page_title: Architecture of Liverpool
section_title: Victorian (1837–1901)
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Liverpool / Chronology and styles / Victorian (1837–1901)
context_page_description: The architecture of Liverpool is rooted in the city's development into a major port of the British Empire. It encompasses a variety of architectural styles of the past 300 years, while next to nothing remains of its medieval structures which would have dated back as far as the 13th century. Erected 1716-18, Bluecoat Chambers is supposed to be the oldest surviving building in central Liverpool.
  There are over 2500 listed buildings in Liverpool of which 27 are Grade I and 85 Grade II* listed. It has been described by English Heritage as England's finest Victorian city. However, due to neglect, some of Liverpool's finest listed buildings are on English Heritage's Heritage at Risk register. Though listed buildings are concentrated in the centre, Liverpool has many buildings of interest throughout its suburbs.
  In accordance with Liverpool's role as a trading port, many of its best buildings were erected as headquarters for shipping firms and insurance companies. The wealth thus generated led to the construction of grand civic buildings, designed to allow the local administrators to "run the city with pride".
context_section_description: Liverpool continued to grow throughout the Victorian period from a population of 165,000 in 1831 to 685,000 by 1901. This meant a growing demand for housing and other buildings. After the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway, other railway links to Liverpool were made, the Grand Junction Railway gave access to Birmingham and London in 1837; Chester and Birkenhead Railway (1840) then to Liverpool via Steam Ferry operational since 1815; Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (1847) and Cheshire Lines Committee (1873). In 1880 Liverpool was granted city status.
  "Among the great cities of the world.... there is no other so exclusively devoted to commerce. Every house in Liverpool is either a counting-house, a warehouse, a shop, or a house that in one way or another is either an instrument or the result of trade.....and the inhabitants are nearly all to a man traders or the servants of traders" Johann Georg Kohl 1844, in The British Isles and Their Inhabitants
caption: Panorama of Liverpool c.1850
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