George's Dock was a

dock A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning va ...

, on the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, within the

Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of th ...

. It was connected to

Canning Dock Canning Dock on the River Mersey is part of the Port of Liverpool in Northern England. The dock is in the southern dock system, connected to Salthouse Dock to the south and with access to the river via the Canning Half Tide Dock to the west. T ...

to the south and George's Basin to the north.

History

Construction of the dock began in 1762, and was known as North Dock prior to completion. The dock, which opened in 1771, was designed and built by

Henry Berry Henry Berry, (1719 in England – 1812) was Liverpool's second dock engineer succeeding Thomas Steers and being succeeded by Thomas Morris. Berry Street in Liverpool may be named after Berry who lived in a house at the junction with Duke Stree ...

and named after the reigning monarch,

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

. The dock basin originally covered an area of slightly more than . The port built ships bound for West Africa, North America and the Caribbean delivering and returning with Black Slaves. Benefiting greatly from the endeavor with the population of Liverpool growing from seventeen thousand, to seventy seven thousand at the end of the 18th century. The Goree Warehouses were built to the east of the dock in 1793, and were severely damaged during a fire in 1802. Which caused over £320,000 of damage. The dock was rebuilt and expanded between 1822–5, after losing its American and Caribbean shipping to

Prince's Dock The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally con ...

, being expanded by John Foster, Sr. Following the rebuild and expansion, the dock was mainly used by

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

s carrying perishable goods. The adjoining George's Basin was filled in 1874. In 1899-1900 the dock was filled in to create what is now the

Pier Head The Pier Head (properly, George's Pier Head) is a riverside location in the city centre of Liverpool, England. It was part of the former Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in 2004, but revoked in ...

, to provide one central place for Liverpool Docks' offices, which before were scattered across different sites. A section of the original George's Dock wall is still visible in the basement of the

Cunard Building The Cunard Building is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's ''Three Graces'', which line the ...

which stands on the site. The Goree Warehouses, which had been named after a slave market in West Africa, were destroyed by bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. By March 2009, work was completed on a £22 million extension of the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

on the site of the former basin. The canal extension provides a further 1.4 miles of navigable waterway. Aa GeorgesDockGates

References

Sources

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External links

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Site of Georges's Dock aerial photo
{{Port of Liverpool docks Liverpool docks Former buildings and structures in Liverpool