English
Français
Mann Island
Mann Island is a small area in Liverpool, England. It lies on the waterfront next to the River Mersey between the Albert Dock to the south and the Pier Head to the north.
Nearby Places View Menu
45 m
Chester Basin
Chester Basin was a tidal basin on the River Mersey, in Liverpool, England. The basin was situated between the Pier Head and Manchester Dock.
64 m
The Beatles Statue
The Beatles Statue is a monument in Liverpool, England, placed at the Pier Head, near the intersection of Brunswick Street and Canada Boulevard. It was designed by sculptor Andy Edwards, and unveiled on 4 December 2015. It consists of four bronze statues depicting the members of the Beatles: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon.
72 m
Liverpool Naval Memorial
The Liverpool Naval Memorial, also known as the Memorial to the Missing of the Naval Auxiliary Personnel of the Second World War or the Merchant Navy War Memorial, is a war memorial at Pier Head beside the River Mersey in Liverpool, near to the Royal Liver Building and the Museum of Liverpool. It commemorates nearly 1,400 men from the British Merchant Navy who died on active service with Royal Navy in the Second World War, and who have no known grave.
More than 13,000 officers and seamen of the Merchant Navy agreed to serve with the Royal Navy in the Second World War, serving mainly in auxiliary vessels such as armed merchant cruisers, subject to military discipline but still receiving civilian pay. The depot for registration and administration of the naval auxiliaries from the Merchant Navy was established at Liverpool.
After the Second World War, the Imperial War Graves Commission (later the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) organised a competition for a memorial, with a budget of £5,000, open to architects who had served in the armed forces. The winning design was created by architects Charles Frederick Blythin and Stanley Harold Smith, with sculpture by George Herbert Tyson Smith. It was unveiled by Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope on 12 November 1952.
The memorial comprises a narrow cylindrical column of Portland stone topped by a glazed lantern, which has glass lenses with a reflective backing intended to resemble a lighthouse, which stands on a semicircular Portland stone platform surrounded by curved walls. The platform is reached by flight of six steps, and the walls support a pair of stone globes, one terrestrial and one celestial. The memorial bears the inscription "These officers and men of the Merchant Navy died while serving with the Royal Navy and have no grave but the sea 1939–1945". The names of the dead are inscribed on 25 bronze plaques arranged around the curved Portland stone walls of the memorial. It became a Grade II listed building in 2010.
Among several other memorials at Pier Head are memorials to seamen from Norway, Poland, China, the Netherlands and Belgium who served in the Second World War, and a memorial dedicated to the Merchant Navy unveiled in 1998. There is a proposal to erect a large Battle of the Atlantic memorial nearby. Merchant seamen lost at sea in the First and Second World Wars are also commemorated by the Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill in London.
80 m
Port of Liverpool Building
The Port of Liverpool Building (formerly Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Offices, more commonly known as the Dock Office) is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and, along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Cunard Building, is one of Liverpool's Three Graces, which line the city's waterfront. It was part of Liverpool's UNESCO-designated World Heritage Maritime Mercantile City.
The building was designed by Sir Arnold Thornely and F.B. Hobbs and was developed in collaboration with Briggs and Wolstenholme. It was constructed between 1904 and 1907, with a reinforced concrete frame that is clad in Portland stone. The building was the headquarters of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) for 87 years, from 1907 to 1994, when the company relocated to new premises at Seaforth Dock. In 2001 it was sold to Downing, a Liverpool-based property developer, and between 2006 and 2009 underwent a major £10m restoration that restored many original features of the building.
The Port of Liverpool Building is in the Edwardian Baroque style and is noted for the large dome that sits atop it, acting as the focal point of the building. It is approximately rectangular in shape with canted corners that are topped with stone cupolas. At 220 feet (67 m) the building was the tallest building in Liverpool when built, and as of 2025 is the sixteenth tallest. Like the neighbouring Cunard Building, it is noted for the ornamental detail both on the inside and out, and in particular for the many maritime references and expensive decorative furnishings.