Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse

I wanted to find out a bit more about this huge, iconic building and thought I'd share my discoveries. The basic statistics are impressive in themselves. Designed by Anthony George Lyster, the last of Liverpool's famous dock engineers, the 14-storey building covers 26 acres. There are 42 bays divided by seven loading bays. Its construction took 27 million bricks, 30,000 panes of glass and 8,000 tons of steel. It is said to be the largest brick-build building in the entire world and at the time of its construction it was the largest warehouse in the world of any description. I couldn't determine for certain whether this remains the case. It has few exits to prevent theft and the area between it and the South Stanley Warehouse is known as "Pneumonia Alley" because of a localised wind-tunnel effect and because it is always in shade.

The first tobacco shipment arrived from Virginia in 1648. Trade steadily grew and Liverpool had to build ever larger warehouses to store and supply demand all year round from what is, of course, a seasonal crop. This kept the market stable and free of wild price fluctuations. Stanley Dock was opened in 1848 and had locks linking the docks to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The new tobacco warehouse was opened at the turn of the century and at the time was state-of-the-art. At a high level on the west end in raised brick figures and letters are "MDE, 1900". It is believed that MDE is an acronym for Mersey Docks Estates. (Thanks to Ron Formby at the Scottie Press for digging that out) 

Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse fell out of use in the 1980s and is now Grade 2 listed. English Heritage has said it believes the building should be saved as landmark of Liverpool's port history.

The ongoing development of the Sunday Heritage Market held adjacent to the warehouse, which already brings upwards of 750,000 people a year to the area, can only help to protect the warehouse and find new uses for the buildings. Ex-London barrow-boy Frank Tough is already transforming the Heritage Market as he strives to emulate or even out-do London's Camden Market, the top most-visited tourist destination in the UK. At the Stanley Warehouse, there is massive scope for expansion, in contrast to Camden which is butting up against a lack of available space for growth. With Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 now rapidly nearing, the Heritage Market can reinvigorate the entire area and secure a modern future for the important buildings it inhabits. For more on Frank's plans, see this interesting feature from Market Trader news. (Photo c English Heritage)