Liverpool
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Liverpool | |
 | |
 | |
| Coordinates: | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Constituent country | England |
| Region | North West England |
| Ceremonial county | Merseyside |
| Admin HQ | Liverpool City Centre |
| Founded | 1207 |
| City Status | 1880 |
| Government | |
| - Type | Metropolitan borough, City |
| - Governing body | Liverpool City Council |
| Area | |
| - Metropolitan borough & City | 43.2 sq mi (111.84 km2) |
| Elevation | 230 ft (70 m) |
| Population (2007 est / Urban=2006) | |
| - Metropolitan borough & City | 435,500 (Ranked 6th) |
| - Density | 12,952.5/sq mi (5,001/km2) |
| - Urban | 816,900 |
| - Metro | 1,103,089 |
| - Ethnicity (2005 Estimate)[1] | 91.9% White 2.2% Chinese and other 2.1% Asian or Asian British 1.9% Mixed Race 1.9% Black or Black British |
| Time zone | Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) |
| - Summer (DST) | British Summer Time (UTC+1) |
| Postal Code | L postcode area |
| Area code(s) | 0151 |
| ISO 3166-2 | GB-LIV |
| ONS code | 00BY |
| OS grid reference | SJ437905 |
| NUTS 3 | UKD52 |
| Demonym | Scouser/Liverpudlian |
| Website | www.liverpool.gov.uk |
Liverpool [ˈlɪvəpuːl] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. Liverpool has a population of 435,500, and lies at the centre of the wider Liverpool Urban Area, which has a population of 816,216.
Historically a part of Lancashire, the urbanisation and expansion of Liverpool were broadly brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which draws from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland.
The popularity of The Beatles and the other groups from the Merseybeat era contributes to Liverpool's status as a tourist destination; tourism forms a significant part of the city's modern economy. In 2007 the city celebrated its 800th anniversary, and in 2008 it held the European Capital of Culture title together with Stavanger, Norway.[2]
In 2004, several areas throughout the city centre were granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO. Refered to as the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City, the site comprises six separate locations in the city including the Pier Head, Albert Dock and William Brown Street and includes many of the city's most famous landmarks.[3]
Contents[hide] |
History
King John's letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, but by the middle of the 16th century the population was still only around 500. The original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough.The original seven streets were laid out in a H shape:
Bank Street (now Water Street)
Castle Street
Chapel Street
Dale Street
Juggler Street (now High Street)
Moor Street (now Tithebarn Street)
Whiteacre Street (now Old Hall Street)
In the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for the town were waged during the English Civil War, including an eighteen-day siege in 1644. In 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. As trade from the West Indies surpassed that of Ireland and Europe, and as the River Dee silted up, Liverpool began to grow. The first commercial wet dock was built in Liverpool in 1715.[4][5] Substantial profits from the slave trade helped the town to prosper and rapidly grow. By the close of the century Liverpool controlled over 41% of Europe's and 80% of Britain's slave commerce.
By the start of the 19th century, 40% of the world's trade was passing through Liverpool and the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity rail link, through the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The population continued to rise rapidly, especially during the 1840s when Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the Great Famine. By 1851, approximately 25% of the city's population was Irish-born. During the first part of the 20th century, Liverpool was drawing immigrants from across Europe.
The Housing Act 1919 resulted in mass council housing building across Liverpool during the 1920s and 1930s. Thousands of families were rehoused from the inner-city to new suburban housing estates, based on the pretext that this would improve their standard of living, though this is largely subjective. A large number of private homes were also built during this era. The process continued after the Second World War, with many more new housing estates being built in suburban areas, while some of the older inner city areas where also redeveloped for new homes.
During the Second World War there were 80 air-raids on Merseyside, killing 2,500 people and causing damage to almost half the homes in the metropolitan area. Significant rebuilding followed the war, including massive housing estates and the Seaforth Dock, the largest dock project in Britain. Much of the immediate reconstruction of the city centre has been deeply unpopular, and was as flawed as much town planning renewal in the 1950s and 1960s - the portions of the city's heritage that survived German bombing could not withstand the efforts of urban renewal. Since 1952 Liverpool has been twinned with Cologne, Germany, a city which also experienced aerial bombing during the war.
In the 1960s Liverpool became a centre of youth culture. The "Merseybeat" sound which became synonymous with The Beatles and fellow Liverpudlian rock bands of the era catapulted the city to the front of the popular music scene.
From the mid-1970s onwards Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries went into sharp decline. The advent of containerization meant that the city's docks became largely obsolete. In the early 1980s unemployment rates in Liverpool were among the highest in the UK. In recent years, Liverpool's economy has recovered and has experienced growth rates higher than the national average since the mid-nineties.
Previously part of Lancashire, and a county borough from 1889, Liverpool became in 1974 a metropolitan borough within the newly created metropolitan county of Merseyside.
At the end of the 20th century Liverpool was concentrating on regeneration, a process which still continues today. To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife organised a competition to choose county flowers; the sea-holly was Liverpool's final choice.
Capitalising on the popularity of the 1960s rock group The Beatles and other groups of the Merseybeat era, tourism has also become a significant factor in Liverpool's economy.
In 2004, property developer Grosvenor started the Paradise Project, a £920 m development centered on Paradise Street, which involved the most significant changes to Liverpool's city centre since the post-war reconstruction. Renamed 'Liverpool 1', the centre opened in May 2008.
In 2007 the city celebrated the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, for which a number of events were planned. Liverpool is a joint European Capital of Culture for 2008. The main celebrations in September 2008 involved La Princesse, a large mechanical spider which is 20 metres high and weighs 37 tonnes, and represents the "eight legs" of Liverpool: honour, history, music, the Mersey, the ports, governance, sunshine and culture. La Princesse roamed the streets of the city during the festivities, and concluded by entering the Queensway Tunnel.
Governance
Liverpool has three tiers of governance; the Local Council, the National Government and the European Parliament. Liverpool is officially governed by a Unitary Authority, as when Merseyside County Council was disbanded civic functions were returned to a district borough level. However several services such as the Police and Fire and Rescue Service, continue to be run at a county-wide level.
Local Council
- See also: Liverpool City Council
The City of Liverpool is governed by Liverpool City Council, and is one of five metropolitan boroughs that combine to make up the metropolitan county of Merseyside. The council consists of 90 elected councillors who represent local communities throughout the city,[6] as well as a five man executive management team who are responsible for the day to day running of the council.[7] Part of the responsibility of the councillors is the election of a council leader and Lord Mayor. The council leader's responsibility is to provide directionality for the council as well as acting as medium between the local council, central government and private & public partners.[8] The Lord Mayor acts as the 'first citizen' of the city and is responsible for promoting the city, supporting local charities & community groups as well as representing the city at civic events [9] The current council leader is Warren Bradley, and current Lord Mayor is Councillor Steve Rotheram.
For local elections the city is split into 30 local council wards,[10] which in alphabetical order are:
- Allerton and Hunts Cross, Anfield, Belle Vale, Central, Childwall, Church, Clubmoor, County, Cressington, Croxteth, Everton, Fazakerley, Greenbank, Kensington, Kirkdale, Knotty Ash, Mossley Hill, Norris Green, Old Swan, Picton, Princes Park, Riverside, Speke Garston, St Michaels, Tuebrook & Stoneycroft, Warbreck, Wavertree, West Derby, Woolton, Yew Tree
As of September 2008 the council is controlled by the Liberal Democrats who took 45 seats to Labour's 39 in the most recent local election. Of the remaining seats the Liberal Party won three, the Green Party claimed two and the last one went to an independent councillor. The Conservative Party, one of the three major political parties in the UK had no representation on Liverpool City Council.[11] Officially the result was classified as no overall control in the city, however following the defection of Croxteth Independant Councillor Nadia Stewart, the Lib Dems increased their number of seats to 46 allowing the current administration to continue.[12] In February 2008, Liverpool City Council was revealed to be the worst performing council in the country, receiving just a one star rating (classified as inadequate). The main cause of the poor rating was attributed to the councils poor handling of tax-payer money, including the accumulation of a £20m shortfall on Capital of Culture funding.[13]
Parliamentary constituencies and MPs
Within Liverpool there are five parliamentary constituencies through which Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected to represent the city in Westminster: Liverpool Garston, Liverpool Riverside, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool Wavertree and Liverpool West Derby.[14] At the last General Election all were won by Labour with representation being from Maria Eagle, Louise Ellman, Peter Kilfoyle, Jane Kennedy and Bob Wareing respectively. In proposed constituency boundary changes for the next UK election, Liverpool will only have four seats completely within the city boundaries after the announcement of plans to merge Liverpool Garston with Halewood (which was previously part of Knowsley South), creating a cross-boundary seat.[15]. The Conservative party has not won a city constituency since 1979, and at the last election in 2005 scored less than 10% in every seat.
Geography
At (53.4, -2.98), 176 miles (283 km) northwest of London, the city of Liverpool is built across a ridge of sandstone hills rising up to a height of around 230 feet (70 metres) above sea-level at Everton Hill, which represents the southern boundary of the West Lancashire Coastal Plain. It has been described as having "the most splendid setting of any English city."[16] Liverpool Urban Area runs directly into Bootle, Crosby and Maghull in south Sefton to the north, and Kirkby, Huyton, Prescot and Halewood in Knowsley to the east. It faces Wallasey and Birkenhead across the River Mersey to the west.
Liverpool experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year with an average of 282 days of rain per annum[17] which compares with the UK average of 154.4.[18] Snowfall is not a common sight in the city, with an average of only 22 days per annum.[19]
 Weather averages for Liverpool  | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 6.6 (44) | 6.6 (44) | 9.4 (49) | 11.6 (53) | 15.5 (60) | 17.7 (64) | 20 (68) | 19.4 (67) | 16.6 (62) | 12.7 (55) | 9.4 (49) | 7.7 (46) | 12.7 (55) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.2 (36) | 2.2 (36) | 3.3 (38) | 4.4 (40) | 7.2 (45) | 10.5 (51) | 12.7 (55) | 12.2 (54) | 10 (50) | 7.2 (45) | 4.4 (40) | 3.3 (38) | 6.6 (44) |
| Source: [19] 2008-12-19 | |||||||||||||
Demography
As with other major British cities, Liverpool has a large and diverse population. At the 2001 UK Census the recorded population of Liverpool was 441,900,[20] whilst a mid-2007 estimate by the ONS had the city's population as 435,500,[21] which would make it the sixth largest district in the UK (N.B. This figure includes only those areas officially within the city boundaries). Liverpool’s population peaked in 1930s with 846,101 recorded in the 1931 census.[22] Since then the city has experienced negative population growth every decade, with at its peak over 100,000 people leaving the city between 1971 and 1981.[23] Between 2001 and 2006 it experienced the ninth largest percentage population loss of any UK unitary authority,[24] although it has been suggested that overall the city's population is now stabalising after rapid decline in the 1980s and 1990s.[25]
In common with many cities, Liverpool's population is younger than that of England as a whole, with 42.3 per cent of its population under the age of 30, compared to an English average of 37.4 per cent.[26] 65.1 per cent of the population is of working age.[26]
Liverpool is home to Britain's oldest Black community, dating to at least the 1730s.[27] The Chinese community also has a long history in the city and the city's Chinatown is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe, with many of the original members of the community arriving as seamen in the nineteenth century.[28] The city is also known for its large Irish and Welsh populations.[29] In 1813, 10 per cent of Liverpool's population was Welsh, leading to the city becoming known as "the capital of North Wales".[29] Following the start of the Irish Potato Famine, 2 million Irish people migrated to Liverpool in the space of one decade, many of them subsequently departing for the United States.[30] By 1851, more than 20 per cent of the population of Liverpool was Irish.[31] At the 2001 Census, 1.17 per cent of the population were Welsh-born and 0.75 per cent were born in the Republic of Ireland, with 0.54 per cent born in Northern Ireland,[32] but
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