Editing Old Dock

{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
{{Infobox docks
| name = Old Dock
| image = Old Dock Liverpool.jpg
| caption = Old Dock wall in 2012
| location = [[Liverpool]], [[United Kingdom]] 
| coordinates = {{coord|53.4025|-2.9886|display=title, inline|region:GB_scale:2000}} <!-- estimaped from http://www.liverpool2007.org.uk/docks/docks2a.htm -->
| grid_ref_UK = SJ342900
| owner = [[Grosvenor Group]] (site)<ref name="ODT">{{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/old_dock_tours.aspx|title=Info|work=National Museums Liverpool|access-date=21 August 2010}}</ref>
| opened = 31 August 1715
| closed = 31 August 1826
| area = {{convert|3+1/2|acre|ha|abbr=on}}
| type = [[Floating dock (impounded)|Wet dock]]
}}

The '''Old Dock''', originally known as '''Thomas Steers' dock''', was the world's first commercial [[floating dock (impounded)|wet dock]].<ref name="Trading Places: Old Dock History">{{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/nof/docks/access/dock_history7.html|title=Trading Places: Old Dock History|work=Liverpool Museums|access-date=24 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324050020/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/nof/docks/access/dock_history7.html|archive-date=24 March 2008}}</ref>  
The {{convert|3+1/2|acre|ha|abbr=on}} dock was built on the [[River Mersey]] in [[Liverpool]], [[England]], starting in 1710 and completed in 1716.<ref name="OA">{{cite web|url=http://oxfordarchaeology.com/research-projects-by-name/225-liverpool-s-old-dock-and-the-maritime-trade-of-the-north-west|title=Liverpool's Old Dock and the maritime trade of the North-West|work=Oxford Archaeology|access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref><ref name="PPS2006-260">{{harvnb|Pollard|Pevsner|Sharples|2006|p=260}}</ref> A natural tidal pool off the River Mersey, which probably gave its [[Liverpool#Toponymy|name to Liverpool]] centuries earlier, was partially filled and locked in from the river with quay walls erected.

==History==
The Old Dock was built at a cost of £12,000 and opened on 31 August 1715.<ref>{{harvnb|Picton|1875|p=555}}</ref><ref name="Liverpool: The docks">{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41373|title='Liverpool: The docks', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4 (1911), pp. 41–43|publisher=British History Online|access-date=24 March 2008}}</ref>  [[Thomas Steers]] was the engineer responsible;<ref name="OA" /> and additional advice was obtained from [[George Sorocold]].<ref name="PPS2006-260" /> Originally a [[Dry dock|tidal basin]] was accessed directly from the river,<ref name="Trading Places: Old Dock History" /> and from 1737 access was via [[Canning Dock]]. The dock was built with one [[graving dock]]; a second and third graving dock were added in 1746 and the 1750s. The dock walls were constructed from brick laid directly on to sandstone bedrock. The dock gates would have allowed as much as 10% of the water out between high tides, resulting in a water level drop of several feet. This may have been offset by water entering the dock from a stream.<ref name="timeteam">{{cite web
  |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2008/liverpool/index.html |title=Time Team|work=Channel 4 Television|access-date=22 April 2008
}}</ref> It accommodated up to 100 ships.

Although Liverpool vessels were involved in the [[slavery|slave trade]] before the dock opened, the ''Liverpool Merchant'' sailing for Africa on the 16 Oct 1699,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archive sheet 3 - Liverpool and the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archivesheet3 |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=National Museums Liverpool}}</ref> and selling 220 slaves in Barbados in 1700,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archive sheet 3 - Liverpool and the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archivesheet3 |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=National Museums Liverpool}}</ref> a second 30 tonne vessel being recorded as sailing for Africa in 1709,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Gomer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVgiAQAAMAAJ |title=History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade |date=1897 |publisher=W. Heinemann |isbn=978-0-7222-9779-7 |language=en}}</ref> it would have served ships involved in the Africa-America trade, propelling Liverpool to world leader of this trade.{{cn|date=October 2023}} 

The dock led to Liverpool's establishment as the leading European port and subsequent world trading port.

[[File:Liverpool 9077.jpg|right|thumb|Map of Liverpool in 1809 showing the Old Dock]]

==Redevelopment==
[[File:Old Dock Liverpool 2.jpg|thumb|right|Viewing window to the Old Dock]]
In the early 19th century, the dock was considered too small for the growing size of shipping using the port; the [[quay]]s were too narrow; the city's [[sewage]] polluted the dock's water; and the narrow wooden [[drawbridge]] across its entrance channel caused traffic jams.<ref name="Trading Places: Old Dock History" /> Sentiment saved the Old Dock for 20 years, but the Old Dock closed on 31 August 1826<ref name="Liverpool: The docks" /> and was filled in. [[Custom House, Liverpool|Liverpool’s fourth Custom House]], designed by [[John Foster (architect, born 1786)|John Foster]], was built on the site between 1828 and 1837, and was demolished after severe [[bomb]] damage during the [[Battle of Britain]] ([[World War II]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lmu.livjm.ac.uk/lhol/content.aspx?itemid=54|title=Customs House|work=Liverpool John Moores University|access-date=8 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205223739/http://www.lmu.livjm.ac.uk/lhol/content.aspx?itemid=54|archive-date=5 February 2008}}</ref>

In 1999 an office block on the site, Steers House, was demolished, and the resulting waste ground was used as an [[National Car Parks|NCP]] car park until 2004, when the site was incorporated into the [[Liverpool One]] shopping development. A water feature has been built on the site of Old Dock to commemorate its history. A portion of the dock wall is exposed in the basement of the new development, and can be viewed from the pavement above through a viewing window in the ground. The excavated site was opened to the public in May 2010.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/liverpool/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8589000/8589544.stm|title=Liverpool One Old Dock opens to public|work=BBC News|date=26 March 2010|access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref> Tours of the Old Dock are currently operated by National Museums Liverpool on a weekly basis.<ref name="ODT" />

==Media==
The excavation of the dock featured in a [[Time Team (specials)|''Time Team'' Special episode]], first broadcast on [[Channel 4]] on Monday 21 April 2008.<ref name=timeteam />

==Old Dock Sill==
The level of the [[sill (dock)|sill]] of its entrance is used in and around Liverpool as a height [[datum (geodesy)|datum]] called Old Dock Sill or ODS.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liv.ac.uk/climate/documents/Liverpool_-_Home_of_UK_Sea_Level_Science.pdf|title=Liverpool: Home of UK Sea Level Science (A century later – measurements resume)|work=University of Liverpool|access-date=5 July 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web
  |title=A Study of Changes in High Water Levels and Tides at Liverpool during the Last Two Hundred and Thirty Years 
  |url=http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/3916/1/ir56.pdf
  |last=Woodworth  |first=Philip L. 
  |publisher=Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory
  |id=Report Number 56
  |year=1999
  |pages=3, 77
}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
*{{cite book|first=J. A.|last=Picton|title=Memorials of Liverpool|volume=1. Historical|location=London|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co.|year=1875|url=https://archive.org/stream/MemorialsOfLiverpoolVol1/62.MemorialsOfLiverpoolVol1|oclc=10476612}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dl_ghLUNVGsC&q=old+dock+george+sorocold&pg=PA260|title=Lancashire: Liverpool and the Southwest|first1=Richard|last1=Pollard|first2=Nikolaus|last2=Pevsner|first3=Joseph|last3=Sharples|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=9780300109108}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|title=Old Dock Liverpool: Where it all Began|first1=Dave|last1=Cottrell|first2=John|last2=Hinchliffe|publisher=Theliverpolitan.com|year=2015|isbn=9780993361708}}
*{{cite book|title=Give a Dock a Good Name?|first1=Ken|last1=McCarron|first2=Adrian|last2=Jarvis|publisher=Merseyside Port Folios|location=Birkenhead|year=1992|pages=69–70|isbn=9780951612941|oclc=27770301}}
*Jarvis, Adrian (2014). ''Liverpool a history of 'The Great Port''', Liverpool History Press. {{ISBN|9780957383319}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Old Dock, Liverpool}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.liverpool2007.org.uk/docks/docks2a.htm|title=Liverpool South Docks map|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107034039/http://www.liverpool2007.org.uk/docks/docks2a.htm|archive-date=7 January 2009}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolpsda.co.uk/|title=The Paradise Project|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120213829/http://www.liverpoolpsda.co.uk/|archive-date=20 January 2008}}

{{Port of Liverpool docks}}

[[Category:Liverpool docks]]
[[Category:Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in Merseyside]]
[[Category:Docks (maritime)]]
[[Category:Former buildings and structures in Liverpool]]