Hello students, hello everyone and welcome to my AVZINE channel, my name’s Aidan O’Rourke.
The view today from my virtual office is overlooking the old Liverpool Speke Airport.
That’s the control tower and terminal building, constructed in 1938.
And today it’s a hotel.
I took this photo for the book ‘Liverpool Then and Now’ which presents old photos
of Liverpool side by side with my modern photos.
This video presents 27 facts about the Liver Building and it also appears on an article
on my aidan.co.uk site, which for some time has been around number 7 on Google if you
do a search for ‘Liverpool Liver Building’.
I hope it stays like that.
Why not give it a try?
In honour of Carl Bernard Bartels, I’ve also produced a German version of this video.
Okay so it’s time to make our way into Liverpool City centre and take a look at this remarkable
building.
The Liver Building was completed in 1911.
It's one of the first multi-storey reinforced concrete structures.
The Royal Liver Building and the Liver Birds are symbols of Liverpool.
You can see the Liver Birds on the streets, buildings and the city coat of arms.
The Liver Building is one of the Three Graces.
The buildings stand side by side on the Pier Head next to the River Mersey.
The Liver Building was once the tallest building in Britain.
It is 322 feet or 98.2 metres tall to the top of the spires.
In recent years, higher buildings have been constructed in Liverpool.
The Liver Building was designed by local architect Walter Aubrey Thomas.
He designed many buildings in Liverpool including the Tower Building opposite the Liver Building.
The Liver Birds were designed by the German artist Carl Bernard Bartels.
Unfortunately, this fact was kept secret for many years.
The Liver Building resembles some buildings in the United States,
for example the Wrigley Building in Chicago, although this building was not built until
1924.
The Liver Building is made of reinforced concrete with a granite façade.
At that time, some people believed that concrete was not strong enough for a tall building.
The Liver Building was built on a former dock.
In the late 19th century, St. George’s Dock was filled in.
The Three Graces were built on the site.
The ‘bell towers’ contain no bells.
There is room for bells, but no bells were installed because it was thought that their
weight could cause the building to collapse.
Electronic chimes were installed in 1953.
The chimes were produced using piano strings and played live through a loudspeaker in the
tower.
Today’s chimes are produced digitally.
In 2016 a new chiming mechanism was installed.
The sounds are a digital recording of the old chimes and are played from 7 am to 10
pm.
The inner courtyard walls were covered with a modern glass façade.
It cannot be seen from the outside and allow more light into the office spaces.
The tower on the river side has three clock faces, the tower on the land side has only
one clock face.
Eight clock faces were evidently too expensive and also not necessary.
The clock faces are larger than those of ‘Big Ben’.
They are 25 feet or 7.6 metres in diameter.
Those of ‘Big Ben’ are 23 feet or 7 metres in diameter.
The clocks in the Liver Building are the largest electronically driven clocks in Britain.
An electric pulse is sent to all four clocks every 30 seconds.
The faces of the clocks do not have numerals.
The design of the building is traditional, but the dials look modern.
The lighting used to be yellow, now it's white.
The clocks in the Liver Building are called George clocks.
The clocks were set in motion on the 22nd of June 1911, the day King George V was crowned.
During construction, one of the dials of the clock was used as a banqueting table.
In the famous photograph, we can see 38 men sitting around the clock face.
They are prominent people in the Royal Liver and the City of Liverpool.
The building is Grade 1 listed.
This means that it has been classified as of exceptional interest and possibly international
importance.
Each of the two Liver Birds holds something in its beak, but what is it?
It looks like a twig, but it is probably a piece of seaweed.
The building was named after the Royal Liver Assurance Company.
It was built in 1911 for their 6000 employees.
In 2011, the company merged with Royal London and no longer has offices there.
The Liver Building is a commercial office building.
The most famous symbol of Liverpool has always been an office building.
A number of companies now have offices there.
The Liver Building has been renovated several times, the last time in 2019.
The façade was cleaned in the early 1970s.
The two Liver birds are called Bella and Bertie, which seems unlikely because...
Legend has it that Liverpool will cease to exist if they fly away, which seems unlikely
because...
The Liver Birds are very big and very heavy!
Each one is 5.50 metres high, made of copper and weighs four tons.
viewing terrace was finally opened in 2019.
The Royal Liver Building 360 Tower Tours and Visitor Experience was opened in 2019.
I can definitely recommend the tower tour.
It’s true, your time on the viewing terrace is limited but it has to be like that due
to the design of the building and also safety considerations.
Overall, the experience is great.
I love the Liver Building, it’s one of my favourite buildings anywhere and I hope you’ll
get to visit it soon.
So, thanks for watching, and please give me a thumbs up and even subscribe to the channel
and I’ll see you again soon.