jetty and the neighbouring landing stage - there used to be a ramp sloping down to the floating stage here.
As mentioned at the beginning, the most interesting thing about the landing stages is the early use of reinforced concrete for the decks.
Civil engineers are a conservative bunch, and were quite rightly unsure about combining two materials - steel and concrete - with such disparate physical and chemical properties.
So although this was by no means the first use of the newfangled ‘ferrocrete’ in the UK, a humble landing stage was seen as a good first test in dockland.
Liverpool lawyers even helped draft the British patent:
I clambered around a bit trying to get phone shots of the underside of the landing stages, but in the end the best picture comes from a heritage assessment done as part of the planning application for demolition
(18L/3270, the jetty and landing stages are not listed, but the dock wall they’re attached to is).
Also shown is one of the original plans for the reinforced beams.
As can be seen, the underside is pretty close to the water at high (spring) tide, which probably contributes to the decay.
To finish, a picture taken from about the same position at low tide, showing the large tidal range of the estuary, which illustrates why people have been talking about a tidal barrage on the Mersey for years.
Thinking about what one could do with the currently unused central docks it strikes me that we already have a little barrage.
I reckon if the system was made fully tidal, with water turbines installed in the outer dock walls, maybe ca 0.5 MW could be generated, about the same a medium sized wind turbine.
One of the local accumulator towers could even be renovated for temporary energy storage (rather low capacity though).
This almost certainly won’t happen, but if it does you read it here first!
REF. Some of the more reliable history of the jetty above comes from an article by K.G. Smith and A.E. Jarvis, https://docplayer.net/45050908-Innovation-in-civil-and-structural-engineering.html
The interest is mainly historical - the landing stages were a test bed for the use of reinforced concrete in the docks, paving the way for the much more famous Liver Building (the first large concrete-framed building in the UK).
To see what we’re talking about, first an old photo and the current satellite view.
The jetty is the bit sticking out on the left.
Constructed entirely of wood it was built in 1900 by L.G. Mouchel and A.G Lyster, the son of the G. F. Lyster who remodelled the half-tide entrance of Princes Dock (behind the tower block on the left).
Its purpose was to provide a tying-up place for vessels waiting to enter the dock as well as to load and unload goods.
Partially behind and to the right of the jetty are the two landing stages, which are just concrete platforms supported on wooden legs.
Together the jetty and stages formed the northern end of the floating Princes landing stage, which in those days extended right up to the jetty.
The main trade in this section of the waterfront was with Ireland, as can be seen from the names on the transit sheds.
By 1936 the cattle pens visible on the landing stages in the 1920 photo had been replaced by sheds, and the cranes on the jetty had gone.
The jetty and landing stages were last used in 1981.
Pictures are from a couple of visits with different (borrowed) cameras.
For more pictures see @georgie’s post from 2010, https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/princes-landing-stage-liverpool-may-2010.50466/
This also has background on Princes Dock and its long floating landing stage, as well as some interesting comments.
View of the jetty from the Princes Half-Tide Dock next door.
The cranes visible in the 1920 photo above were hydraulically powered, made by C&A Musker, who had a factory (long demolished) in the Tuebrook area of Liverpool. One of the original plans.
The cranes ran on tracks, which are still there, parallel to a spur off the line to the Riverside terminal.
Nothing much else to see on top except a wheeled gangplank - the collapsed thing on the left is the remains of a little hut.
One level down is a blocked off tunnel in the dock wall which used to emerge in front of where the tower block now stands.
The little tunnel next to it, which is blocked off after a few yards, was probably for services such as pressurised water for the cranes.
The pipes ran down a platform on the left of the view below.
At regular intervals wooden troughs cross below the top deck. I’m guessing these carried pressurised water to hydrants (now gone) for the cranes.
Hydraulic cranes had a system of joined feed pipes which allowed some movement, but eventually had to be unplugged and shifted to another hydrant if they moved too far.
There are also drains at regular intervals, maybe for the expelled water.
Views towards town.
A ramp which originally led up to the top deck.
Heading further down we take the stairs.
Some of supports and beams look like concrete but are in fact just barnacle-encrusted wood (said to be greenheart, the favoured wood for lock gates).
Under the gap between the jetty and the neighbouring landing stage - there used to be a ramp sloping down to the floating stage here.
As mentioned at the beginning, the most interesting thing about the landing stages is the early use of reinforced concrete for the decks.
Civil engineers are a conservative bunch, and were quite rightly unsure about combining two materials - steel and concrete - with such disparate physical and chemical properties.
So although this was by no means the first use of the newfangled ‘ferrocrete’ in the UK, a humble landing stage was seen as a good first test in dockland.
Liverpool lawyers even helped draft the British patent:
I clambered around a bit trying to get phone shots of the underside of the landing stages, but in the end the best picture comes from a heritage assessment done as part of the planning application for demolition
(18L/3270, the jetty and landing stages are not listed, but the dock wall they’re attached to is).
Also shown is one of the original plans for the reinforced beams.
As can be seen, the underside is pretty close to the water at high (spring) tide, which probably contributes to the decay.
To finish, a picture taken from about the same position at low tide, showing the large tidal range of the estuary, which illustrates why people have been talking about a tidal barrage on the Mersey for years.
Thinking about what one could do with the currently unused central docks it strikes me that we already have a little barrage.
I reckon if the system was made fully tidal, with water turbines installed in the outer dock walls, maybe ca 0.5 MW could be generated, about the same a medium sized wind turbine.
One of the local accumulator towers could even be renovated for temporary energy storage (rather low capacity though).
This almost certainly won’t happen, but if it does you read it here first!
REF. Some of the more reliable history of the jetty above comes from an article by K.G. Smith and A.E. Jarvis, https://docplayer.net/45050908-Innovation-in-civil-and-structural-engineering.html
