The Georgian Era

The opening of the first commercial wet dock in 1715 marks the beginning of Liverpool's most transformative and morally complex era. The city grew with extraordinary speed, its merchants accumulating vast wealth through the transatlantic slave trade while simultaneously producing some of Britain's most prominent abolitionists. The Georgian streets, grand merchant houses, and civic buildings that still define much of Liverpool's built environment were raised on this contradiction. By the time Victoria ascended to the throne, Liverpool was already one of the world's great cities — and already wrestling with the cost of how it got there.