For those of you also researching its always worth checking regularly at Abebooks. While the volume is usually expensive and classified 'rare' I've just had my own copy delivered for only three of your earth pounds (plus postage). As I said. Happy!
Damn I love finding a bargain! For some of my research there's one particular book on James Spence that has been great, but the only two copies I'd found were reference only only in the Public Records Office and Special Collections and Archives.
For those of you also researching its always worth checking regularly at Abebooks. While the volume is usually expensive and classified 'rare' I've just had my own copy delivered for only three of your earth pounds (plus postage). As I said. Happy!
0 Comments
I enjoyed the first part of Dan Snow's history of railways, but yet again Henry Booth got little more than a sidebar mention. The degree of his engineering involvement in some areas is disputed ( though in others isn't at all and is admitted by all), but while The Rocket at least was given to George Stephenson's son rather than himself as is more usual, no mention of Booth. Regardless of whether the multi-tubular boiler really was his invention as claimed in many quarters, the Rain Hill award for the most successful locomotive was given jointly to Stephenson Jnr and Booth together, so worthy of a mention I would have thought. maybe they'll pick up his other vital contributions in part 2 ( though i won't hold my breath).
"I had no previous inclination towards the Southern side of the question. But your reasoning is so clear and close, your knowledge of the subject matter so minute and so extensive, and your treatment of it at once so skillful and so temperate that I cannot resist the conclusion at which you have yourself arrived" - Charles Dickens.
Interesting quote to James Spence (number 10) on his American Union book. I'm wondering if the recently discovered details on who wrote the articles for Dickens' journal ( including the previously unidentified article on the Morrell Tariff) might throw up more links. The fact the two corresponded, and that Dickens had a signed copy of Spence's book in his library can't help but make me wonder if Dickens visited on any of his trips to Liverpool in the 1860s, as his performance venue is literally a stone's throw away. Wouldn't it be great to discover that Dickens may have dined in the square? Not had chance to confirm my suspicions about James Spence's Pompeiian room by checking out the plans yet, but its on the list for next week if I can.
Instead, I used a day's leave today to spend what is always a fascinating and enjoyable time in the Athanaeum library, browsing through their maps for things of note. Its great to find one including the square by James Newlands (occupant of number 18a), and very useful in plotting all my recent explorations, the development of the railway, and the suspicion that a number of the printed and dated surveys ( yes I'm talking about you Mr Gage!) didn't always take the effort to go and actually check whether anything had changed on some streets. Or didn't greatly care. The first few decades of the nineteenth century I find fascinating in this regard. Publications mentioning things existing or having been already built ( the numerous updated editions of Stranger in Liverpool are great for this) prove they must have been there, even if the latest 'contemporary and accurate' survey shows nothing there. You can't necessarily blame a lax cartographer of course. You can't survey everywhere, draw accurate plans to every building, check and publish in a day or two, so some of the survey date will always be weeks or probably months old at least, but I suspect on occasion I re-drawing of one area for the sake of one extra domestic residence wouldn't have been a high priority for everyone. Totally unrelated picture. I went walking around Great George Square today, and have a few pics for the future, as its an interesting comparison with the development and history of Abercromby, but when I reached town there was a rather great band busking, electric violin and all, but it was made by the dancing of the alien pictured. Anyway, just thought I'd share. Research carrying on into railway history, and as you may have guessed, other Liverpool sites, but the great news is that I suspect I've pinned down the location of the 'Pompeiian Room' built by James Spence in number ten Abercromby Square. I need to check old floor plans next week to confirm but if I'm right it will give a very interesting view of the ground floor, and how it would have compared to number 19. A post on this will follow ( with a pic if you're lucky) if I manage to gather enough evidence to make the supposition more than likely! No writing for a few days I know, but I haven’t been idle I promise! Sometimes it takes a few days for the brain to percolate information, so that’s what I’ve been doing; percolating.
Now I’ve got a better picture of the exact orientations of the Crown Street station, Moorish arch, omnibus routes etc, I’ve been trying to piece together the likely un-minuted thinking of those who lived in the Square and were integral to the planning of the railway. While some reasonings don’t seem to have been minuted (for obvious reasons) the location of the Liverpool station wouldn’t have been random. Ownership of land, proximity ( literally to the line of the Town limits on Crown Street to comply with regulations), the impact it would have on the appeal of the houses of Abercomby Square must all have been considered financially. Likewise taking into account the fears of people about railways and locomotives at the time; the station in a deep cutting out of sight, with grand Moorish arch to hide the steam pulleys, but only a couple of hundred yards further out of town, and the practicalities of the dirty maintenance and manual labour needing to be kept away from the gentry must all have been considered too. The Crown Street station, impressive but away from the dirt and noise of the engines themselves, and allowing flat access for a gentleman’s own carriage to be mounted on a low loader ( as shown in Bury’s pictures and listed in Gore’s directory by price), is a prestige development, but its all an absolutely staggering planning job. And so short lived as six years later everything would move to Lime Street. I shall write again, promise, but as Deep Thought might say, that’ll take some thinking about. Today I have wandered for several miles trying to follow the lines of the old railway and piece together exactly what was where. I did come across another fantastic picture of Crown Street station, different from the better known engraving, this one from an 1833 Penny Magazine article. And I've now lost the website of course in my excitement, but the picture shows much more detail, and crucially the descending level of the tracks compared to the station, as the carriages descended by gravity to the cutting at Edge Hill.
|
Archives
March 2024
Categories |