Alan Telfer Chape

This is a book about Liverpool. However, it focuses upon a particular area, from its late 19th C beginnings, which in many ways exemplifies the travails and renaissance of the City. The area is the Pier Head and the adjacent Waterfront. This area is the public and global face of the City. Liverpool is “No Mean City” and each chapter of the book tells an unfolding story that attempts to show what that means and particularly how the “Elegance, dignity and vulgarity” of the three principal buildings in many ways reflected and embodied the heady mix and turbulence of the City itself. I will clarify what those terms mean in the following preface.