Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan
Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it is
located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between
1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the
county of Cheshire. At the 2001 Census, its population was 1,450.
Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in its
soap factory; work commenced in 1888. The name is derived from Lever Brothers'
most popular brand of cleaning agent, Sunlight.
Port Sunlight contains 900 Grade II listed buildings, and was declared a
Conservation Area in 1978. Port Sunlight has been informally suggested for World
Heritage Site status to protect it from development and to preserve the unique
character for future generations; however, it is not yet on the current UK
"tentative list" for future consideration as a WHS.
History In 1887, Lever Brothers began looking
for a new site on which to expand its soap-making business, which was at that
time based in Warrington. The company bought 56 acres of flat unused marshy
land in Cheshire, south of the River Mersey. It was large enough to allow
space for expansion, and had a prime location between the river and a railway
line. The site became Port Sunlight, where William Lever built his works and
a model village to house his employees. William Lever personally supervised
planning the village, and employed nearly thirty different architects.
Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500.
The garden village had allotments and public buildings including the Lady
Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air
swimming pool, church, and a temperance hotel. Lever introduced welfare schemes,
and provided for the education and entertainment of his workforce,
encouraging recreation and organisations which promoted art, literature, science
or music. Lever's aims were "to socialise and
Christianise business relations and get back to that close family brotherhood
that existed in the good old days of hand labour." He claimed that Port
Sunlight was an exercise in profit sharing, but rather than share profits
directly, he invested them in the village. He said, "It would not do you
much good if you send it down your throats in the form of bottles of
whisky, bags of sweets, or fat geese at Christmas. On the other hand, if you
leave the money with me, I shall use it to provide for you everything that makes
life pleasant – nice houses, comfortable homes, and healthy recreation."
The historical significance of Port Sunlight lies in its combination of
model industrial housing, providing materially decent conditions for working
people, with the architectural and landscape values of the garden suburb,
influenced by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Each block of houses was designed by a different architect. The backs of any of
the houses cannot be seen, and each house is unique. In terms of
architectural features, there is half-timbering, carved woodwork and
masonry, pargetting moulded and twisted chimneys and leaded glazed patterns.
Some houses were built in Flemish style, with bricks imported from Belgium.
Community One of the great buildings in Port
Sunlight is the Lady Lever Art Gallery. A keen art collector, Lever travelled
all over the world and liked to show the villagers the art he collected. Opened
in 1922 by Princess Beatrice, the art gallery shows Lever's collection and
modern-day artwork. The collection includes a range of furniture,
paintings, sculptures and ceramics. Other notable buildings include the
Lyceum, the Gladstone Theatre, Hesketh Hall and the "Bridge Inn" public house.
The village contains a Christ Church, a United Reformed Church, and opposite is
a small primary school. Church Drive Primary School is open to people living
outside the village and residents. There is a war memorial by Goscombe John in
the village centre in memory of soldiers that died in World War I. Port Sunlight
has a water feature. The open air swimming pool is now a garden centre and
cafe. The Cottage Hospital, opened in 1907,
was closed for many years but refurbished and reopened in 2008 as the
Leverhulme Hotel. Until the 1980s, all residents were
employees of Unilever and their families. During this decade the houses
were first sold privately. The former village school is now a working men's
club. Transport
The area is served by both Bebington and Port Sunlight railway stations, on the
Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. There are regular train services to
Chester, Ellesmere Port and to Liverpool via Birkenhead.
Cultural references Port Sunlight was widely celebrated. In
1912, it became the subject of a hit West End musical comedy, The Sunshine
Girl, at the Gaiety Theatre, London. It starred Phyllis Dare, one of the most
popular pin-ups of the Edwardian era, and was written by Paul Alfred Rubens.
The show introduced the tango dance to British audiences. In 1919, Lever
Brothers made a 40-minute long sponsored film, Port Sunlight, to promote the town
and factory. The Sunlight Cottages in Glasgow are
rare surviving relics from the series of Great Exhibitions held in Kelvingrove
Park in 1888, 1901 and 1911. These rambling, asymmetrical cottages were
constructed in 1901 as replicas of two of the Port Sunlight houses. Designed in
an idealised Elizabethan half-timbered style by Exhibition architect James
Miller, the houses are picturesquely sited high above the Kelvin. Donated to
the city of Glasgow by Lord Leverhulme after the close of the Exhibition, the
cottages have been used as park workers' housing ever since.
Notable people Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight, was the venue
for drummer Ringo Starr's official debut as a member of The Beatles on 18 August
1962. It is also the site of the band's first
ever broadcast interview. The interview was with local disc jockey Monty Lister
and recorded for Radio Clatterbridge on 27 October 1962.
Fiona Bruce, host of the long-running British television show Antiques
Roadshow, grew up in Port Sunlight. In her introduction to an episode of AR
that was set in the village, she stood in front of the house in which she lived
as a child and explained that her father was a managing director of a division of
Unilever. Gallery
See also Listed buildings in Port Sunlight
References Further reading
Beeson, Edward William. Port Sunlight; the model village of England, a
collection of photographs. A.Macqueen: The King of Sunlight: how
William Lever cleaned up the world. Bantam, London, 2004.
External links Christ Church Port Sunlight
Christ Church Port Sunlight Bells Port Sunlight Village Community
Port Sunlight Village Trust