The Story of Paradise Street in Liverpool

Описание: The Story of Paradise Street in Liverpool

Paradise Street is approximately 300 years old. While not among Liverpool's original seven streets, which date back around 800 years, it holds significant historical importance.

Before becoming a street, the site was part of the Liver Pool—a natural tidal creek with thick, clotted water that gave the city its name. This pool served as Liverpool's earliest harbour and was key to the city's development as a port.

The area had several prior names, including Frog Lane—due to the frogs inhabiting the marshy ground after the pool was drained—and Common Shore or Shoreditch, also known as "the sewer" for its swampy, foul-smelling nature. It was formally laid out around 1721 as Common Shore or Shoreditch, with those names lingering until 1745. Between 1733 and 1739, it was renamed Paradise Street by engineer Thomas Steers, who drained the pool to build Liverpool's first dock. He drew the name from Paradise Street in Rotherhithe, London, where he had resided.

Its proximity to the new dock attracted merchants, sailors, and traders, leading to inns and establishments that earned it a reputation as a place of "ill repute." The sea shanty "Blow the Man Down" references a sailor encountering a "friendly" lady on Paradise Street.

Throughout Liverpool's history, the street has been a hub for commerce and shopping.

Today, it forms an integral part of Liverpool One, one of Europe's largest shopping precincts.

On Thomas Steers Way, a small round railing with a porthole in the floor allows a view of the old dock below—standing directly over the site of the original Liver Pool.

On a walk with Out in Liverpool, start along Thomas Steers Way, noting the water feature as a tribute to the old dock and the Liverpool sign marking the mouth of the former tidal pool. The Hilton Hotel occupies the area of the filled-in dock. Proceed along Paradise Street, passing the gates to the old Sailors' Home (re-erected in 2011) and the site of the first American Consulate. The walk ends at the start of Whitechapel, heading toward Dale Street, which—along with Byrom Street near the Queensway Mersey Tunnel entrance—traces the route of the original pool and creek.

Next time you pass the modern shops on Paradise Street, consider its transformation from a muddy creek 300 years ago.

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