In this regular La Vida Liverpool feature, guest writer and historian David Hearn educates us on some fascinating local history. With a wealth of knowledge, David gives talks and walking tours on subjects such as the history of Liverpool, wars, slavery, maritime, Liverpool’s links with America and more. In this feature he talks us through the lovely Liver Birds of Liverpool….
There are many images that make Liverpool famous around the world but, surely, one of the most iconic must be the Liver Birds perched high on the Liver Building. The female Liver Bird looks out to sea anxiously awaiting the return of their loved ones from their adventures around the world while the male Liver Bird, far more practical, looks across the city to see if the pubs are open.
Close to the Liver Building you will find another large free-standing Liver Bird but one that pre-dates its famous friends by several decades. This Liver Bird can be found on top of Mersey Chambers over-looking the churchyard of St Nicholas Church, built as the Head Office of Harrison Line. Sadly the exposed position and its age has meant that the Liver Bird has lost one of its wings although I have heard a rumour that it might be getting replaced so it could be restored to its full glory.
The 18 feet (almost 5.5 meters) tall Liver Birds have stood over Liverpool since 1911 and were designed by German designer Carl Bartels — although Liver Birds as symbols of Liverpool go back to at least 1797 when Liverpool was granted its Coat of Arms which was described simply as “a Cormorant in the beak a Branch of Seaweed called Laver.”
The full Coat of Arms, Crest, Supporters and Motto is, of course a far grander affair and contains three Liver Birds. Just to prove that it is a Cormorant on the Coat of Arms here is a Cormorant at New Brighton doing its famous impression of a Liver Bird.
You may think that at 5.5 meters the Pier Head Liver Birds are the biggest in Liverpool but that honour goes to a much more recent sculpture. The Meccano Liver Bird, designed by Merseyside sculptor and artist Emma Rodgers, is 11 meters high and honours not only the history of Liverpool but also the memory of one of its famous sons, Frank Hornby, who invented the world famous construction toy.
The more you look around Liverpool the more Liver Birds you find. They are all over the city and take many different forms and many different sizes. Inside the Town Hall there are various examples of Liver Birds from the one doing a sort of dance (or is it goose-stepping?) in the tiles at the entrance of the building to the City Mace which not only has its own Liver Bird but it has two silver Liver Birds to hold it up.
However outside the Town Hall at first or even second look you are hard pressed to find a Liver Bird but there is one. Looking at the frieze around the building you will see all sorts of creatures from a llama, a crocodile, an elephant, a lion, a bear, a couple of snakes and a creature that I have no idea at all what it is but apparently no Liver Bird.
This is because the frieze was carved before the Liver Bird became the official symbol of Liverpool. Yet if you look very closely you will find one very small Liver Bird. If you are looking at the building from the front look to the left (West) face and you will see a door that leads to an arched metal frame in the railings surrounding the building. On the top of the arch is a lamp and on top of that lamp is a very tiny Liver Bird.
There are examples of the Liverpool Coat of Arms all over the city — the one below is in Victoria Street on the Sir Thomas Hotel which was, for almost 100 years from the 1880s, a branch of the Bank of Liverpool which became Martins Bank and, ultimately, Barclays Bank.
The supporters of the Arms are, on the left, Neptune the Roman God of the Sea and, on the right, Poseidon the Greek God of the Sea to emphasise that Liverpool’s wealth comes from the sea. Neptune is sitting on a bail of cotton as a reminder of the importance of cotton to the Liverpool economy.
Surely everyone around the world who is interested in football will be familiar with the Liver Bird on the crest of Liverpool Football Club but if you visit Goodison Park on the outside of one of the stands is a banner reminding everyone of Everton’s first League Title in 1891 and on that banner is a medal from that year showing a Liver Bird surrounded by a laurel wreath of victory. Both our great teams reinforce the importance of the Liver Bird to the city.
In Liverpool even the most mundane objects proudly wear the Liver Bird including bins and bollards. There are even at least two pieces of graffiti or street art depicting Liver Birds – by the look of it they are from the same stencil – one of them is in Wolstenholme Square and the other on the pillar of a doorway to a boarded up property in Duke Street.
You can visit the ground floor of the Port of Liverpool and if you do it for no other reason than looking up into the dome then do go inside, but while you are there be sure to check out the stained glass windows two of which have small yet important Liver Birds. There is a small white Liver Bird with its wings raised on the window that represents Liverpool and another the coat of arms of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.
The coat of arms, as well as the Liver Bird, has a depiction of the Mersey and a star but it is supported by Neptune, the God of the Sea and Mercury, God of Trade. This representation of Liverpool being a Maritime and Mercantile city can be found depicted in many places.
Almost continuously for over two hundred years Liverpool newspapers have had a Liver Bird on the head of their front page. The Liverpool Mercury had a Liver Bird standing over a trumpet for announcing the news and a caduceus – a staff with two snakes coiled around it over the word “LIBERTAS” (Freedom). The caduceus is the symbol of Mercury in the same way as the trident is the symbol of Neptune.
As well as the head of the Liverpool Mercury you can find a Liver Bird on the corner of a building that was once the offices of the newspaper in Wood Street off Hanover Street. The Liverpool Echo still has a Liver Bird on the top of its front page although instead of seaweed in its beak it has a rolled copy of the Echo.
How many of you have noticed the Liver Birds on the Mersey Tunnel ventilation building at George’s Dock on The Strand? I’m fairly sure that you will all have seen them but you would be entirely forgiven for not recognising them as Liver Birds. However once you realise what they are you will know them forever.
High on all four sides on the ventilation tower itself you will find two Liver Birds. But they are so high up you need better eyes than I have or a camera with a long lens. The Liver Birds are seen from the front rather than for the side as they are usually portrayed. Their wings are raised on both sides and their head, complete with a crest, are between their wings.
Over the doorways on the wonderful Herbert Rowse designed building on The Strand you will also find Liver Birds but, again, they are not immediately recognisable . If you look closely however you can see the pointed beak, eyes and outstretched wings of a Liver Bird which is flying straight towards you.
A Liver Bird that is, perhaps, even more difficult to recognise can be found on office buildings on both sides of the mouth of the Queensway Tunnel at the Old Haymarket in Liverpool. These are Liver Birds as seen from above and their body is depicted as the wheel of a car but a closer look will reveal wings, a pointed tail and a stylised piece of seaweed in its beak.
There is another Liver Bird close to the mouth of the Queensway Tunnel which although not very big it is very striking. Next to the car park used by Tunnel Police and staff vehicles there is a mosaic of the river and the tunnel. This is not the original that was made in 1934 but it is a replica of the original and was made in 1994 for the diamond jubilee of the tunnel.
Over the arched window on the right hand corner of this fine building you will find a modern bas-relief of two Liver Birds flanking a friend of theirs, an American bald eagle. Compton House was at one time the Compton Hotel and the building still has the British royal arms on one corner and the arms of America on the other but Liverpool has many, historical and cultural links with America so it is entirely appropriate that Liver Birds are portrayed with an American eagle.
There are many fine carvings in Liverpool Cathedral and not least among these are these wonderful Liver Birds which guard the entrance to the choir stalls.
In the magnificent Princes Road — sometimes known as Princes Boulevard — half way up a lamp post above what looks like a drinking fountain you will find beautiful Liver Birds that many of us have driven past hundreds if not thousands of times without even noticing them. In need of a bit of TLC now but still lovely Liver Birds.
If you have used Central Station during the last 10 years I’m sure that you could not have missed seeing this Liver Bird even though it has moved around the shopping area outside the station a few times. The Liver Bird which is called “The Spirit of Liverpool” and was conceived by Liver Bird Inc., funded by the Liverpool Commercial District Partnership and is in memory of the late Paul Rice, the partnership’s former chief executive. The sculptor was Rick Myers.
Before Merseyside absorbed the local police and fire and rescue services it will come as no surprise that both Liverpool City Police and the City of Liverpool Fire Service included Liver Birds in their symbols. There are a couple of Fire Stations that still boast their Liver Bird symbols – the Fire Station at Aintree is still a fire station whilst the Allerton base has recently been converted into flats.
These Liverpool City Police arms are in Derby Road, Old Swan, on a Police Station that has also been converted into flats. I don’t know if the dragons on the building in Old Swan were an indication of the ferocious nature of the officers who were posted there.
Not all Liver Birds are old. It is, perhaps, not surprising that Liver Birds are used in advertising in and around Liverpool. One obvious place that you would expect to find a Liver Bird doing some advertising is the coffee shop at the Royal Liver Building where they will even put a chocolate Liver Bird on your Cappuccino!
Liverpool City Sights bus tour has a very up to date Liver Bird on its buses – the Liver Bird is concentrating on the commentary which it is listening to on headphones.
The Liverpool Gin Distillery in Castle Street has a number of Liver Birds painted on their windows. Let’s just all hope that the Liver Birds drink responsibly the last thing you want is a pair of tipsy Liver Birds!
Liver Launderettes are the largest operators of launderettes in the UK and they have used a Liver Bird as their logo since the 1960s.
The University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Hope University are all rightfully proud of the achievements of their students and staff but they are also proud of their association with the City of Liverpool and include one or more Liver Birds in their logos.
St George’s Hall has dozens of Liver Birds — too many to show here — take the excellent guided tour and see how many you can see. One that does need to be seen is this wonderful gold Liver Bird on the inside of the doors to the main hall. The Liver Bird is coming towards us and has its wings stretched out. Surely this Liver Bird would be a strong contender if there was a contest for Liverpool’s most spectacular Liver Bird!
Liverpool does not have a monopoly of Liver Birds. Many examples can be found on the Wirral too. Hoylake Sailing Club on the promenade in Hoylake boasts these two great examples.
The dappled sunlight on the sign of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club in Rock Ferry.
Home of the Open Golf Championship on a number of occasions, the Royal Liverpool Golf Club can be found on Meols Drive between Hoylake and West Kirby.
The ornate of the Birkenhead Brewery Company can still be seen in a number of places around the Wirral. It may only be small but the cask of beer that forms part of the logo has a Liver Bird standing proudly on top of it.
A city centre building that is familiar to residents and visitors alike is the Adelphi Hotel but how many people notice the four Liver Birds just above the balcony on the front of the building? Two are “ordinary” Liver Birds — can the word ordinary ever be applied to Liverpool’s lovely Liver Birds? — but two are very special indeed.
It is not just the quality of the carving which is excellent but it is for their symbolism on the building that was nicknamed at one time as “Britain’s Front Door” because it was the first stop of so many visitors. Two Liver Birds are wearing “Neptune’s Crowns” with the distinctive ship images. Liver Birds wearing Neptune’s Crown symbolising the unshakeable belief in the early years of the 20th Century that Liverpool was the “King of the Seas”.
Is it strange that I should have a favourite Liver Bird? Well I do and this is my favourite of the many Lovely Liver Birds of Liverpool for a number of reasons. Dating from 1831 it is an early depiction of a Liver Bird but it is only tiny and is stained, broken and, frankly, rather scruffy but that is perhaps not surprising when considering what it went through some 80 plus years ago.
This Liver Bird is in St Luke’s Church at the top of Bold Street. St Luke’s is commonly called “The Bombed Out Church” because it was reduced to a shell in the May Blitz of 1941. Almost all the glass in the church was destroyed by the fire that ravaged the building but this Liver Bird survived. All of this is enough to make it my favourite Liver Bird but what really inspires me about it is the symbolism of it.
There is a Liverpool saying that if the Liver Birds ever leave then Liverpool will fall. May 1941 was perhaps Liverpool’s darkest hour and St Luke’s symbolises how close the city came to falling but it didn’t and this tiny Liver Bird is a symbol of how Liverpool survived everything that was thrown at it.
TO BOOK A HISTORY TALK OR WALKING TOUR WITH DAVID CONTACT HIM ON 07739386367
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Main image and first image courtesy of Ian Tog
