Cooperage

Cooperage, Wall and Courtyard, Albert Pierhead
Circa 1845

Grade II

The Albert Dock warehouses were bonded warehouses, designed to receive goods which, in the 1840s, attracted high rates of duty.
This made them desirable targets for pilferers and (more particularly) 'paper smugglers' who sought to evade duty by falsifying the nature of goods. 

The warehouses and some of the ancillary buildings were enclosed within an extra perimeter wall with a very limited number of gates to help control comings and goings. 

The coopers were needed for opening and re-bunging casks in order that their contents could be sampled by Customs (or prospective purchasers) as well as for repairing any cask, which might start to leak. 

The two storey building is brick with sandstone stone dressings and has an iron roof structure. It is now part of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.