James Stratford

I'm James — a Liverpool-based photographer, historian, and guide with a lifelong obsession with this city's extraordinary story.

rpool.live is a personal project built without compromise. Every article is researched and written by me, every photograph is my own, and every design decision reflects my belief that Liverpool's history deserves to be told with the care and quality it rarely receives. This is a slow-burn endeavour — I'd rather publish one excellent article than ten adequate ones.

Liverpool's past is rich, complex, and at times deeply uncomfortable. I approach it with honesty and without agenda — neither sanitising the difficult chapters nor reducing the city's whole story to its darkest moments. If you have a constructive thought about anything you read here, I'm always glad to hear it.

I hope this site gives you a genuine sense of what makes Liverpool one of the most consequential cities in human history.

Your host,
James