Albert Dock Warehouses

Opened 1846/7 
Grade I 

Albert Dock Warehouses form the largest group of Grade 1 Listed Buildings in England. 

Opened 1846-47, they were the first public general warehouses actually on the Dock Estate, and while some commentators have seen aesthetic merit in their austere sense of proportion, their robust functional character is the result of technological rigour and innovation. 

At Albert, Jesse Hartley used well-established techniques (massive load-bearing walls) where appropriate, fire-proof floors and sub-division of spaces adapted from textile mill methods where necessary. 

But where there was no existing solution he introduced new solutions, such as the amazing stressed-skin iron roof he designed for these warehouses. 

Raising of goods from the quaysides was performed with the first hydraulic cargo-handling installation in the world.   

Perhaps the most surprising visual feature is the extreme proximity of the iron quayside columns to the edge of the copings, though when allowing for the batter of the wall below, they do in fact comply with the 'middle third rule'. 

The retaining walls are constructed in Hartley's characteristic "Cyclopean" granite, imported from the Dock Board's own quarry in Kirkmabreck, Scotland. The huge coping stones surmounting the dock retaining walls and forming the edge of the quayside are tied together by the use of small square locking stones.   

The warehouses were for imported goods only, and had an approximate capacity of 250,000 tons. They have been adapted very successfully, partly because Hartley, building at a time of rapid change in the port, deliberately designed for flexibility. 

Very large numbers of additional windows were possible because they had been allowed for, though not provided, from the start. Similarly it proved possible to cut extra stairwells, lift shafts etc. through the structure without affecting its integrity. 

The Albert Dock Warehouses were all built in the same materials and to essentially the same design. There is no combustible material in the construction. 

They are built of five storeys in brick with red sandstone quoins and parapets, and buff sandstone sills and outer plinths. They have iron roof trusses and large iron plates covering the roof. 

Internally, the floors are supported on iron columns, between which span inverted iron Y-beams, with wrought iron rods and brick barrel vaults. They have recessed yards on the outer sides. 

On the quayside the ground floor is recessed with cast iron Greek Doric columns, 3.8m in circumference and 4.5m high, except in the extension in the south west corner, where they are in granite. 

The warehouses all rise from a dock basin wall of finely jointed granite rubble. The warehouses were originally enclosed by a perimeter wall, but that survives on only the west side. 

The Albert Dock is one of the earliest enclosed docks in the world and is an exceptionally complete and authentic example of its type. They are divided into:

Warehouse A:   at the south end of the east side of the dock, is in commercial use. 

Warehouse B:  on the south side of the dock, is now in commercial use. 

Warehouse C:   on the west side of the dock, has shops on most of the ground floor with residential use above, and has the Tate Gallery at the north end. 

Warehouse D:  at the east end of the north side of the dock, is occupied by the Merseyside Maritime Museum.   

Warehouse E:   at the north end of the east side of the dock, is in commercial use. 

Prince Albert in his speech at the opening of the Albert Dock 30th July 1846: 'I have heard of the greatness of Liverpool but the reality far surpasses the expectation.'