History
THE history of the Albert Dock dates back to 1837, when Jesse Hartley first began the development of plans for a combined dock and warehouse system.The plans were drawn up by Hartley and fellow civil egineer Philip Hardwick . However, this idea was not new, and as far back as the 1803 Warehousing Act, legislation had been passed to allow this form of development to occur, whilst the concept was first actually used in the construction of St Katharine's Dock in London, which was opened in 1828.
The dock complex was officially opened in 1846 by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria and the man in honour it was named after. This event marked the first occasion in the Liverpool's history in which a member of the Royal Family had made a state visit to the city and as a result the occasion was marked with a major celebrations. Many thousands of people turned out for the Royal visit with the newspaper The Pictorial Times noting the reception Prince Albert received:
"His reception was most enthusiastic; balconies were erected along the line of procession, and these and the windows of houses were filled with gay and animated parties. There was a most brilliant display of flags and banners. All business is suspended. There are 200,000 strangers in town, and all the inhabitants are in the streets. All is gaiety and splendour."
Jesse Hartley
Jesse Hartley (21 December 1780–24 August 1860), he was Civil Engineer and Superintendent of the Concerns of the Dock Estate in Liverpool, England between 1824 and 1860.
Hartley's Career
Despite having no experience of dock building, Hartley was the first full-time professional dock engineer in the world. He had previously worked for his father, Bernard Hartley who was a stonemason, architect and bridgemaster, John Carr and the Duke of Devonshire.
Initially he was appointed Deputy Dock Surveyor to John Foster Jr. However, due to John Foster Jr. resigning three days later, he was promoted to Acting Dock Surveyor. During his service, he not only built new docks, but also modernised all of the existing docks, with the exception of the Old Dock (opened in 1715) which had become disused and filled in. The docks at Liverpool grew from 46 to 212 acres (19 to 86 ha) during his tenure.
In 1831 he was appointed to convert the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal to a railway line. He persuaded the company to keep the canal open and build the railway more or less along its route.
Between 1841 and 1843 he prepared a number of different designs for fireproof construction of dockside warehouses. In 1843, he made models of warehouse arches at the Trentham Street Dockyard, to test sheet iron lined timber floored building method and brick and iron building materials. Through fire testing of these models, he eventually convinced the Dock Board Trustees of the benefits of his iron framed construction method. These experiments proved the worthiness of his fireproof design and he designed the Albert Dock to these specifications.
Hartley’s improvements over earlier dock and warehouse design included the use of locks to keep the water at a constant level, so that loading and unloading of ships’ cargoes was not reliant on the tide and the enclosure of the dock with high boundary walls, to reduce theft from the docks. He also adapted and improved the design of St Katharines Dock in London, by incorporating high arches in the buildings to accommodate cranes.
