The Stanley Dock Conservation Area is characterised on the one hand by massive port-related structures such as warehouses, walls and docks, both water-filled and dry graving docks, and on the other hand by smaller dock-related structures such as bridges, bollards and capstans. Many of the ground surfaces are original, including natural materials such as granite setts and stone flags, often disected by railway lines. The combination of structures, surfaces and water has created a distinctive cultural landscape.

The Stanley Dock Conservation Area incorporates the strong linear features of the dock boundary wall, part of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the line formed by the canal locks, the Stanley, Collingwood and Salisbury Docks and the Victoria Clock Tower, which is itself a dominant focal point from both the land and the river.

The area has examples of warehouses specifically designed to receive goods from moored vessels and which needed to be resistant to harsh wear and heavy weather. They were also specifically designed to prevent the spread of fire. Built from a limited range of materials - brick, stone, cast and wrought iron and mortar, these buildings and other innovative structures found in the area embody the optimum qualities of the functional tradition of industrial architecture of the period.

 The Stanley Dock Conservation Area represents a highly significant and visually dramatic part of Liverpool's historic dockland. 

The Dock Boundary Wall

The dock boundary wall is a most striking feature because of its grand scale, both in length and height, and because of its purpose to inhibit theft and smuggling. It was built over a period of approximately 30 years by different dock engineers. It varies in height and materials along its length of approximately 2.75 km., but is generally around 5.5m high and is a strong linear feature, making a crucial contribution to the grain and local distinctiveness of this part of Liverpool. Its purpose was to control rather than prevent access from the town into the docks, and the monumental gateways with their heavy wooden gates sliding in iron guide rails effectively made the docks into a fortress-like stronghold. The design of the various gate piers demonstrate a fascinating progression from Foster's early classical style to Hartley's whimsical turrets.

Incorporated into the wall at numerous points along both sides of its length are a vast array of interesting details, such as drinking fountains, policemen's huts, remnants of the overhead railway and panels with the names of the docks behind it, carved into masonry.

Princes Dock Boundary Wall and Piers. Bath Street 

1821

Grade II

Princes Dock, built by John Foster to designs by John Rennie and opened in 1821, was effectively closed to traffic in 1981, and partially infilled in 1999-2000. The north end of the floating stage at Princes Dock and the connecting Riverside Railway Station were the point of departure for hundreds of thousands of emigrants bound for America. 

Princes Dock was the first dock in Liverpool to have a boundary wall, which originally extended around all sides of the dock, and the original parts of this remain in situ on the east side, together with their handsome gate piers. The wall was begun in 1816 and is shown complete on Gage's map of 1821. It is constructed of red brick laid in English bond using lime mortar with a ridgeback sandstone coping. At its full height it is 5.5m, when measured from the dock side of the wall.

The Gate to Princes Dock is formed by Foster's pair of square buff sandstone piers are in the Greek Revival style much favoured by him. The shaft of each is formed by three pieces of stone. 

Princes Half-Tide Dock began as a tidal basin but was extensively modernised around 1868, when two passages and a barge lock were installed, allowing small vessels to come and go at a wider range of states of the tide. A similar arrangement may be seen in better condition at Salisbury Dock. Prior to the alterations, the dock boundary wall had been extended further north on the landward side, in similar brick between 1841 and 1848 to provide security for the Dock Railway, which was used for the construction of further docks to the north. The next four pairs of gate piers were built by Hartley in that section of wall. They are all granite rubble masonry piers with splayed bases rounded angles and Doric caps. 

The south gate pier at Gate to Docks 24, 27, 28 and Princes Dock is larger than the north pier as it incorporates a gatekeepers hut, which has a window and entrance on the rear and a window looking out onto the road. There is an original timber gate at the rear, which slides in a groove and fitted into a slot in the south pier.

The Gate To Princes Half -Tide Dock (opposite Roberts Street) and The Gate to Waterloo Warehouse are almost identical. They each consist of a pair of piers of similar size although the granite extends further into the wall on the south piers. 

The South Gate to Docks 28-31, Victoria, Princes and Waterloo Docks is a double entrance, with two outer piers and a larger central pier incorporating a gate hut. They have gate slots but modern railings between. 

Dock Boundary Wall from WaterlooDock to Stanley Dock and Gate Piers
1836-41
The Gate Piers are Grade II and as the wall is attached to them it is also effectively listed.

This part of the dock wall is similar in appearance and materials to that further south, but it was built fifteen to twenty years later. It has been reduced in height in front of the Waterloo Warehouse where a section is missing, removed to facilitate access to Riverside Station. Other breaches have subsequently been made to provide access to the dock estate.

The North Gate to Docks 28-31 Victoria, Princes and Waterloo, The Gate to Victoria and Trafalgar Docks and the Gate to Clarence Dock and the Gate to Clarence and Clarence Graving Dock  are  all built by Hartley in buff sandstone in classical style established by Foster. They are square in plan and have pitted rusticated bases, which chamfer to battered ashlar shafts and have gabled caps with acroteria. All have lost their original gates. 

The Dock Boundary Wall from Collingwood Dock to Huskisson Branch Dock No.2 and Gate Piers

Circa 1848

Grade II

This length of wall was built by Hartley in his more characteristic "Cyclopean" style, finely jointed irregular granite rubble brought to a fair face. It has a flush rounded coping of irregular lengths and it is approximately 5m high and 1.2 km long. Built into the outer face at two thirds height are large granite slabs into which are carved the names of the docks which are behind the wall and their date: Collingwood Dock 1848, Nelson Dock 1848, Bramley Moore Dock 1848, Wellington Dock 1848, Sandon Dock 1848 and Sandon Graving Dock 1848.

Just north of the bend in the wall at Nelson Dock is a cast iron drinking fountain, identical to that in the wall to Princes Dock. Part of the wall at Wellington Dock is constructed of rusticated buff sandstone as it was part of an overhead coal railway.

The entrance to South Collingwoodand South Salisbury Dock, the entrance to North Collingwood,North Salisbury and Nelson Docks and the entrance to Nelson, South Wellington and Bramley Moore Docks are all similar and have piers in the form of turrets. They are all double entrances, each having a flanking pair of round towers and a larger central tower incorporating a watchman's hut. The central towers have castellations above the cap, arrow-slit windows looking out onto the road and small chimneys. They all have deep slits at the sides for gates. The entrance to Wellingtonand Sandon Dock is almost identical, but the centre turret is oval on plan. 

The entrance to Collingwood Dock oppositeWalter Streetand the entrance to Nelson Dock, the south entrance to Sandon Dock and the north entrance to Sandon Dock are all a much simpler design, where the wall swells to form flush rounded piers with rounded cornices. 

The central entrance to Sandon Dock has two large granite piers with cornices and had iron lampholders. The central watchman's hut is constructed in brick and has a buff sandstone name plate in a pedimented panel. There are slits in the turrets for sliding timber gates (now missing).

Waterloo Warehouse, Waterloo Road 
Circa 1868
Grade II
The Corn Warehouses at East Waterloo were nominally completed in 1868, though 'snagging' dragged on until 1872. They were the first warehouses in the world built to handle bulk grain entirely from a central power source, which drove all the elevators and conveyors. There were originally three blocks, of which the north block was destroyed in the May Blitz (1941) and the west block was demolished in 1969 to make way for a new coastwise container terminal. The east block was converted into flats in 1990, which entailed the removal of all the machinery, but saved the exterior of an important building almost entirely unaltered. 

No firm evidence exists for the architect but it is believed to be the work of George Fosbery Lyster. The design was well received at the time, as James Picton,Liverpoolarchitect and historian, said of them: "The design is a great improvement on the massive ugliness of the Albert Warehouses"! 

Built mostly of brick, it has six storeys and 43 bays divided into six compartments by five full height vertical loading bays and two hoist towers of an additional two storeys. The ground floor has a colonnade of rusticated stone arches and square piers arches, and the windows are all paired and have iron frames.

Clarence Graving Docks, Regent Road 

1830

Grade II

These two graving docks are easily the oldest docks still in service on the Mersey. They date from 1830, although they were modernised as part of a major programme lasting from 1928-33. They are unusual in Liverpool in being dug partly from rock. Some of the masonry work is of unusually high quality even by Hartley's standards. They have stepped sides and granite barrel runs. The southern graving dock has two chambers. 

Salisbury, Collingwood, Stanley, Nelson and Bramley-Moore Docks
These five docks were opened in August 1848 under the £1.4 million programme of works authorised by Parliament in 1844. The arrangement of a double half-tide entrance with a barge lock is similar to that at Princes except that here there is also a lock from the half-tide dock (Salisbury) to the fully-impounded one (Collingwood). The system was built at a period of great prosperity and rapidly expanding commercial enterprise, during the Industrial Revolution. This complex is of exemplary design and construction and it was designed and built by Jesse Hartley.

The enclosed docks enable ships to lie alongside the warehouses, unaffected by the rise and fall of the tide and they also reduce opportunities for theft. Stanley Docks act as a link in an integrated transport system by giving access to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Three of the docks lie on an east-west axis and are connected by tidal lock gates. Collingwood Dock is further separated from Stanley Dock by a bridge, which carriesRegent Road. The five docks are all faced with Hartley's trademark "Cyclopean" granite, although the Salisbury Barge Lock is faced in red sandstone. The united water area of this system at its optimum was approximately 14ha, with a linear quay space of nearly 2 miles.

The Sea Wall to Salisbury Dock 
1848
Grade II 
The sea wall to the basin entrance was designed to protect shipping and the docks behind from the violence of wind and storm, and Baines described it as one of the "greatest works of the present or any age". It extends 244 metres to the north, 117 metres to the south and includes the 30 metre wide central island. The "Cyclopean" granite walling forms great sweeping curves and the cobbled paving extending almost 4m from the top of the wall and is constructed of very large flat white stones.

Salisbury, Collingwood and Stanley, Nelson and Bramley-Moore Dock Retaining Walls, Regent Road 

1848

Grade II

Salisbury Dock was built essentially as an entrance dock and a passage, with a double entrance to the river on the west (now blocked), and entrances to Nelson Dock to the north, Collingwood Dock to the east and Trafalgar Dock to the south. It also has a separate barge passage to the river (also now blocked).

The river entrance lock gates were half-tide (ie with one pair of inward-facing gates protected by one pair of outward-facing storm gates). In addition there was a smaller lock, with a pair of inward-facing gates at either end of the chamber. The gates were originally hand-operated, and converted to hydraulic power in 1933. The system gave the opportunity for access to and from the dock system long before and after full flood tide.

Collingwood Dock communicates with the river through the Salisbury Dock, and is situated next to the dock boundary wall. At the passage to Stanley Dock may be seen the foundations of previous movable bridges, including the unusual double-deck swing bridge which carried the Overhead Railway. The present Scherzer-type bridge was installed as part of a large bridge modernisation programme begun in 1928.

Stanley Dock is situated to the east ofSalisburyand Collingwood Dock. It is the only dock in Liverpool that was wholly excavated from dry land and survives as the only dock on the landward side of the dock road. Stanley Dock was originally square in shape, but was partially infilled to create its current rectangular shape at the very end of the 19th century to enable the massive tobacco warehouse to be built. 

Nelson Dock is a rectangular dock situated to the north of Salisbury Dock and is connected to it by a 60ft (9m) passage. It was originally used by screw steamers.

Bramley-Moore Dock is situated to the north of Nelson Dock and , at almost 10 acres, is the largest of this group of five docks. Its eastern end is splayed, following the dock road, to maximise waterspace.

Four Canal Locks between Stanley Dock and Leeds and Liverpool Canal, South of Lightbody Street 

Circa 1848

Grade II

Although the canal had been in partial use since 1774 and was completed through to Leeds in 1816, a series of disputes prevented a direct link to the docks being formed until 1848. When agreement was finally reached, it was stipulated that the four locks should be designed by Hartley, and the result is the only all-granite canal locks in the country. The handsome brick viaduct, which crosses the locks, carried the Liverpool and Bury Railway (now serving as part of the Merseyrail system) and was constructed at the same time as the locks. 

The Dock Master's Office, Salisbury Dock 
1848
Grade II
This pseudo-medieval edifice is dramatically situated on the sea wall, south of the VictoriaTower. It is a rectangular two storey building of three bays and is built of "Cyclopean" granite with battered walls and a corbelled parapet with battlements. The doors and some of the windows have 4-centred arched heads. Some windows are paired and some have label moulds with the date 1848 carved into the face. The south side has a small brick outbuilding, linked by a high brick wall, with a stone cornice and round arched window. Inside, the ceiling is formed by a brick segmental arch, as used in many of Hartley's warehouses. 

The Victoria Tower 

1848

Grade II

This spectacular piece of showmanship is primarily a handsome clock and bell tower not only giving time to neighbouring docks and arriving and departing ships but also ringing out high tide and warning notes. However, it also originally incorporated a Pier Master's flat.

It is constructed of granite of irregular shaped blocks in the form of a hexagon with a high tapered circular base, and a tower crowned by a projecting castellated parapet carried on corbels. Local folklore is that it was built by French prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars, but as the wars had ended 29 years before the tower was designed, this seems unlikely.

The Stanley Dock Warehouse Complex 

Stanley Dock itself opened in 1848, and between 1852-55 it was equipped with import warehouses similar to those at Albert Dock, although atStanleythe original, contemporary hydraulic pumping station survives, albeit currently in a poor state. In 1901 the dock was partly infilled and the largest tobacco warehouse in the world was built between the south stack of the old warehouses and the new water's edge to the north. The entire complex, with its high perimeter walls is largely complete, with many interesting details, making it currently the most challenging adaptive re-use opportunity inLiverpool. 

Warehouse on North Side of Stanley Dock 
1852-5
Grade II*
This warehouse differs from all the other Hartley warehouses in that it is built of plain brickwork with only a few sandstone dressings. It is 5 storeys high with a basement and now has 20 bays. Its south side is recessed at ground level behind a colonnade of cast-iron Doric columns, located immediately adjacent to the quayside. The north side has 6 loading bays. The windows have segmental heads and small-paned iron casements. The building exhibits a strong overall design through its powerful, yet simple and repeated elements.

The remaining hydraulic machinery, which is mostly in the basement is different from that found in the south warehouse and has an interesting arrangement of cast iron conduits to allow the control chains to be operated from the vaults. A post-war addition, constructed in 1953 to replace bomb damage, consists of a reinforced concrete single-storey building with a shell roof.

Warehouse South of Stanley Tobacco Warehouse 
1852-5
Grade II
This warehouse is similar to the north warehouse, being built of brick but is different to that and any of Hartley's other warehouses in that it has a 1.5m rubble granite base and a further 3.3m of rusticated rock-faced red sandstone above. It is 5 storeys high with a basement and 31 bays.

In anticipation of the new Tobacco Warehouse, which separated the southern warehouse from the dock, extensive alterations were carried out in 1895/96, notably by infilling the elliptical arches with bricks and removing the cast iron columns.

Major repairs and reconstruction were carried out to the South Warehouse during 1940-44 because of the considerable damage sustained during World War II. The substantial single storey ferro-concrete extension between the south wall of the warehouse and the south perimeter wall of the complex was built in 1916, and is an early, if crude, example of its type.

Much of the hydraulic machinery for the jiggers survives, and is believed to date from around 1900. The hoisting ram is at ground floor, the jib at 2nd floor and the complex power slewing gear at 3rd floor. There are also three hydraulic tobacco presses - two double (1900) and one single (1891). On the 3rd floor are four light duty screw presses for pressing in the heads of the hogsheads, moved there from King's Tobacco Warehouse in 1904. There is also an open "cage" lift, which is almost certainly original and it is unusual that it has survived, as all of the other similar ones were removed after a man fell to his death from one in 1927. It has its hydraulic machinery on the ground floor and its wire ropes are protected in wrought iron conduits.

The Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse 
1901
Grade II
This gargantuan warehouse is on an unequalled heroic scale and it dominates the landscape in this part of Liverpool. It extends along the whole of the south front of Stanley Dock. It is 14 storeys high with 42 bays divided by seven loading bays and is said to be the largest warehouse in the world and the largest brick building in the world. Its construction absorbed 27 million bricks, 30,000 panes of glass and 8,000 tons of steel. It could accommodate 70,000 hogsheads of tobacco (each weighing 1,000 lbs). It was designed by A.G. Lyster, the Dock Engineer, but Arthur Berrington, an architectural draughtsman in Lyster's office, almost certainly had a hand in the brick and terracotta detailing. 

At high level on the west end in raised figures and letters are "MDE, 1900" and "Tobacco Warehouse." On the north (dock) side are a series of iron stairs. On the south side there are a number of later bridges linking to the south Warehouse. The area between The Tobacco Warehouse and South Stanley Warehouse is known locally as "Pneumonia Alley" because it is almost always in shade and often acts as a wind tunnel.

Hydraulic Tower to West of North Stanley Warehouse, Regent Road 
Circa 1852-55
Grade II
To the west of the North Warehouse, is a tall octagonal tower built of smooth stone in irregular blocks of granite, with arrow slit openings and castellations at the top, surmounted by a round chimney and an attached lower block. These formed the pump house and hydraulic tower to provide the power for lifting appliances, some capstans and tobacco presses. The only surviving equipment inside is the accumulator.

Two Entrances to Stanley Dock Complex at North from Great Howard Street and two at South End from Regent Road 

Circa 1845-8

Grade II

There are four vehicle entrances to the Stanley Dock complex - in thenorth west, north east, south east and south west corners. They are all of the same general design and appearance as Hartley's entrances to the other docks on the east side of the dock road, although they have subsequently been blocked or gated in different ways. Each is formed by 3 rounded granite towers and originally had sliding gates set into the thickness of the wall. 

The "King's Pipe", Great Howard Street 
Unlisted 
This tall round tapering chimney in the south east courtyard served a furnace for the destruction of floor sweepings of tobacco and damaged tobacco.

The Bonded Tea Warehouse, Great Howard Street 

Circa 1840

Grade II

This large brick warehouse of six storeys and a basement presents a regular front to Great Howard Streetand extends from Dublin Street to Dickenson Street. It was designed and built by S. K. J. Holme. There are ten deeply recessed loading bays with segmental arched tops and iron doors and each of the six storeys has a row of identical small windows.