It is still in use but once played a vital role for a huge company based in the city
It is still in use but once played a vital role for a huge company based in the city
Liverpool’s port has long shaped how the city looks. The wealth generated by passenger and cargo shipping in the 18th and 19th centuries set the foundations for what we recognise as our city today.
Trade passing through Liverpool’s port in the 19th century, which increased the city’s status and influence, resulted in the construction of grand commercial and office buildings around the city centre, including The Royal Insurance Building on North John Street – the history of which the ECHO looked into last week. This culminated in the building of the Three Graces at the Pier Head, which were completed in the early 20th century.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, many big businesses were based in our city to take advantage of the port. Liverpool’s west coast location meant it was well positioned for trade with the Americas.
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Among those companies was Henry Tate & Sons, a sugar company established in Liverpool in 1859 by Lancashire-born Henry Tate – of the Tate gallery fame. Mr Tate, who also operated in London, opened his landmark Liverpool refinery on Love Lane in Vauxhall in 1872. His company merged with rival Abram Lyle’s to form Tate & Lyle in 1921, which continued to operate in Liverpool.
In 1955, the company began construction of another city landmark – the sugar silo on Regent Road. Liverpool’s industrial past and present is front and centre on that road, visible as you drive into the city centre from the north.
The hulking concrete structure of the silo stands out on the main road, towering over Huskisson Dock in Kirkdale. It is one of the most distinctive and unusual buildings in the city. About it, Historic England says: “A rare and impressive example of a reinforced concrete parabolic tunnel vaulted storage silo.”
Construction was completed in 1957 and its purpose was simple – to store sugar as it came into the city’s port, before it was transported to the refinery at Love Lane. It is a single vault with floor space of 85,000 sq ft and it was said to be able to store 100,000 tonnes of sugar at once.
Tate & Lyle closed its Love Lane refinery in 1981, which was a huge blow as the city struggled with the deindustrialisation of the second half of the 20th century. The refinery had dominated the skyline of north Liverpool for more than a century, employing more than 10,000 people in that time.
After the refinery was knocked down, the Eldonian Village was built on the sprawling site left behind. However, the silo still stands near the city’s waterfront and is still used for storage.
On November 2, 2003 a concert inside the silo was organised by mobile phone operator Orange. Athlete and Shack were among the artists to play that night.
