C O N T E X T 1 3 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 4 35 JOHN WATLING The loss of the Liverpool Custom House The controversy about whether Liverpool’s bombed Custom House should be retained highlighted the state of heritage protection before the introduction of the statutory list. Amonument to Liverpool’s glorious maritime mercantile history, John Foster Jr’s Liverpool Custom House was bomb-damaged during the May Blitz of 1941. Despite a fervent debate for its restoration and retention, the building was demolished in 1947 – the same year that the current statutory list was introduced. Although in a key location at the heart of the city centre, the site was left poorly developed for six decades, until the realisation of the Liverpool One development. The site of Liverpool CustomHouse since the birth of the city has been influential in its prosperity. It was the site of the ‘Pool’ around which Liverpool first grew and later that of the ‘Old Dock’, the world’s first commercial wet dock, which propelled Liverpool to the forefront of world trade.The site is the confluence where all major routes through the city meet the dock system. On demolition of the Custom House, the city went into a period of decline and not until this site was properly developed once more did Liverpool emerge from these dark times. John Foster Jr (1787–1846) was the second son of John Foster Sr (1758–1827), Architect and then Surveyor to the Corporation of Liverpool between 1789 and 1824. Foster Jr studied under Sir Jeffry Wyattville and James Wyatt in London before partaking in a Grand Tour of Asia Minor between 1809–1816, alongside CR Cockerell. He replaced his father as Surveyor to the Corporation A view from Salthouse Dock in around 1890 (Frith Series, Liverpool Records Office) An aerial photo showing bomb damage in June 1941 (RAF photography, English Heritage) of Liverpool in 1824 and remained in post until the Municipal Reform Act 1835.1 It was his schooling in the classical style which led to his adoption of the Greek revival style for his many commissions throughout Liverpool. As a city, Liverpool continued to produce neoclassical civic architecture long after London had moved towards the gothic revival.
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