33 

Introduction

Inevitably, the architecture of port-cities is entangled in the 
social, political, economic, and cultural histories of these 
places and their wider role in international trade. Histori-
cally, the merchants constituted the dominant political elite 
in port cities and the major architectural projects which they 
commissioned, whether relating to dock development, the 
creation of a civic and commercial infrastructure, or the con-
struction of domestic residences, enabled them to material-
ize their status in prominent urban spaces. The political and 
cultural frames of reference into which such buildings were 
inserted also served to provide a way to embed trade and 
commerce in a clearly defined set of broader civilizational 
values. as such, architecture was one of the key sites for 
referencing the cultures of other places, either through the 
use of historicist styles and discourses which were designed 
to civilize the working class, or by the deliberate choice of 
‘exotic’ motifs. More crucially, port-city architecture offered 
visual representations of local traditions and achievements, 
whether in the context of major public architecture, commer-
cial buildings, or even residential housing. But port archi-
tecture also reflected the social interactions which were cru-
cial for knitting together trading networks both within and 
beyond the city, while the configuration of internal building 
spaces reveals both implicit and explicit assumptions about 
the ordering of social relationships and the structuring of 
class-specific hierarchies more widely.

This chapter is designed to address a number of interre-
lated issues relating to the structure, function and percep-
tion of port-city architecture. How did the trading function 
of port cities affect the construction of urban space and the 
proliferation of architectural styles? To what extent did the 
social practices and values (whether religious or secular) 
which were crucial for assembling and maintaining trad-
ing networks effectively shape the architecture of port cit-
ies? Historically, the demographic growth of port cities was 
generally characterized by a disproportionate dependency 
on long-distance immigration, often with a markedly varie-
gated ethnic structure.1 But how far did ethnic in-migration 
and the selective consolidation of diasporic networks affect 
the physical and experiential qualities of port-city architec-
ture? From the early nineteenth century onwards, there was 
a rapid professionalization of architectural practice, but to 
what extent did practitioners in port cities draw on inter-
national symbols and construction techniques or attempt to 
particularize them in seeking to create a distinctive, local, 
urban image? and perhaps most challenging of all in terms 
of a specific research agenda, what can we conclude about 

the general perception and interpretation of port city archi-
tecture beyond the realms of literary writings and profes-
sional critiques? In order to address these issues, this chapter 
will focus on a number of interrelated themes: the signifi-
cance of trading empires, whether Venetian or British, in 
disseminating specific architectural styles in port cities; the 
impact of trading patterns and commercial relationships on 
the availability and use of raw materials in building con-
struction; the role of architects in reinforcing the language 
and materialist imagery of imperial authority; the processes 
of wealth creation through commerce and trade and their 
legacy in terms of the business centres of port cities and the 
domestic residences of individual merchants; and the con-
figuration of sailortown itself, particularly in relation to the 
establishment and use of seamen’s homes. But it will also 
analyse the significance of in-migration and settlement as 
a contributing factor in configuring the ethnic and cultural 
identity of port cities. Finally, it will discuss issues relat-
ing to the perception of port-city architecture, its symbolic 
relationship with political and economic actors, and wider 
issues relating to redevelopment and the need to preserve 
the legacy of the past in a way which reflects a better under-
standing of its social life and significance. In order to take 
forward this agenda, the paper will draw on a wide range of 
material, but it will also reflect recent research on Liverpool 
within the framework of the Mercantile liverpool Project 
and by architectural historians, cultural anthropologists and 
sociologists who have begun to explore the social life of its 
architectural history and the cultural, economic, and political 
significance of many of its key buildings.2 

Establishing a port-city typology

at one level, any attempt to analyze port-cities within a 
comparative context must recognize that functional differ-
ences between various types of ports became more apparent 
over time. Some ports benefited from their multi-functional-
ity, such as the capital cities of Buenos aires, Copenhagen, 
London, Montevideo, and Stockholm; naval ports (including 
Kiel, Portsmouth and Toulon) had a negligible amount of 
commercial traffic; the development of Bremen and Ham-
burg, together with Singapore (following full independence 
in 1965) was influenced by their distinct political frame-
work as city-states, while entrepôt, ferry and free ports have 
increasingly fulfilled a more specialized function. To this 
extent, a comparative analysis of port city architecture must 
take into consideration not only a range of economic crite-
ria, including port function, relative size, principal trades, 

robert lee

The Social Life of Port Architecture:  
History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



34  

and the extent of local industrialization, but also the politi-
cal framework of long-run development in terms of differ-
ent forms of governance, ownership and administration, as 
well as specific locational factors relating to the quality of 
both the land and water site, which undoubtedly played a 
key role in underpinning the success of individual port-cities 
and influenced both the form and nature of urban building 
construction, whether in the case of Genoa, new york or 
rotterdam.3 

Irrespective of site-specific differences the process of 
urban expansion (or decline) has been strongly influenced 
by the changing pattern of world trade: maritime commerce 
has been a powerful factor behind urbanization and ports, 
after capital cities, have often registered the highest rates 
of population growth. Because of their maritime nexus, the 
architectural development of port cities has been influenced, 
to varying degrees, by links with foreign lands, the chang-
ing nature of international trade, and by the in-migration 
and settlement of diverse ethnic communities.4 Despite their 
functional diversity, the urban structure of port cities par-
ticularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has 
also been influenced by a number of generic socio-economic 
factors. The nature of their local economies was associated 
with a high dependency on casual employment, a mark-
edly unequal distribution of wealth, and a range of adverse 

social conditions. long-distance in-migration, a pronounced 
degree of ethnic and class-specific residential segregation, 
together with the ideology of merchant capital, also directly 
affected the cultural identity of port-city architecture in a 
context where both public and private buildings were con-
figure by power and the ‘resource of power’.5 

Trading Empires and the Architecture  
of Port Cities

Trading empires with port cities as their focal points have 
often used architecture to reinforce authority or to symbolize 
their power. In line with the Lacanian theory of significa-
tion, the design of specific buildings has therefore reflected 
the perceived historical relationship between architecture, 
culture and imperial power.6 But the ways in which trad-
ing empires have sought to use architecture as a means of 
sustaining world domination have varied considerably, both 
in the colonial territories themselves, as well as in the met-
ropolitan and port-city centres of commercial power. a great 
deal has been written about the architectural history of Ven-
ice, the important legacy of ‘Veneto-Byzantine’ houses and 
palaces, and the development of Venetian Gothic.7 But the 
Venetian Republic can serve as an instructive example of 
how trading empires contributed to the transfer and assimi-
lation of architectural styles based on a significant degree 
of artistic and intellectual reciprocity.8 The development of 
the Piazza San Marco undoubtedly reflected contemporary 
inspirations from eastern architectural practice, in particular 
the profusion of mosaics represented a thematic borrowing 
from the Great Mosque in Damascus; the outer cupolas of 
the palace itself were an adaptation of the well-known pro-
files of Islamic mausolea in Egypt; while the campanile of 
San Pietro di Castello was modeled on the Pharos lighthouse 
of Alexandria.9 The design of many of the palazzi, with 
semicircular arches opening on to the canal and extended 
second-storey loggias (Fig. 1), as well as some of the ware-
houses, demonstrated clear similarities with the domestic 
architecture of Byzantium, whether in Constantinople or 
elsewhere (Fig. 2).10 The mercantile prosperity of Venice was 
dependent on the exploitation of trading opportunities in the 
adriatic, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East, 
within the framework of a dynamic, if at times problemati-
cal, relationship with Islam. But spatial consciousness, like a 
sense of its historic past, was a crucial ingredient in structur-
ing the republic’s self-identity and the assimilation of key 
elements of eastern architectural practice helped to convey 
its collective aspirations, both materially and spiritually.11 
Moreover, there was an important degree of reciprocity in 
terms of architectural styles between Venice and its overseas 
colonies with cultural forms exchanged and transferred from 
and to the metropolitan centre, as the case of Crete and the 
influence of its Byzantine architectural heritage on the Vene-
tian townscape clearly illustrates.12

But not all trading empires were characterized by exten-
sive reciprocity in terms of artistic and intellectual cross-
fertilization, the dissemination of architectural styles, or the 
social structuring of the urban landscape of port cities. If the 
architecture of Trieste before 1914 reflected the ‘language 

Figure 1: Venice, Ca’Loredan or Ca’ Farsetti 

Figure 2: Istanbul, Tekfur Sarayi 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



35 

of hybridity’ which underpinned the multilingual character 
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the extension of Italian 
control in East africa in the interwar period, particularly 
in coastal towns, was associated with the emergence of the 
imperial apartheid city, reflecting the fascist belief that Afri-
cans were ‘a-historical’ and incapable of modernization.13 
Both the British in India and the French in Indo-China 
sought to retain effective control of the semantic context of 
the styles in which they built. Imperial authority was created 
and reinforced by the explicit use of classical prototypes, as 
the example of the Town Hall in Calcutta (1807–13) clearly 
illustrates, while many of the early anglican churches sim-
ply used the same prototype derived from james Gibbs’s 
St. Martins-in-the Fields, as was the case with St. john’s, 
Calcutta, erected between 1788 and 1787.14 Moreover, the 
Gothic revival in England, associated in particular with A. W. 
n. Pugin, with an implicit belief that it represented a product 
of a visibly purer society, also influenced colonial building 
styles in India, particularly in the port cities of Calcutta and 
Madras.15 But both public and domestic architectural styles 
imposed by the colonial power had to be adapted to the exi-
gencies of the Indian climate, in particular the intense heat 
and blazing light. In the longer term, however, the dominant 
architectural forms imposed by the British colonial authori-
ties were modified by the assimilation of traditional Indian 
practices and the use of elements of western architectural 
vocabularies to create essentially hybrid products. But the 
narrative of adaptive strategies also reflected the changing 
policies of colonial rule, particularly after the Indian Mutiny 
of 1857, and the creation of pseudo-Indian (or Indo-Sarace-
nic) architectural styles with their explicit borrowings from 
the Islamic architecture of India’s previous Mughal and 
afghan rulers can be interpreted as a means of strengthening 
imperial control by incorporating a visible element of con-
tinuity with the Indian past.16 Indeed, this process was also 
reinforced by the British Orientalist movement which con-
tributed substantially to the Hindu architectural renaissance, 
as well as by ethnographic research which increasingly 
posited a direct relationship between architectural styles 
and race.17 It is important to note, however, that the flow of 
architectural forms from the imperial metropolitan centre to 
India was not reciprocated by any perceptible influence of 
Indian practices on British design. The relatively brief vogue 
for the ‘Hindoo style’ was influenced by the landscape paint-
ers Thomas Daniell (1749 –1840) and his nephew, William 
Daniell (1769–1837), with the belief that Indian architecture 
‘presents an endless variety of forms’ and it was reinforced 
in the late-eighteenth century by travel writers, such as Wil-
liam Hodges, but apart from a few select buildings (includ-
ing the Pavilion at Brighton), its overall impact on Britain 
and its port cities was either marginal or non-existent. 

Trade and the flow of building materials and 
architectural ideas

However, the presence of a colonial power was only one 
factor which influenced the configuration of port-city archi-
tecture, as the pattern of international trade by itself often 
served as a mechanism for facilitating the flow of build-

ing materials and architectural designs across oceans and 
continents. A number of examples will be used to illustrate 
the impact of trade flows on the configuration of port-city 
architecture. First, the coastal areas of the red Sea provide 
evidence of a sustained cross-cultural continuity in terms of 
the use of building materials, as well as the spatial organi-
zation and functional use of port-city buildings.18 Maritime 
trade, with a significant degree of involvement by Indian 
merchants and Baniyan brokers (both Hindu and jain), tied 
the red Sea to both the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.19 
In ports such as Mocha and jidda both the design and struc-
ture of urban housing reflected the needs of ‘commercially 
oriented residents’ and the availability of building materi-
als made available through established trading patterns. 
The rawshan, the elaborate carved woodwork which was a 
feature of housing in many red Sea ports played a ‘criti-
cal role’ in defining an early modern cosmopolitan maritime 
community’, but it was made from asian hardwood which 
was imported from abroad, from ports such as Cochin, as 
a convenient and profitable ballast for Indian Ocean-going 
vessels.20 

Secondly, in coastal areas of Ghana ( previously the Gold 
Coast), elite residential architecture between the 1860s  
and 1920s sought to combine elements of the Akan court-
yard house with European Palladian architecture and the 
afro-Portuguese sobrado.21 In ports such as anomabo the 
hybridity of domestic architecture was a source of cultural 
authentication and demonstrates how the Fante and other 
coastal africans succeeded in appropriating and trans-
forming building designs and technologies which enabled 
them to communicate visually their status and identity. 
But if some elements of architectural design were derived 
indirectly from the British colonial authorities and the  
Methodist Church, the availability of suitable stones for 
house construction was a result of existing patterns of trade, 
while the adoption of the sobrado reflected the importance 
of trade links with Brazil and the employment of Brazilian 
masons.22 

Thirdly, international trade often acted as a conduit for 
the dissemination of innovative architectural practices and 
the application of new technology. as a key element in the 
redevelopment of liverpool’s waterfront in the early years 
of the twentieth century, the construction of the liver Build-
ing (commissioned by the royal liver Friendly Society and 
designed by a local architect, aubrey Thomas) represented 
a significant break with traditional design principles which 
had previously influenced the development of commercial 
buildings in liverpool (Fig. 3).23 When completed in 1911 
it was the tallest office building in Britain with an extensive 
basement area, ten upper floors and six further stories located 
in the twin towers above the roof level. More importantly, 
it signified the application of new building techniques, in 
particular a system patented by François Hennebique using 
reinforced concrete as a skeletal framework on which was 
hung grey granite cladding in thin blocks.24 as such, it 
reflected key structural developments in America between 
1885 and 1895 which fostered the greater efficiency, height 
and stability of multi-storey buildings, namely the replace-
ment of cast iron by steel, the introduction of sway-rod wind 
bracing, and the development of portal framing.25 The fact 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



36  

that Liverpool was the first British city to emulate Ameri-
can architectural achievements was almost certainly a result 
of the interconnectivity of trade and commercial links. The 
atlantic trade had underpinned liverpool’s rise to inter-
national prominence: in 1850 American cotton accounted 
for 67 per cent of Britain’s imports and Liverpool was ‘the 
chief emporium for cotton in the Empire’.26 The majority of 
emigrants who passed through liverpool in the period prior 
to 1914 were bound for North America and banking, com-
mercial and trading links between liverpool and east coast 
american ports were not only long established but particu-
larly intense.27 Many liverpool businessmen and ship own-
ers had a fascination with american technology and there 
were strong trading links with Chicago and new york in 
particular where the development of skyscrapers around the 
turn of the century was most apparent.28

Fourthly, commercial and trading links played an impor-
tant role in the internationalization of architectural practice. 
In terms of cultural production, it has been argued that archi-
tects increasingly operated as ‘mediators’ between authori-
tarian power and humanistic aspiration, but their ability to 
fulfil this function was a result of the professionalization 
of architectural practice from the mid-nineteenth century 
onwards.29 The key elements behind professionalization 
were similar to those of other professions: they included the 
creation of institutional structures, including associations, 
the control of licensing laws, the establishment of schools, 
and the exclusion of competitors, in particular general build-
ers.30 It was predicated on the development and dissemina-
tion of specialist journals, including The Builder (first printed 

in 1842), which became the most influential weekly journal 
devoted to the world of building, and national publications 
such as The American Architect, The Architectural Record, 
and The Inland Architect.31 It was also reinforced by archi-
tectural competitions which increasingly attracted interna-
tional submissions: in nineteenth-century Britain there were 
over 780 separate competitions, many of which were held 
in port cities such as Liverpool (42), Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
(32), Bristol (25), Hull (24), Sunderland (23) and Glasgow 
(20).32

The professionalization of architectural practice also 
facilitated the dissemination of best practice within the 
framework of a rapidly changing discourse, particularly in 
terms of the need to establish larger partnerships, to improve 
office procedures, and to design more cost-effective build-
ings.33 The inter-connectedness of commerce and trade was 
replicated by the international links of architects practic-
ing in major port cities and other metropolitan centres. For 
example, Charles Herbert Reilly from the Liverpool School 
of Architecture (1904 –1933) was able to utilize his contacts 
in the USA to place students for office practice on a regular 
basis, largely in new york, at least until the onset of the 
interwar depression.34 Moreover, the establishment of archi-
tectural schools in universities, whether in Britain, France 
or Italy, also reinforced the transfer of design concepts and 
architectural styles within a framework of cultural imperial-
ism. again, the case of the liverpool School of architec-
ture is instructive in this context: Liverpool graduates took 
up official positions as government architects in Egypt and 
Iraq; they also undertook commissions in Baghdad, Cairo 
and Zanzibar, in some cases combining European Modern-
ism with local architectural traditions.35 But the School also 
accepted between five and six overseas students each year 
and played an important role in training native-born archi-
tects and in exporting the Liverpool system of training to 
both Egypt and Thailand.

But the existence of extensive trading links and busi-
ness connections did not necessarily imply a rapid adop-
tion of new building styles in individual port cities or the 
implicit rejection of traditional architectural practices. 
Despite the fact that Hamburg improved its comparative 
ranking amongst European ports from fifth in 1879 to sec-
ond by 1900 and its shipping companies had extended sig-
nificantly their world-wide links, the early twentieth century 
witnessed a reassertion of traditional construction methods 
for commercial buildings.36 From the early 1900s onwards, 
the ‘common ordinary brick’ had become associated with 
a range of political, social and even spiritual qualities by a 
number of architects and writers: modernism was increas-
ingly criticized for its disregard of place and location; and, 
according to Paul Bröcker in the city’s planning department, 
‘the brick skin of an office block should tell us; this is a 
Hamburg building’.37 The ten-story Chilehaus, completed in 
1924, was symptomatic of a deliberate attempt to provide a 
local synthesis of modernism and tradition, with the use of 
4.8 million bricks representing an explicit symbol of continu-
ity with earlier traditions of office construction.38 It could of 
course be argued that the reaffirmation of a traditional brick 
culture in Hamburg after 1918 reflected a wider sense of 
middle-class disillusionment with american-inspired mod-

Figure 3: The Liver Building, Liverpool 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



37 

ernism resulting from Germany’s defeat in the First World 
War which resulted in the need to revive local (or regional) 
architectural styles, but it also suggests that embeddedness 
in international trading networks was not a necessary pre-
condition in major port cities for the direct assimilation of 
new building concepts and techniques.39

In-migration and the structuring  
of the port-city townscape

As a result of their seaborne links, a significant proportion of 
port-city in-migrants were of non-national or overseas ori-
gins, given that the final destination was often a function of 
information disseminated through existing communication 
networks. Because of their international connections, port 
cities attracted human capital from relatively distant regions; 
they were focal points for the circulation of peoples, goods 
and information; and there was a high degree of continu-
ity in the maintenance of family trading networks and dia-
sporic memory.40 For example, Genoa housed migrants from 
all over the Mediterranean; Trieste accommodated different 
Armenian, Greek, Jewish and Serbian ‘nations’; and a com-
plex mix of French, Italians, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians 
and Germans exercised a powerful influence in shaping the 
character of Odessa.41

Whether in the case of Baniyan brokers and money-
changers in the red Sea port of Mocha or Tatar merchants 
in the river port of Kazan, in-migrants often influenced the 
design and spatial configuration of residential buildings.42 
In other cases, in-migrant communities were responsible 
for the construction in port cities of communal buildings, 
including churches, which helped to reinforce their sense of 
national identity and separateness. In Sweden, for example, 
the German parish in Gothenburg was founded in 1623 only 
two years after the city’s establishment and its church (the 
Christinenkirche) was consecrated in 1648 as a focal point 
for in-migrant Protestants from Germany, Holland and Scot-
land (Fig. 4). But it was not until 1855 that the foundation 
stone for St andrew’s, a separate church for the increasingly 
influential English (Scottish) community, was finally laid by 
robert Dickson a ‘Merchant and Senior of the British Fac-
tory of Gothenburg’.43 In the case of the mission churches 
established overseas by the Swedish Patriotic Evangelical 
Society from the early 1860s onwards the intention was to 
seize every opportunity to proclaim God’s word amongst 
Scandinavian sailors in foreign ports and to offer a wel-
coming, but clearly recognizable, environment with a range 
of local newspapers, traditional refreshments, and, when 
necessary, welfare support.44 Where new mission churches 
were built in major port cities, such as liverpool and Ham-
burg, they invariably incorporated Swedish or Scandinavian 
design elements.45 In liverpool, in particular, the church 
designed by W. D. Caröe (1883 –1884) incorporated many 
distinct, Scandinavian features, including stepped gables 
and a concave-sided, lead-covered spire over the entrance 
(Fig. 5). It is often argued that architecture, in a reflexive 
way, can express ‘contested and ambiguous national iden-
tities’.46 For Scandinavians nationality itself became an 
increasingly important issue in the course of the nineteenth 

Figure 4: The Christinekirche, Gothenburg (1648)

Figure 5: Gustaf Adolfs Kyrka, Liverpool (1883–84) 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



38  

century, whether within the framework of the personal union 
between Sweden and norway, or within Finland where there 
is evidence of a united attempt to avoid the assimilation of 
Finnish culture by russian laws and customs. But although 
the Seamen’s Church in liverpool catered for all Scandi-
navians, the local vicars became increasingly involved in 
defining or determining nationality entitlement, while its 
overall design (Fig. 6) served to reinforce a sense of ‘sep-
arateness’ and distinctiveness from the indigenous local 
community.47 Similarly in Hamburg (Fig. 7), the Swedish 

Seamen’s Church with its network of related associations 
(including the Swedish School and lecture Societies, the 
Swedish ladies Club, and the Swedish Club, established 
in 1906) not only served the common interests of Swedish 
residents but sought directly to ‘preserve’ the national lan-
guage.48

By the early twentieth century the church authorities and 
mission societies of many European countries, including 
Britain, Denmark, Germany and Sweden, had established 
a dense network of overseas churches in individual port 
cities, reflecting the needs of in-migrant national commu-
nities, transient seafarers and emigrants. In Buenos aires, 
for example, an Anglican Church (St. John’s Cathedral) was 
established after the Treaty of 1825, the foundation stone 
of the Presbyterian Church was laid in 1833, and a sepa-
rate Protestant Church, with English, Scots, american and 
German merchants as its principal supporters, was opened 
in 1862.49 Frequently, church buildings associated with 
specific in-migrant groups reflected their continued sense 
of nationality and the architectural legacy of their coun-
tries of origin. This was certainly the case with the Greek 
Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Liverpool (executed by 
Henry Sumners following a competition won by W & j Hay 
in 1864) which represented a smaller-scale version of the 
Church of St. Theodore in Constantinople (Fig. 8).50 But the 
wider cultural and social significance of in-migrant church 
architecture was absent in some port cities because proper-
ties were either rented or taken over from other denomina-
tions. The church maintained by the Congregación Sueca in 
Buenos Aires in the early 1930s, although it attracted over 
9,000 visitors annually to its reading room left ‘something 
of a provisional impression’, just as the premises used for 
the Swedish Seamen’s Church in Bremen in the period after 
the Second World War had simply been rented on a provi-
sional basis.51 Similarly, despite the relative importance and 
commercial status of many German in-migrant merchants in 
liverpool in the nineteenth century, the congregation of the 
Deutsche Evangelische Kirche (established in 1846) initially 
worshipped in anglican premises, subsequently purchased 
the Newington Chapel in Renshaw Street, and finally occu-
pied the Presbyterian Church in Canning Street.52 although 
the church, with its extended institutional and welfare net-
work, undoubtedly functioned as a focal point which helped 
to sustain a sense of Germanness, its visual presence was 
never made explicit and the difficulty of reinforcing a sense 
of German separateness without upsetting the local popula-
tion was highlighted in 1877 when members of the congre-
gation on their summer outing to new Ferry felt it necessary 
to carry both German and English flags.53

Two points need to be emphasized. First, the architectural 
legacy in port cities of in-migrant communities, whether in 
relation to church, commercial or residential buildings, was 
essentially a result of trade patterns and the role of over-
seas commercial networks: it was not dependent on the 
extension of colonial power. Secondly, ethnicity became 
an increasingly dominant factor in constructing the inter-
national division of labour from the late-nineteenth century 
onwards, with the result that larger commercial port cities, 
such as Hamburg, liverpool, Marseille, Portland, rotter-
dam, witnessed the settlement of increasing numbers of in-

Figure 6: The Scandinavian Church, Liverpool: advertising 
card from the mid-1890s 

Figure 7: Gustaf-Adolfskirche, Hamburg (1906 – 07)

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



39 

migrants from China, West africa, the Middle East and the 
Philippines.54 These communities were often characterized 
by spatial concentration; they attracted considerable atten-
tion from the indigenous population; and China Town (as 
a concept) was generally viewed as an ‘exotic’ place with 
a close association with drugs, gambling and prostitution.55 
But although these communities had a perceptible impact 
on the external appearance of their immediate environment, 
their initial influence on port-city architecture was marginal 
and it is only with the passage of time that ethnically distinct 
features have been developed.56

Architecture, Commercial Practices and the  
Profits of Port City Trade: the case  
of Liverpool

Port cities, in general, were dominated not only by com-
merce and trade, but also by the ideology of merchant capi-
tal.57 The townscape structure (including the docks and ware-
house, the commercial centre and residential areas) as well 
as the social life of individual buildings often reflected the 
interplay between these two factors.58 In order to explore the 
extent to which the underlying economic and social profile 
of port cities affected the relationship between architecture, 
culture and daily life, the social significance of three specific 
types of buildings from liverpool in the late-nineteenth and 
early-twentieth century will be assessed as representative of 
distinct port-city typologies which provide a basis for under-
standing the historic organization of urban commercial sec-
tors in the modern period.

Both in a Byzantine and Venetian context, public struc-
tures were provided for the facilitation of trade and for 
guaranteeing a certain degree of transparency over com-
mercial transactions. Despite liverpool’s rapid develop-
ment during the second half of the eighteenth century, to a 
great extent directly connected with the slave trade, many 
of its merchants still preferred to do business in the open 
street as the earlier Exchange was no longer adequate for 
coping with the increased volume of business transactions.59 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, a deci-
sion was made to clear away some remaining houses north 
of the Town Hall and to create commercial buildings which 
would harmonize with its neo-classical style. Significantly, 
the venture was taken forward by a share-holding company 
(valued at £ 80,000) which was over-subscribed within three 
hours. The three-sided structure of The Exchange enclosed 
an open area (‘a noble neoclassical quadrangle’) for con-
ducting business and consisted of a news-room, counting 
houses and extensive warehousing facilities. It offered ‘dig-
nity and repose’ and it was generally agreed that the com-
bination of commercial and municipal buildings has ‘never 
been surpassed’.60 But the facilities offered by the new 
Exchange, completed in 1808, failed to keep pace with the 
growing commercial needs of liverpool’s merchants and it 
was replaced in the mid-1860s by a more substantial build-
ing in the Flemish (or French) renaissance style, designed 
by T. M. Wyatt, with ‘numerous storeys and offices’: even 
if it was ‘not especially adapted for architectural effect’, its 
news-room was deemed to be ‘a noble apartment’.61 later 

photographs (Fig. 9), including one by Francis Frith from 
1893, provide a clearer indication of the social life of the 
Exchange and reflects its wider importance in the structuring 
of commercial relations within the city.62

Commerce and long-distance overseas trade in nineteenth-
century liverpool (as elsewhere) were invariably associ-
ated with a high degree of risk and uncertainty. as a major 
port city, liverpool attracted a large number of individuals 
determined to make a fortune as quickly as possible, either 
as agents, brokers, merchants or ship-owners. In the late 
nineteenth century over 50 per cent of the subscribers to 
the Exchange had not been members a decade earlier and it 
has been estimated that over three-quarters of them would 
encounter difficulties in meeting their liabilities at some 
point in time.63 Indeed, the risk of failure was ever present. 
Of all the business partnerships registered in 1852, approxi-
mately 60 per cent had either been dissolved or had ceased 
trading by 1863 and 83 per cent of the sole traders operat-
ing within Liverpool’s merchant community in 1873 were 
never heard of again.64 But business uncertainty and transac-
tion costs could be reduced (although never eliminated) by 
the creation of a common business culture which reflected 
shared attitudes, aspirations and goodwill. not only did the 
establishment and maintenance of personal relations offer a 
tangible solution to the persistent problems of agency and 
asymmetrical information, but networks were often of criti-
cal importance in determining commercial survival at a time 
when the business environment, as a whole, continued to 
be characterized by ‘low trust and morality’.65 Within such 
a context, entrepreneurial networks embedded within an 
increasingly cohesive cultural framework helped to mini-
mize market imperfections by coordinating valuable infor-
mation and by strengthening trust and reputation. It is within 
this context that the social life of the Liverpool Exchange 
needs to be understood. Trading on Change, as it was 
known, brought together many of the key operators within 
the local business community within a carefully regulated 
framework: it promoted physical proximity and personal 
interaction; while the dress code required for ‘trading on the 

Figure 8: The Greek Orthodox Church in Liverpool  
(1870)

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



40  

flags’ helped to reinforce reputation and trust. Indeed, Queen 
Victoria on a visit to Liverpool in 1851 observed that she 
had ‘never seen so many well-dressed gentlemen together’, 
as had been the case on the Exchange.

But external appearances were also important in defin-
ing and profiling the trustworthiness of individual compa-
nies. By the end of the nineteenth century, Cunard, with its 
government mail contract and its fleet of large, passenger-
carrying steamers, was undoubtedly Liverpool’s flagship 
shipping company.66 The Company had also outgrown its 
previous offices and therefore utilized the opportunity cre-
ated by the development of the waterfront site (following 
the closure and infilling of George’s Dock) to develop a new 
headquarters designed by the liverpool practice of Willinck 
and Thicknesse in conjunction with the anglo-French archi-
tectural practice of Mewès & Davis in a style which repre-
sented a mixture of Italian Renaissance and Greek Revival 
influences.67 The original architectural competition was 
intended to produce a design which would harmonize with 
the new offices of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Com-
pany, but neither the winning submission nor the final build-
ing completed in 1916 ever fulfilled that purpose. Instead, 
the six-storey structure constructed by Holland, Hannen & 
Cubitts using a reinforced concrete frame clad in Portland 
stone sought to provide an impression of resilience, rugged 
strength and solidity, with public spaces, in particular the 

Figure 9: The Exchange, Liverpool (1864– 67)

Figure 10: The Cunard Building, Liverpool (1916)

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



41 

first-class passenger lounge on the first floor, deliberately 
used to evoke the character of great Cunard ships (Fig. 
10).68 Indeed, the commercial success of the firm had been 
built on ‘convenience and comfort’, rather than gratuitous 
luxury or unproven technology.69 Unlike many of its rivals, 
it had avoided the extremes of extravagance and parsimony; 
it had rejected any improvements which had not been sat-
isfactorily tested; and it had prioritized the construction of 
strong, reliable and well-manned ships.70 To this extent, the 
new Cunard headquarters was explicitly intended to reflect 
the key, underlying qualities of the shipping company itself.

In a wider context, the ideology of merchant capital which 
dominated many port cities in the nineteenth century implied 
a belief in the concept of the ‘night-watchman’ state, an 
adherence to liberal economic principles, and an underlying 
commitment to prevent any serious disruption to commerce 
and trade.71 It was also accompanied by a general unwill-
ingness to countenance unnecessary social welfare expen-
diture and a disproportionate reliance on charity and philan-
thropy.72 The motives behind charitable involvement were 
undoubtedly varied: it often involved an emphasis on moral 
reform and seldom addressed the underlying socio-economic 
causes of ill-health, poverty and destitution.73 The involve-
ment in charitable activity was also a means of developing 
and consolidating network links within liverpool’s business 
community; it served to enhance the reputational profile of 
individual merchants; and endowed them with additional 
powers of social control.

In individual cases, this was evident in the institutional 
structures which were established throughout the city as evi-
dence of charitable and philanthropic activity by members of 
the mercantile community. The royal liverpool Seamen’s 
Orphan Institution (Fig. 11) is one example of the architec-
tural legacy of local charity. Seafaring had always involved 
significant domestic costs in terms of the impact of the pro-
longed absence of maritime husbands on the allocation of 
family responsibilities and the high risk of occupational 
injury through accidents onboard ship and premature death 
by drowning.74 In 1866, for example, almost 5,000 British 
seafarers died at sea (approximately 2.4 per cent of the reg-
istered workforce), of whom 2,390 were reported drowned: 
in 1880 it was reported that ‘sorrow on the sea is still very 
great, almost unabated’.75 The initiative to establish a chari-
table institution to support and educate the orphans of seafar-
ers was taken by a group of leading liverpool ship owners at 
a meeting in December 1868 at the Mercantile Marine Ser-
vice association rooms. The orphanage opened in august 
of the following year in temporary accommodation in Duke 
Street with 60 resident children, but the acquisition of land 
from the Town Corporation in 1870 led to the construction 
of a purpose-built orphanage designed by alfred Waterhouse 
(1830 –1915) which included a school, an infirmary, a cha-
pel, a boy’s swimming pool, and shared dining facilities, 
with the children accommodated in separate boys’ and girls’ 
wings. By the end of the century 321 children attended the 
orphanage, while a further 508 were supported on the basis 
of outdoor relief. At its formal opening in 1874 Lord Derby 
emphasized that saving orphaned children ‘from the work-
house or the streets is not merely an act of charity; it is an act 
of duty and of justice’.76

However, the establishment of the (royal) liverpool Sea-
men’s Orphan Institution has a wider significance in terms of 
understanding the social life of the city, the ideology of mer-
chant capital with its emphasis on charitable giving (rather 
than improved social welfare provision), and the class- and 
gender-specific treatment of the asylum’s children. Despite 
liverpool’s increasing dependency on commerce and trade 
from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, the foundation 
of a suitable institution for the children of sailors who had 
been lost at sea took place at a comparatively late date. 
The ( Royal ) Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum had been 
established in London’s docklands as early as 1827, while 
the Seamen’s and General Orphan asylum had been opened 
in Hull in 1866. Although a number of prominent Liverpool 
merchants played a critical role in developing the Seamen’s 
Orphan Institution, including leading ship owners such as 
Bryce allan, james Beazley, and ralph Brocklebank, many 
members of the merchant community remained ‘deaf to the 
loud calls which the widows and orphans of sailors continu-
ally make’: despite the fact that mariners ploughed the ocean 
and brought home their produce, too many simply made an 
excuse that the financing of the Institution did not concern 
them.77 By 1912, the orphanage only had 507 subscribers, 
despite the fact that they were entitled to nominate children 
for admission, and it was disproportionately dependent for 
annual funding on the contributions to collection boxes on 
steamers and other ships which were subject to considerable 
fluctuation. Moreover, charity came at a price. The dining 
hall was ‘cavernous and austere’; the Institution was run on 
extremely strict rules and regulations; girls were trained to 
become domestic servants; and many boys were directed 
into seafaring through an arrangement with the training ship 
Indefatigable and suffered the same fate as their fathers.78

Port cities were also generally characterized by extreme 
wealth inequality. On the one hand, significant wealth could 
be accumulated through commerce and trade, despite its 
inherent risks, while, on the other hand, both seafaring and 
the operation of dock and warehousing systems relied heav-
ily on casual labour in a context where wages were driven 
down by high rates of in-migration. Even in relatively iso-

Figure 11: The Royal Seamen’s Orphan Institution,  
Liverpool 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



42  

lated coastal communities, such as the trading posts on the 
lofoten Islands, merchants deliberately created informa-
tion for other users of local space by the size and external 
colour of their housing in a manner which set them apart 
from other social classes, while in larger commercial ports 
the design and interior decoration of residential housing was 
intricately related to status and public standing.79 This was 
explicitly the case in Liverpool, where people of wealth 
and position ‘surrounded themselves with certain attributes 
of power and wealth’, as means of providing the populace 
with ‘some indication of their rank and their social status’.80 
Indeed, in the window tax assessment of 1850 (which was 
based on properties with eight or more windows), liverpool 
registered the highest assessment total in Britain (well in 
excess of Manchester or Bath), but the grandeur of a private 
residence was not necessarily a reliable indicator of status as 
references in the contemporary press to ‘shams and glitters’ 
suggests that it was widely understood that rapidly acquired 
wealth could just as easily be lost.81

The houses designed and constructed for liverpool’s mer-
chant elite, particularly in the late –nineteenth and early-
twentieth century, were intended to reflect the social and 
business lives of their occupiers. although there were few 
residences with dining rooms for more than 30 guests, pro-
vision was regularly made for extensive picture galleries, 
libraries and billiard rooms.82 The imposing Gothic revival 
mansion, Broughton Hall (yew Tree lane, West Derby), 
designed by Walter Scott for the in-migrant German mer-
chant Gustavus C. Schwabe (Fig. 12) could only be managed 
with the assistance of a large residential staff: the dining 
room was particularly spacious; while it was over a game 
of billiards here that Schwabe suggested to Thomas Henry 
Ismay the founding of a new transatlantic shipping line 
which later became the White Star line.83 Indeed, entertain-
ing at home was an integral aspect of interaction and net-
working for liverpool’s merchant elite, particularly during 
the winter season: it was arranged in a structured, reciprocal 
manner which still allowed opportunities for spontaneous 
celebrations, and its scale was sometimes very substantial. 
On 15 February 1882, for example, the Holts (one of Liv-
erpool’s pre-eminent cotton-trading firms) held a party for 

‘fully 140, chiefly young dancing people’, while the family 
residence (Sudley) also included ‘farming and poultry yards 
and fields’ which led to additional visits from close friends 
within the business community.84 To this extent, architecture, 
artistic taste, as well as an interest in agriculture and horti-
culture, combined to reinforce the perception of reputation 
and social status.

Structuring the world of the seafarer ashore 

Most ports had a distinct, if not notorious, sailortown which 
invariably served as a focal point for life ashore: Baltimore’s 
‘The Block’ was ‘renowned among seafarers’; in Hamburg, 
St. Pauli (at least until 1939) was ‘one great web of preda-
tory spiders’ with numerous beer-gardens, dance-halls and 
taverns; in Liverpool, the area in from the new quay was 
‘a mass of sailor taverns and low-class drinking houses 
with gin palaces in every adjacent street’; while the ‘water-
ing holes’ and bath-houses of yokohama were well known 
amongst foreign seamen.85 Sailortown, with its extended 
range of attractions, delights and depravities, was an impor-
tant aspect of the social life of port cities: it was a ‘zone of 
cultural contact’ with a well-defined diaspora space where 
seafarers ashore spent their hard-earned wages on ‘beer, 
women and song’.86

But the increasing establishment of sailors’ homes from 
the mid-1830s onwards modified the landscape of sailor-
town, as civic agencies and mission societies sought to cater 
for the welfare needs of seafarers.87 By the early 1850s, the 
Sailors Home in London catered for approximately 5,000 
sailors each year and its bed capacity was doubled in 1865, 
although many remained dependent on private sector lodg-
ing keepers, sometimes of questionable reliability.88 The 
Liverpool Sailors’ Home catered for 1,822 sailors and 410 
apprentices in 1845, its first year of operation, but by 1902 
it accommodated 7,245 boarders.89 It was a massive pres-
ence close to the waterfront: it was architecturally ‘extrava-
gant externally’, while inside the simple and plain bedrooms 
opened off an impressive galleried atrium with decorative 
ironwork (Fig. 13, 14).90 In Bombay, the royal alfred Sail-
ors’ Home (Fig. 15), designed in the Gothic style by Fred-
erick William Stevens (1847–1900) was a ‘rather luxurious 
hostel’ with large airy rooms and bathrooms.91 Its foundation 
stone was re-laid in 1872 and the work on the sculptures 
which were designed to enhance its appearance was super-
vised by john lockwood Kipling, as Professor of architec-
tural Sculpture. In addition, sailors’ homes were increasingly 
provided by individual mission societies, sometimes for 
specific groups of seafarers, whether defined by national-
ity, religion or ethnicity. For example, the German Seamen’s 
Mission in Hoboken, new york, regarded as a ‘suburb of 
Bremen’ by many seafarers, attracted over 18,000 visitors 
in its first year of operation in 1907.92 In the course of the 
twentieth century individual shipping lines, such as the Blue 
Funnel line and the Elder Dempster line, also created hos-
tels for their crew, particularly if they had been recruited 
overseas.93

But the provision of sailors’ homes was designed to 
achieve wider objectives in changing or even transforming 

Figure 12: Broughton Hall, West Derby 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



43 

the lives of seafarers, specifically by curbing the excesses 
normally associated with seamen on shore leave. The mini-
sters at the Finnish Seamen’s Mission in london perceived 
seamen in foreign ports as ‘helpless figures, lonely, gull-
ible and carefree to the point of recklessness’ and always 
prone to fall victim to the ‘Devil’s emissaries’.94 Similarly, 
in liverpool the pastor and his assistant at the Scandina-
vian Seamen’s Church regularly visited nordic ships with 
the intention of distributing religious tracts. But there is 
some evidence to suggest that the provision of accommo-
dation for seafarers, sometimes located in imposing archi-
tectural structures, did facilitate a more careful husbandry 
of financial resources. Or perhaps some sailors never fitted 
the dominant, stereotypical image. In its first 40 years of 
operation the london Sailors’ Home had taken deposits of 
over £ 2m, of which over £ 700,000 had been remitted to 
family and friends: in 1902 the Sailors’ Home in Liverpool 
accepted £ 31,073 on deposit for safekeeping or for remitting 
home; the Finnish Seamen’s Mission in London registered 
annual deposits of £ 1,040 between 1889 and 1899; while 
the Scandinavian Seamen’s Church in liverpool received 
deposits valued at over £ 9,491 between 1940 and 1948 from 
68 individual seafarers.95 Sailors’ homes, therefore, provide 
an invaluable insight into the social lives of seafarers while 
ashore and the extent to which they retained a sense of com-
mitment and responsibility to family and friends, despite 
a persistent view amongst elite groups in society that they 
were generally ‘dissolute’ and ‘easily led astray’ .96

Conclusion: the interpretation and preservation of 
the social life of port-city architecture

Today, as was the case in the past, architecture plays a key 
role in terms of how port cities represent themselves to 
external observers and the wider world.97 The architectural 
profile of port cities reflects a changing and symbiotic rela-
tionship with economic actors involved in trade and com-
merce; civic buildings were designed to display the aspi-
rations and influence of the political elite; office buildings 
reflected a deliberate use of historical styles and building 
materials to reinforce status and to emphasize their role as 
a ‘visible embodiment of modern commerce’; while places 
of worship were often structured to justify the manipulation 
of the social order by the dominant, mercantile classes or to 
reinforce a sense of confessional, ethnic or national iden-
tity.98 Even within an established port-city typology, archi-
tectural styles could sometimes reflect the need to assert a 
specific local or regional identity (as was the case with Ham-
burg after the First World War), but the changing pattern of 
international commerce and trade with port-cities as a focal 
point also served as a mechanism for the assimilation of his-
toric design features as well as for the dissemination of new 
architectural forms.

This chapter has attempted to raise some general, theo-
retical questions relating to the social life of port architec-
ture drawing on a range of historical and site-specific case 
studies. It has sought to disentangle the factors which have 
helped to structure the townscape of ports, not only in rela-
tion to their commercial operations, but also in the context 

Figure 13: The Sailors’ Home, Liverpool 

Figure 14: The interior of the Sailors’ Home, Liverpool 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



44  

of the provision and significance of charitable, civic, reli-
gious and residential buildings. Too often, architectural 
historians and city planners are concerned primarily with 
the design and structure of port architecture, rather than its 
wider social life or the relationship between building design 
and the articulation of economic and political power, despite 
the fact that the ground used for building in most cases has 
been defined by the state or set aside by legislative decrees.99 
There is seldom any attempt to analyse the role of individual 
buildings within the framework of a social theory of space, 
to disentangle the wider objectives of commercial, political 
or religious actors in structuring urban space, or to concep-
tualize urban landscapes as public history.100 The waterfront 
regeneration of many ports in the last few decades has also 
served to undermine a traditional sense of place identity, as 
links with the maritime and trading past become weaker, just 
as recent economic development has sometimes changed 
the character of commercial areas and led to the demise of 
sailortown.101 But the architectural history of port-cities is 
embedded in a range of cultural, economic and political fac-
tors; it reflects the importance of the business community 
and the ideology of merchant capital; the influence of ethnic 
in-migrants and alternative sub-cultures; and the mediating 
role of a rapidly professionalizing architectural profession. 
all of these issues need to be addressed if we are to pro-
vide a more convincing appreciation of the social life of port 

architecture or to offer a better interpretation for the choice 
of form and materials in the design of specific port-city 
buildings and their wider significance both for contempo-
raries and for wider audiences today.

I would like to express my thanks to my colleague Paul 
jones and other participants at the international workshop 
on the Social life of Port architecture, held at the Centre 
for Port and Maritime History, University of liverpool, in 
June this year and supported financially by English Heritage. 
Without such a lively and productive exchange of ideas, this 
contribution would never have assumed its final form.

Abstract

Das soziale Leben der Hafen-Architektur: 
Geschichte, Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur

Die architektur von Hafenstädten ist untrennbar verknüpft 
mit der gesellschaftlichen, politischen, wirtschaftlichen und 
kulturellen Entwicklung dieser Städte und ihrer rolle im 
internationalen Handel. Historisch waren es Kaufleute, die 
die herrschende politische Elite in den Hafenstädten stell-
ten. Sie waren es, die größere Projekte in auftrag gaben: Ob 
beim Bau von Docks, der Schaffung einer Infrastruktur für 

Figure 15: The Royal Alfred Sailors’ Home, Bombay

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



45 

Bürger und Wirtschaft oder bei der Errichtung von Wohnge-
bäuden – die Kaufleute konnten auf diese Weise ihren Status 
an herausragender Stelle im städtischen raum manifestie-
ren. Der politische und kulturelle Bezugsrahmen, in den 
diese Bauten und Gebäude hineingesetzt wurden, bot die 
Möglichkeit, Handel und Gewerbe in klar definierte, breit 
angelegte zivilisatorische Werte einzubetten. Die Hafen-
stadt-architektur wurde so zu einem der Hauptaustragungs-
orte der Beschäftigung mit anderen Kulturen, indem man 
sich historisierender Stilmittel bediente und in einen Dialog 
mit der arbeiterklasse trat, die es zu zivilisieren galt, oder, 
indem man bewusst ‚exotische‘ Motive verwendete, die ein 
Spiegel der Handelsverbindungen des Hafens in alle Welt 
waren. Vielleicht noch entscheidender war die Tatsache, 
dass die Hafenstadt-architektur eine visuelle Manifestation 
lokaler Traditionen und leistungen war, und zwar besonders 
im Kontext öffentlicher wie gewerblicher Großarchitektur. 
Sie war jedoch gleichzeitig Spiegel der gesellschaftlichen 
Interaktionen, die wiederum Voraussetzung waren für das 
Knüpfen von Handelsnetzwerken sowohl innerhalb der 
Städte als auch darüber hinaus. Die Baugliederung der inne-
ren Räume macht die impliziten und expliziten Prämissen 
sozialer Beziehungen der Zeit und ganz allgemein der klas-
senhierarchischen Strukturen sichtbar.

Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit Faktoren wie 
Struktur, Funktion und Wahrnehmung von Hafenstadt-arch-
titektur, die miteinander in enger Beziehung stehen. Wie 
wirkte sich der Handel auf die Bebauung des öffentlichen 
raumes in Hafenstädten und auf die Verbreitung bestimm-
ter Baustile aus? Wie wirkmächtig waren gesellschaftliche 
Usancen und Werte (religiöse wie weltliche) angesichts 
ihrer Bedeutung für die Herstellung und aufrechterhaltung 
von Handelsnetzwerken bei der architektonischen ausge-
staltung von Hafenstädten? Der Bevölkerungszuwachs der 
Hafenstädte war durch eine übermäßige abhängigkeit von 
der Zuwanderung aus fernen ländern geprägt, mit dem 
Ergebnis einer oft deutlich multi-ethnischen Bevölkerungs-
struktur. Inwieweit hatte diese Vielvölker-Einwanderung 
und die selektive Festigung von netzwerken in der Diaspora 
Einfluss auf die physischen Eigenschaften der Hafenstadt-
architektur und wie wirkte sie sich auf das Erleben dieser 
Architektur aus? Seit Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts profes-
sionalisierten sich die in der architektur praktisch Tätigen 
zusehends. aber in wie großem Umfange bedienten sich die 
Praktiker in den Hafenstädten dabei internationaler Symbo-
lik und moderner Bautechniken? Bemühten sie sich um die 
Schaffung eines eigenen, lokalen Stadtbildes, das sich von 
anderen abhob? Und, was für die Forschung von vielleicht 
größtem Belang ist: Was lässt sich – außerhalb von litera-
rischen Beschreibungen und in der Fachkritik – über die 
allgemeine Wahrnehmung und auslegung der Hafenstadt-
architektur sagen?

Um die aufgeworfenen Fragen anzugehen, konzentriert 
sich der vorliegende Beitrag auf eine reihe miteinander in 
Beziehung stehender aspekte: Die Bedeutung von mächti-
gen Handelsimperien wie Venedig und Großbritannien für 
die Verbreitung bestimmter architekturstile in Hafenstädten 
sowie der Einfluss von Handelsströmen und -beziehungen 
auf die Verfügbarkeit und nutzung von bestimmten Baustof-
fen; die Rolle der Architekten, die den Sprachduktus und die 

materialistische Bildsprache imperialer Macht noch ver-
stärkten; ferner die Entstehungsprozesse des durch Handel 
und Gewerbe wachsenden reichtums, das architektonische 
Erbe, das in den Geschäftszentren vieler Hafenstädte sowie 
an den Wohnhäusern einzelner Kaufmannsfamilien erkenn-
bar wird; und die Herausbildung von Matrosenvierteln, ins-
besondere in Bezug auf die Schaffung und nutzung von See-
mannsheimen. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert darüber 
hinaus die Bedeutung der Einwanderung sowie niederlas-
sung von Einwanderern als Beitrag zur ethnisch-kulturellen 
Identitätsstiftung in Hafenstädten. Schließlich soll diskutiert 
werden, wie die Hafenstadt-architektur wahrgenommen 
wurde, welche symbolische Beziehung zwischen ihr und 
den politischen und wirtschaftlichen akteuren bestand und 
es soll eine Erörterung des Spannungsfeldes zwischen Stadt-
erneuerung und Erhaltung historischer Bausubstanz vorge-
nommen werden, in der ein vertieftes Verständnis für das 
gesellschaftliche leben in Hafenstädten aufscheint, das über 
sie selbst hinausweist. Um die aufgeworfenen Fragestellun-
gen voranzubringen, stützt sich der vorliegende Beitrag auf 
eine breite Materialauswahl. jedoch sollen auch jüngste For-
schungsergebnisse aus liverpool herangezogen werden, die 
im rahmen des Mercantile liverpool Project erzielt wur-
den, sowie die arbeiten von architekturhistorikern, Kultur-
anthropologen und Soziologen, die damit begonnen haben, 
das gesellschaftliche leben von Hafenstädten im laufe ihrer 
geschichtlichen Entwicklung zu erkunden sowie die kultu-
relle, wirtschaftliche und politische Bedeutung vieler maß-
geblicher Bauten zu beleuchten.

Bibliography

alBIOn, robert Greenhalgh, The rise of new york Port 
(1815–1860), Hamden, Connecticut 1961 (reprint of 1939 
edition)

alEXanDEr, Michael, Medievalism: the Middle ages in 
modern England, Yale University Press, 1987.

alOFSIn, anthony, When Buildings Speak: architecture 
as language in the Habsburg Empire and Its aftermath, 
1867–1933, Chicago and London: University of Chicago 
Press, 2006.

AMENDA, Lars, Chinese seafarers in European Ports 1880 
to 1950, unpublished paper presented at the 10th north  
Sea History Conference, The Parallel Worlds of the Sea-
farer Ashore, Afloat and Abroad, Gothenburg, September 
2011.

ARSLAN, Eduardo, Gothic Architecture in Venice, 1971, 
new york: Phaidon.

john r. aSHTOn, lives and livelihoods in little london 
The story of the British in Gothenburg 1621–2001, Säve-
dalen: Warne Förlag, 2003.

BaBCOCK, F. lawrence, Spanning the atlantic, new york, 
1941.

Gülsüm BayDar, The Cultural Burden of architecture, in: 
Journal of Architectural Education, 2004, Heft 57, Nr. 4, 
pp.19–27.

BEaUMOnT, E. W., CHrISTOFIDES, G. F. HOrSFall, 
T. E. Hall, an Historical Survey of the area between 
The Exchange Flags and Custom House 1725–1936, The 

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



46  

School of architecture, University of liverpool, liver-
pool, 1936.

BElCHEM, john, Shock City: Sailortown liverpool, paper 
presented at the conference On the Waterfront Culture, 
Heritage and regeneration of Port Cities, BT Convention 
Centre, Kings Waterfront, 19 –21 November 2008 (http://
www.english-heritage.org.uk/context/publications/docs/
waterfront-part2.pdf).

BElCHEM, john and MaCraIlD, Donald M., Cosmo-
politan Liverpool, in: John Belchem ed.), Liverpool 800 
Culture, Character & History, liverpool: liverpool Uni-
versity Press, 2006, pp. 311–392.

BOylE, Bernard Michael, architectural Practice in amer-
ica, 1865-1965 – Ideal and Reality, in: Spiro Kostof (ed.), 
The architect, Chapters in the History of the Profession, 
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1977, 
pp. 309–344.

BraIn, David, Practical Knowledge and Occupational 
Control: The Professionalization of architecture in the 
United States, in Sociological Forum, Heft 6, Nr. 2, 1991, 
pp. 239–268.

BrEEn, a. and rIGBy, D., The new Waterfront: a World-
wide Urban Success Story, london: Thames and Hudson, 
1996.

BROOKS, Michael, ‘The Builder’ in the 1840s: The Making 
of a Magazine, The Shaping of a Profession, in: Victorian 
Periodicals Review, Heft 14, Nr. 3, 1981, pp. 87–91.

BROWN, Sarah and FIGUEIREDO, Peter de; Religion and 
Place liverpool’s historic places of worship, Swindon: 
English Heritage, 2008.

BUSQUETS, Joan; Barcelona: The Urban Evolution of a 
Compact City, Rovereta and Cambridge, Mass., 2005.

CaTTarUZZa, Marina, Population Dynamics and Econo-
mic Change in Trieste and its Hinterland, 1850–1914, in: 
richard lawton and robert lee (eds.), Population and 
Society in Western European Port-Cities, c. 1650 –1939, 
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002, 176 –211.

CHAMBERLAIN, Mary; Diasporic Memories: Community, 
Individuality, and Creativity – a life Stories Perspective, 
in: Oral History Review, Heft 36, Nr. 2, 2009, pp. 177–187.

CHOjnaCKI, Stanley, Social Identity in renaissance Ven-
ice: The Second Serrata, in: Renaissance Studies, Heft 8, 
Nr. 4, 1994, pp. 341–358.

COCK, Randolph; DAVIES, John and MÄENPÄÄ, Sari, 
The liverpool Merchant Community: a reconstruction, 
in: Robert Lee (ed.), Networks of Power and Influence: 
business, culture and identity in liverpool’s Merchant 
Community, 1800 –1914, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012 (forth-
coming).

COOKSON, Gillian; Family Firms and Business Networks: 
Textile Engineering in Yorkshire, 1780–1830, in: Business 
History, Heft 39, Nr. 1, 1997, pp. 1–20.

CRINSON, Mark; Empire Building: Orientalism and Vic-
torian architecture, london and new york: routledge, 
1996.

‘Critical Words from abroad’, in: american architecture 
and Building News, Heft 34, 26 December 1891, p. 198.

CROUCH, Christopher; Design Culture in Liverpool 1880-
1914 The Origins of the Liverpool School of Architecture, 
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002.

CUSACK, Patricia; Architects and the reinforced concrete 
specialist in Britain, 1905–1908, Journal of the Society of 
Architectural Historians of Great Britain, Heft 29, 1986, 
pp. 183–196.

DELANTY; Gerard and JONES, Paul R., European Identity 
and architecture, in: European journal of Social Theory, 
2002, Heft 5, Nr. 4, pp. 453– 466.

Edward Henry Earl of DErBy, Speeches and addresses by 
Edward Henry, Earl of Derby, London, 1894.

DEUTSCHE EVanGElISCHE KIrCHE ZU lIVEr-
POOl, neun und Dreißigster jahres-Bericht über die 
Deutsche Evangelische Kirche zu liverpool, liverpool: 
Scholl & McGee, 1888.

DOSTOGLU, Sibel Bozdogan; Towards Professional Legit-
imacy and Power: an Inquiry into the struggle, achieve-
ments and dilemmas of the architecture profession through 
analysis of Chicago 1871–1909, unpublished doctoral dis-
sertation, University of Chicago, 1982.

DUBIN, Lois C.; The port Jews of Habsburg Trieste: abso-
lutist politics and enlightenment culture (Stanford studies 
in jewish history and culture), Stanford University Press, 
1999.

DUNNE; Jack and RICHMOND, Peter ; The World in One 
School The History and Influence of the Liverpool School 
of Architecture 1894 –2008, Liverpool: Liverpool Univer-
sity Press, 2008.

DURAND, A.; La politique française a l’égard des  
ports maritimes sous la troisième république, Paris,  
1904.

EKELUND, Kristina; Svenska Gustaf-Adolfskyrkan 100-år, 
Hamburg, 2007.

EllIS, aytoun, Heir of adventure The story of Brown, Shi-
pley & Co. Merchant Bankers 1810-1960, London: Brown, 
Shipley & Co. Ltd., 1960.

ENGELBERG, Eva von; Die Bautradition der Republik 
Venedig, in: Weiterbauen (Sutor-Professur für Denkmal-
pflege und Entwerfen, Band II, 2006–2008), 2009, pp. 
88–93.

EVANS, Bob; Mersey Mariners, Birkenhead: Countyvise, 
1997 (2002 reprint).

l. FaBI, la carita dei ricchi. Povertà e assistenza  
nella Trieste laica e asburgica del XIX secolo, Milan, 
1976.

FALKUS, Malcolm; The Blue Funnel Legend. A History 
of the Ocean Steam Ship Company, 1865 –1973, Basing-
stoke: MacMillan, 1990.

FEllOnI, Giuseppi, The Population Dynamics and Eco-
nomic Development of Genoa, 1750 –1939, in: Richard 
lawton and robert lee (eds.), Population and Society in 
Western European Port-Cities, c. 1650 –1939, Liverpool: 
Liverpool University Press, 2002, 74 – 90. 

FENSKE, Gail; The Beaux Arts Architect and the Sky-
scraper, in: roberta Moundry (ed.), The american Sky-
scraper, Cultural Histories, Cambridge and new york: 
Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 19 –37.

FEYS, Torsten; Fischer, Lewis R.; Hoste, Stéphanie and Van- 
fraechem, Stephan (eds.), Maritime Transport and Migra-
tion. Connections Between Maritime and Migration net-
works (research in Maritime History, nr. 33), St. john’s 
Newfoundland, 2007.

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



47 

FIGUEIREDO, Peter de; Symbols of Empire: The Buildings 
of liverpool Waterfront, in: architectural History, Heft 
46, 2003, pp. 229 –254.

W. B. FOrWOOD, recollections of a Busy life, liverpool: 
H. Young & Sons, 1910.

FROST; Diane (ed.), Ethnic Labour and British Imperial 
Trade: a History of Ethnic Seafarers in the UK, london: 
Frank Cass, 1995.

FROST, Diane; Racism, Work and Unemployment: West 
African Seamen in Liverpool 1880s–1960s, in: Diane 
Frost (ed.), Ethnic labour and British Imperial Trade: a 
History of Ethnic Seafarers in the UK, london: Frank 
Cass, 1995, pp. 22–33.

FULLER, Mia; Moderns Abroad: Architecture, Cities, and 
Italian Imperialism, london and new york: routledge, 
2007.

GEORGOPOULOU, Maria; Mapping Religious and Ethnic 
Identities in the Venetian Colonial Empire, in: journal of 
Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Heft 26, Nr. 3, 1996, 
pp.467–496.

GEORGOPOULOU, Maria; Venice’s Mediterranean Colo-
nies architecture and Urbanism, Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 2001.

GILES, Colum; Building a Better Society Liverpool’s his-
toric institutional buildings, Swindon: English Heritage, 
2008.

GILES, Colum; The character of port cities: an assessment 
of the value of surviving buildings, unpublished paper pre-
sented at the International Workshop on The Social life 
of Port architecture: History, Politics, Commerce, and 
Culture (from the early eighteenth century to the present 
day), Centre for Port and Maritime History, University of 
Liverpool, June 2011.

GILES; Colum and HAWKINS, Bob; Storehouses of Em-
pire liverpool’s Historic Warehouses, london: English 
Heritage, 2004.

GOY, Richard J.; The House of Gold: Building a Palace in 
Medieval Venice, Cambridge, 1992.

GOY, Richard J; Venice The City and its Architecture, Lon-
don, 1997.

GREGORY, Daniel Platt; Magazine Modern: A Study of the 
American Architectural Press, 1919 –1930, unpublished 
doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 
1982.

GRITT, Andrew; Representations of mariners and maritime 
communities c. 1850 –1850 (http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/
Focus/Sea/articles.html).

HAGGERTY, Sheryllynne; The British-Atlantic trading 
community, 1760 –1810: men, women, and the distribu-
tion of goods, Leiden: Brill, 2006.

HARPER, Roger H.; Victorian Architectural Competitions 
An Index to British and Irish Architectural Competitions 
in The Builder 1843–1900, London: Mansell Publishing 
Limited, 1983.

HAYDEN, Dolores; The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes 
as Public History, Cambridge, Mass., and london: The 
MIT Press, 1995.

HERDMAN; W. and PICTON, J.  A.; Views in Modern Liver- 
pool, Liverpool: Marples, 1864.

HERLIHY, Patricia; Greek Merchants in Odessa in the 

nineteenth Century, in: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Hefte 
III–IV, 1979/80, pp. 399 – 420.

HERLIHY, Patricia; Odessa: A History, 1794 –1914, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, 1986.

HERNDON, Ruth Wallis; The Domestic Cost of Seafar-
ing: Town leaders and Seamen’s Families in Eighteenth-
Century rhode Island, in: Margaret Creighton and lisa 
norling (eds.), Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and 
Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700 –1920, Baltimore: 
Johns Hopkins Press, 1996, pp.

HERZNER, Volker; Die Baugeschichte von San Marco und 
der aufsteig Venedigs zur Großmacht, in: Wiener jahr-
buch für Kunstgeschichte, Heft 38, 1985, pp. 1–58.

HINKKANEN, Merja-Liisa; Expressions of Longing, 
Sources of Anxiety? The Significance of Contacts with 
Home for Finnish Sailors in london and Hull in the 
late nineteenth Century, in: lewis r. Fischer and Walter 
Minchinton (eds.), People of the northern Seas (research 
in Maritime History, nr. 3), St. john’s, newfoundland, 
1992, pp. 63–79.

HISE, Greg; Architecture as State Building: A Challenge to 
the Field, in: journal of the Society of architectural Histo-
rians, Heft 67, Nr. 2, 2008, pp. 173–177.

HOPE; E. W. (ed.), City of Liverpool Handbook compiled 
for the Congress of the royal Institute of Public Health, 
Liverpool: Lee & Nightingale, 1903.

HOPE, Ronald; The Shoregoer’s Guide, London: The Mari-
time Press Limited, 1964.

HIRST, P.; Space and Power: Politics, War and Architecture, 
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.

HOWARD, Deborah; The Architectural History of Venice, 
London, 1980.

HOWARD, Deborah; Venice and Islam in the Middle Ages: 
Some Observations on the Question of architectural 
Influence, in: Architectural History, Heft XXXIV, 1991, 
pp. 59 –74.

HOWARD, Deborah; Venice and the East. The Impact of the 
Islamic World on Venetian Architecture 1100 –1500, New 
Haven and London, 2000.

HOYLE, B.S; PINDER; D. A. and HUSAIN, M. S. Revit-
alising the Waterfront. International dimensions of Dock-
land redevelopment, London: Belhaven Press, 1988.

HUGILL, Stan; Sailortown, London: Routledge and Kegan 
Paul, 1967. 

HyDE, Francis Edwin, Cunard and the north atlantic, 
1840 –1973, Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1975.

ISRAEL, Jonathan; Diasporas Jewish and non-Jewish and 
the World Maritime Empires, in: Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, 
Gelina Harlaftis and Ioanna Pepolasis Minoglu (eds.), 
Diaspora Entrepreneurial networks Four Centuries of 
History, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 
2001, pp. 3 –26.

JAUHIAINEN, J.; Waterfront redevelopment and urban pol-
icy: the case of Barcelona, Cardiff and Genoa, in: Euro-
pean Planning Studies, Heft 3, 1995, pp. 3 –18.

JEFFERIES, Matthew; Hamburg A cultural & literary his-
tory, Oxford: Signal Books, 2011.

JEFFERIES, Matthew; Hamburg: a city held together by 
brick? Unpublished paper presented at the International 
Workshop on the Social life of Port architecture: His-

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



48  

tory, Politics, Commerce, and Culture (from the early 
eighteenth century to the present day), Centre for Port and 
Maritime History, University of Liverpool, 2011.

JENKINS, Jennifer; Provincial Modernity: Local Culture 
and liberal Politics in Fin-de-Siècle Hamburg, Ithaca and 
London, 2003.

JONES, Paul; Putting Architecture in its Social Place: A 
Cultural Political Economy of architecture, in: Urban 
Studies, 2009, Heft 6, Nr. 12, 2519 –2536.

JONES, Paul; The Sociology of Architecture, Liverpool: 
Liverpool University Press, 2011.

JONES, Paul; The Iconic Rebranding of Liverpool (Or: A 
Cloud on the Horizon), unpublished paper presented at the 
International Workshop on The Social life of Port archi-
tecture: History, Politics, Commerce, and Culture (from 
the early eighteenth century to the present day), Centre 
for Port and Maritime History, University of liverpool, 
June 2011.

KADISH, Sharman; Contrasting Identity: Anglo-Jewry and 
Synagogue architecture, in: architectural History, Heft 
45, 2002, pp. 386 – 408.

KAMIYA, Takeo; James Fergusson and Indian Architecture, 
in: Discovery of Asia by Architectural Historians, 2001.

KAMIYA, Takeo; The Guide to the Architecture of The 
Indian Subcontinent, Goa: architecture autonomous, 
2003.

KARLSSON, Lennart; Ett hem långt hemifrån Svensk sjö-
manskyrkohistoria, Uppsala: EFS förlaget, 1988.

KELSALL, Dennis and Jan; Francis Frith Lancashire a Sec-
ond Selection, London, 2003.

KENNERLEY, Alston; Seamen’s Missions and Sailors’ 
Homes: Spiritual and Welfare Provision for Seafarers in 
British Ports in the nineteenth Century, with some refer-
ence to the South West, in: Stephen Fisher (ed.), Studies in 
British Privateering, Trade, Enterprise and Seamen’s Wel-
fare, 1775–1900, Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1987, 
pp. 121–165.

KENNERLEY, Alston; The Sailors’ Home, London and Sea-
men’s Welfare, 1829–1974, in: Maritime Mission Studies, 
Heft 1, Spring 1998, pp. 24 –56.

KOSaMBI, Meera, Bombay in Transition: The Growth and 
Social Ecology of a Colonial City, 1880-1980, Estoorlmo: 
Almqvist & Wicksell International, 1986.

KVErnDal, roald, Seamen’s Missions Their Origin and 
Early Growth, South Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey 
Library, 1986.

LAAR, Paul Th. Van de, Port traffic in Rotterdam: the com-
petitive edge of a Rhine-port (1880–1914), in: Reginald 
lOyEn, Erik BUyST and Greta Davos (eds.), Struggling 
for leadership: antwerp-rotterdam Port Competition 
between 1870 –2000, Heidelberg 2003, pp. 63–86.

lEE, antoinette j., architects to the nation, The rise and 
Decline of the Supervising Architect’s Office, Oxford: 
Oxford University Press, 2000.

lEE, robert and laWTOn, richard, Port Development  
and the Demographic Dynamics of European Urbaniza-
tion, in: richard lawton and robert lee (eds.), Popu-
lation and Society in Western European Port-Cities, 
c. 1650 –1939, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 
2002, pp. 1–36.

lEE, robert, The socio-economic and demographic charac-
teristics of port cities: a typology for comparative analysis, 
in: Urban History, Heft 25, Nr. 2, 1998, pp. 147–172.

lEE, robert, History and Heritage: The Scandinavian Sea-
men’s Church in liverpool, liverpool: a. Wood & Co., 
2009.

lEE, robert, architecture, Culture and Identity: The Scan-
dinavian Seamen’s Church in liverpool, unpublished 
paper presented at the International Workshop on The 
Social life of Port architecture: History, Politics, Com-
merce, and Culture, Centre for Port and Maritime History, 
University of Liverpool, June 2011.

lEE, robert, Einwanderung, wirtschaftliche netzwerke und 
Identität Die Integration deutscher Kaufleute in Liverpool 
im 19. Jahrhundert, in: Dittmar Dahlmann and Margrit 
Schulte Beerbühl (eds.), Perspektiven in der Fremde? 
arbeitsmarkt und Migration von der Frühen neuzeit bis in 
die Gegenwart (Migration in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 
Bd. 6), Essen: Klartext, 2011, pp. 145–170.

lEE, robert, ‘Beer, women and song’: a reappraisal of the 
traditional image of the seafarers’ urban world, unpub-
lished paper presented at the 10th north Sea Conference, 
The Parallel Worlds of the Seafarer Ashore, Afloat and 
Abroad, Gothenburg, September 2011.

LIVERPOOL RECORD OFFICE, 920 DUR, 1/2, Family 
Diary maintained by George Holt, 3 March 1851.

LIVERPOOL RECORD OFFICE, 920 DUR, 4/28/3, List of 
Parties Begun 1867, 15 February 1882.

lOMBarD, Denys and aUBIn, jean (eds.), Marchands 
et hommes d’affaires asiatiques dans l’Océan Indien et la 
Mer de Chine, 13 –20e siècles, Paris: EHESS, 1988.

MACAULAY, James, Thomas, The Gothic Revival, 1745–
1845, Glasgow: Blackie, 1975.

McCarTHy, j., The Origins of the Gothic revival, yale 
University Press, 1987.

McBrIDE, Elyse Gundersen, The Development of ar-
chitectural Office Specialization as Evidenced by Pro-
fessional Journals, 1890–1920, unpublished M. A. dis- 
sertation, Washington University, St. louis, Missouri, 
2009.

MELLER, Helen E., Leisure and the Changing City, 1870-
1914, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.

MErSEySIDE MarITIME MUSEUM, Maritime archive 
and Library, D/SO/2/1/1, Report of the Seamen’s Orphan 
Institution for the year ending 31st December 1869, Liver-
pool, 1870.

MErSEySIDE MarITIME MUSEUM, Maritime archive 
and Library, D/SO/2/1/1, Report of the Seamen’s Orphan 
Institution for the year ending 31st December 1873, Liver-
pool, 1874.

MErSEySIDE MarITIME MUSEUM, Maritime archive 
and Library, D/SO/2/1/1, Report of the Seamen’s Orphan 
Institution for the year ending 31st December 1876, Liver-
pool, 1877.

METCalF, Thomas r., a Tradition Created: Indo-Sarace-
nic Architecture under the Raj, in: History Today, Heft 32, 
Nr. 9, September 1982, pp. 40– 46.

MICOTS, Courtnay, art and architecture of anomabo, 
Ghana: a Case Study in Cultural Flow, in: athanor, Heft 
XXVII, 2009, pp. 105–111.

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



49 

MICOTS, Courtnay, african Elite Colonial architecture: 
Urban assemblages Emphasizing Status and the Desire 
for Global recognition, paper presented at the Chicago 
Graduate Student association Symposium, Chicago, Illi-
nois, 9 October, 2010.

MICOTS, Courtnay, Status and Colonial Mimicry: Port 
architecture in Coastal Ghana, unpublished paper pre-
sented at the International Workshop of The Social life 
of Port architecture: History, Politics, Commerce, and 
Culture (from the early eighteenth century to the present 
day), Centre for Port and Maritime History, University of 
Liverpool, July 2011.

MIlnE, Graeme, Trade and traders in mid-Victorian liver-
pool Mercantile business and the making of a world port, 
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002.

MInOGlU, Ioanna P., The Greek Merchant House of the 
Russian Black Sea: A Nineteenth-Century Example of a 
Traders’ Coalition, in: International journal of Maritime 
History, Heft X, Nr. 1, 1998, pp. 85–96.

nOVIKOVa, anna, The regeneration of river ports on the 
Middle Volga: Ecological, Economic, Political and Social 
issues, unpublished paper presented to the International 
Workshop on the Social life of Port Cities: History, Poli-
tics, Commerce, and Culture (from the early eighteenth 
century to the present day), Centre for Port and Maritime 
History, University of Liverpool, June 2011.

PaDGITT, Clint, German Seamen’s Mission of new york, 
1907–2001, in: Newsletter of the International Associa-
tion for the Study of Maritime Mission (IaSMM), Spring/
Summer 2001 (http://www.gsmny.org/padgitt-history.
html).

PalMEr, Sarah B., Seamen ashore in late nineteenth 
Century london, in: Paul adam (ed.), Seamen in Society, 
Bucharest, 1980, pp. 54–64.

PICTOn, j. a., Memorials of liverpool Historical and Topo-
graphical including a History of the Dock Estate, london: 
Longmans, Green, and Co., 1873, Vol. II Topographical.

PIElHOFF, Stephen, Paternalismus und Stadtarmut. 
armutswahrnehmung und Privatwohltätigkeit im Ham-
burger Bürgertum 1830 –1914 (Beiträge zur Geschichte 
Hamburgs, Band 56), Hamburg, 1999.

PInDEr, D. a., Visitor’s Illustrated Guide to Bombay, lon-
don, 1904. 

POOlE, Braithwaite, Statistics of British Commerce 
being a Compendium of the Productions, Manufactures, 
Imports, and Exports of the United Kingdom, in Agri- 
culture, Minerals, Merchandise, etc., london: W. H. Smith 
and Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1852.

POWERS, Alan, Architectural Education in Britain 1880-
1914, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of 
Cambridge, 1982.

rEBEr, Vera Blinn, British Mercantile Houses in Buenos 
Aires 1810 –1880, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard 
University Press, 1979.

rOCHE, Thomas William Edgar, Samuel Cunard and the 
North Atlantic, London: Macdonald & Co., 1971.

ROWE, Richard, Jack Afloat and Jack Ashore, London: 
Smith Elder & Co., 1875.

SANDGREN, Birger (ed.), ‘Så Länge Svenksa Män Färdas 
På Elbes Vatten Svenska sjömanskyrkan i Hamburg 100 

år 1883–1983, Hamburg: Svenska Gustav Adolfs-kyrkan, 
1983.

SHarPlES, joseph, (ed.), Charles reilly and the liverpool 
School of Architecture 1904 –33, Liverpool: Liverpool 
University Press, 1996 (catalogue).

SHarPlES, joseph, liverpool (Pevsner architectural 
Guides), new Haven and london: yale University Press, 
2004.

SHarPlES, joseph, Merchant Palaces liverpool and Wir-
ral Mansions Photographed by Bedford lemere & Co., 
Liverpool: The Bluecoat Press, 2007.

SHarPlES, joseph, Built on Commerce liverpool’s cen-
tral business district, Swindon: English Heritage, 2008.

SHarPlES, joseph, ‘The Mark of Opulence, Taste and 
Skill’: liverpool Merchants’ Houses, in: robert lee (ed.), 
Networks of Power and Influence: business, culture and 
identity in Liverpool’s Merchant Community, 1800 –1914, 
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2013 (forthcoming).

SKInnEr, Frederick W., Odessa and the Problem of Urban 
Modernization, in: Michael F. Hamm (ed.), The City in 
Imperial Russia, Bloomington, 1986, pp. 214 –XXX.

SMITH, Crosbie, ‘A most terrific passage’: Putting Faith 
into atlantic Steam navigation, in: robert lee (ed.), 
Commerce and Culture nineteenth-Century Business 
Elites, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011, pp. 285–316.

SMITH, Crosbie, HIGGInSOn, Ian and WOlSTEn-
HOLME, Phillip ‘Avoiding Equally Extravagance and 
Parsimony’: The Moral Economy of the Ocean Steam-
ship, in: Technology and Culture, Heft 44, Nr. 3, 2003, 
pp. 443– 469.

SOja, E., Thirdspace: journeys to los angeles and Other 
Real-and-Imaginary Spaces, Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

STOrEy, Tony, Cunard liverpool: spiritual home of the 
world’s famous ocean liners, 1840 –2010, Liverpool: Trin-
ity Mirror, 2010.

SUyKEnS, F., The City and Its Port – an Economic 
Appraisal, in: Geoforum, 1989, Heft 20, Nr. 4, pp. 437– 445.

SVEnSKa KyrKanS arKIV, Uppsala, Gustaf adolfs 
Kyrka, Liverpool, Kassabok 1940 – 48.

SVENSKA KYRKANS ARKIV, Uppsala, A 300, Hamburg, 
Liverpool ang. Sjömanskyrkan, P. M. angående EFS:s sjö-
mansmission, 1959.

SVENSKA KYRKANS ARKIV, Uppsala, A 300, Ham-
burg, liverpool ang. sjömanskyrkan, Svenska Klubben 
Hamburg, Svenska Klubbens in Hamburg engagement in 
Svenska Skolan, 1976.

TEKELI, Ilhan, The Social Context of the Development of 
architecture in Turkey, in: renata Holod and ahmet Evin 
(eds.), Modern Turkish architecture, University of Penn-
sylvania Press, 1984, pp. 9 –33.

THISTlEWOOD, David, liverpool School of architecture: 
Centenary review, in: The architects’ journal, 11 May 
1995, p. 60.

THOMaS, leslie, Built like Bridges: Iron, Steel and rivets 
in the nineteenth-century Skyscraper, in: journal of the 
Society of Architectural Historians, Heft 69, Nr. 2, 2010, 
pp. 234 –261.

THUn, I. r., Werden und Wachstum: der Deutschen Evan-
gelischen Seemannsmission, Hamburg: Deutsches See-
mannsmission, 1959.

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



50  

TSCHUMI, Bernard, Comment made during a discussion 
forum; in C. C. Davison (ed.), Anyplace, New York, Cam-
bridge, Mass. and london: anyone Corporation and The 
MIT Press, 1995, p. 229 (cited in Murray FRASER, The 
cultural context of critical architecture, in: The Journal of 
Architecture, Heft 10, Nr. 3, 2005, pp. 317–322.

UM, nancy, Spatial negotiations in a Commercial City: The 
red Sea Port of Mocha, yemen, during the First Half of 
the Eighteenth Century, in: journal of the South of asia 
History, Heft 62, Nr. 2, 2003, pp. 178–193.

UM, nancy, The Merchant Houses of Mocha: Trade and 
architecture in an Indian Ocean Port, Seattle, Wash.: Uni-
versity of Washington Press, 2009.

UM, nancy, Imported Constructs: Viewing red Sea archi-
tecture from the Sea, unpublished paper presented to the 
International Workshop on the Social life of Port archi-
tecture: History, Politics, Commerce, and Culture (from 
the early eighteenth century to the present day), Centre 
for Port and Maritime History, University of liverpool, 
June 2011.

UMBaCH, Maiken, German Cities and Bourgeois Modern-
ism, 1890–1924, Oxford, 2009.

VaSSallO, Carmel, Maltese Entrepreneurial networks, 
in: Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Gelina Harlaftis and Ioanna 
Pepolasis Minoglu (eds.), Diaspora Entrepreneurial net-
works Four Centuries of History, Oxford and New York: 
Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 125–144.

WIlSOn, Derek, Francis Frith’s Travels: a Photographic 
journey through Victorian Britian, london: j. M. Dent & 
Sons, Ltd., 1985.

WIŚNIEWSKA, Olga, The Structure and Functions of Trad-
ing Posts in northern norway in the Second Half of the 

nineteenth Century, unpublished paper presented at the 
International Workshop on The Social life of Port archi-
tecture: History, Politics, Commerce, and Culture from  
the early eighteenth century to the present day, Centre for 
Port and Maritime History, University of liverpool, june 
2011.

WOODMan, richard, Blue Funnel Voyages, Bebington: 
Avid Publications, 1988.

WOODS, Mary n., From Craft to Profession: The Practise 
of architecture in nineteenth-Century america, Berkeley 
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999.

WOnG, Marie rose, Sweet Cakes, long journey The Chi-
natowns of Portland, Oregon, Seattle and london: Univer-
sity of Washington Press, 2004.

Sources of illustrations

Fig. 1, 2: Maria Georgopoulou, Venice’s Mediterranean Col-
onies architecture and Urbanism, Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, p. 80.

Fig. 3; Fig. 4; Fig. 9; Fig. 15: postcard
Fig. 5 to Fig. 6: courtesy of the Trustees of the Nordic 

Church, liverpool and jan Wallin
Fig. 7: Svenska Kyrka, Ett hem långt hemifrån Svensk 

sjömanskyrkohistoria, Uppsala: EFS-förlaget, 1988, p.  
65

Fig. 8; Fig. 10 to Fig. 14: courtesy of English Heritage

* The photo rights have been clarified by the author and he 
has the responsibility

1 LEE and LAWTON, Port Development, 2002, pp.12–13.
2 DElanTy and jOnES, European Identity and architec-

ture, 2002, pp. 453–66; Jones, Putting Architecture in its 
Social Place, 2009, pp. 2519 –36; Jones, The Sociology of 
Architecture, 2011; Sharples, Liverpool, 2004. 

3 ALBION, The Rise of New York Port, 1961; Suykens, 
The City and Its Port, 1989, pp. 437– 445; Laar, Port Traf-
fic in Rotterdam, 2003, pp. 63–86.

4 lOMBarD and aUBIn, Marchands et hommes 
d’affaires, 1988. 

5 HIRST, Space and Power, 2005, p. 3.
6 BAYDAR, The Cultural Burden of Architecture, 2004, 

pp. 19 –27.
7 ARSLAN, Gothic Architecture in Venice, 1971; How-

ard, The Architectural History of Venice, 1980; Goy, The 
House of Gold, 1992; Goy, Venice, 1997.

8 HOWARD, Venice and the East, 2000; Georgopoulou, 
Venice’s Mediterranean Colonies, 2001.

9 HOWARD, Venice and the East, 2000, pp. 83, 98, 100; 
Engelberg, Die Bautradition der Republic Venedig, 2009, 
p. 89; Herzner, Die Baugeschichte von San Marco, 1985, 
pp. 1–58.

10 GEOrGOPOUlOU, Venice’s Mediterranean Colonies, 
2001, p. 78.

11 HOWARD, Venice and Islam, 1991, pp. 59–74; Howard, 
Venice and the East, 2000, pp. 4–5; Chojnacki, Social 
Identity in Renaissance Venice, 1994, pp. 341–358.

12 GEOrGOPOUlOU, Venice’s Mediterranean Colonies, 
200; Georgopoulou, Mapping Religious and Ethnic Iden-
tities, 1996, pp. 467– 496.

13 ALOFSIN, When Buildings Speak, 2006; Fuller, Mod-
erns Abroad, 2007.

14 NILSSON, European Architecture in India, 1968, Figures 
40 and 55.

15 MACAULAY, The Gothic Revival, 1975; Alexander, 
Medievalism, 1981; McCarthy, The Origins of the Gothic 
Revival, 1987.

16 METCALFE, A Tradition Created, 1982, pp. 40 – 46; 
Crinson, Empire Building, 1996.

17 KAMIYA, James Fergusson, 2001; Kamiya, The Guide to 
The Architecture of The Indian Subcontinent, 2003.

18 UM, The Merchant Houses of Mocha, 2009.
19 UM, Spatial Negotiations, 2003, pp. 178–193.
20 UM, Spatial Negotiations, 2003, p. 184; Um, Imported 

Constructs, 2011.
21 MICOTS, Art and Architecture, 2009, pp. 105–109; 

Micots, Status and Colonial Mimicry. 
22 MICOTS, African Elite Colonial Architecture, 2010.

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



51 

48 SVENSKA KYRKANS ARKIV, Uppsala, A 300, Sven-
ska Klubbens in Hamburg engagement, 1976.

49 REBER, British Mercantile Houses, 1979, p. 44.
50 BrOWn and DE FIGUEIrEDO, religion and Place, 

p. 27; Kadisch, Contrasting Identity, 2002, pp. 386–408.
51 SVENSKA KYRKANS ARKIV, Uppsala, A300, Ham-

burg; Svenska Församlingen, Buenos Aires (Congreg-
ación Sueca), Brev korrespondens, 15. August 1932; 
Sjömansmissionen Bremen 1958–1960, Sammandrag av 
redovisningar, 1958; Liverpool, 1959.

52 lEE, Einwanderung, wirtschaftliche netzwerke und 
Identität, 2011, pp. 163 –166; Belchem and MacRaild, 
Cosmopolitan Liverpool, 2006, p. 365.

53 DEUTSCHE EVanGElISCHE KIrCHE zu liverpool, 
39 Jahres-Bericht, 1888, p. 12.

54 LEE, ‘Beer, women and song’, 2011, p. 18; Feys et al., 
Maritime Transport and Migration, 2007; Frost, Ethnic 
Labour, 1995; Wong, Sweet Cakes, Long Journey, 2004; 
Amenda, Chinese Seafarers, 2011.

55 JEFFERIES, Hamburg, 2011, pp. 166 –169; Amenda, 
Chinese Seafarers, 2011. 

56 BElCHEM and Macraild, Cosmpolitan liverpool, 
2006, pp. 370 –375; Wong, Sweet Cakes, Long Journey, 
2004, pp. 204 –262.

57 lEE, The socio-economic and demographic determi-
nants, 1998, pp. 167–171.

58 GILES and HAWKINS, Storehouses of Empire, 2004.
59 BEAUMONT et al., An Historical Survey, 1936.
60 PICTON, Memorials of Liverpool, 1873, p. 35.
61 PICTON, Memorials of Liverpool, 1873, p. 36.
62 WILSON, Francis Frith’s Travels, 1985; Kelsall, Francis 

Frith, 2003.
63 MILNE, Trade and traders, 2000, pp. 149–150.
64 COCK et al., The liverpool Merchant Community,  

2012.
65 COOKSON, Family Firms and Business Networks, 1997, 

pp. 1–20. 
66 ROCHE, Samuel Cunard, 1971; Hyde, Cunard, 1975; 

Milne, Trade and traders, 2000, p. 14; Storey, Cunard Liver- 
pool, 2010. 

67 SHARPLES, Liverpool, 2004, p. 71; de Figueiredo, Sym-
bols of Empire, 2003, p. 243.

68 DE FIGUEIREDO, Symbols of Empire, p. 245.
69 BABCOCK, Spanning the Atlantic, 1941, pp. 97–99; 

Smith, ‘A most terrific passage’, 2011, p.285.
70 SMTIH, HIGGInSOn, and WOlSTEnHOlME, 

‘Avoiding Equally Extravagance and Parsimony’, 2003, 
pp. 443– 469. 

71 lEE, The socio-economic and demographic characteris-
tics, 1998, p. 168.

72 MELLER, Leisure and the Changing City, 1976; L. Fabi, 
La carita dei ricchi, Milan, 1984; Pielhoff, Paternalismus, 
1999.

73 GILES, Building a Better Society, 2008, p. 17. 
74  HERNDON, The Domestic Cost of Seafaring, 1996, 

p. 57. 
75 MErSEySIDE MarITIME MUSEUM, Maritime 

Archive and Library, D/SO/2/1/1, 1870, pp. 5 –8. 
76 DERBY, Speeches and Addresses, 1894, p. 52; Giles, 

Building a Better Society, 2008, p. 68. 

23 CUSACK, Architects, 1986, p.183; de Figueiredo, Sym-
bols of Empire, 2003, p. 237.

24 DE FIGUEIREDO, Symbols of Empire, 2003, p. 238.
25 THOMAS, Built like Bridges, 2010, pp. 234 –261. 
26 POOLE, British Commerce, 1852, pp. 107–108; Milne, 

Trade and traders, 2002, pp. 56 –57. 
27 HaGGErTy, The British-atlantic trading community, 

2006; Ellis, Heir of Adventure, 1960.
28 DE FIGUEIREDO, Symbols of Empire, 2003, p. 239; 

Fenske, The Beaux Arts Architect, 2005, pp. 19 –37.
29 TSCHUMI, Comment, 1995, p. 229; Woods, From Craft 

to Profession, 1999.
30 DOSTOGLU, Towards Professional Legitimacy, 1982; 

Powers, Architectural Education, 1982; Brain, Practical 
Knowledge, 1991, pp. 239 –268; Crouch, Design Culture 
in Liverpool, 2002; Tekeli, The Social Context, 1984, 
p. 17. For example, the Association of Turkish Architects 
was founded in 1927. 

31 BROOKS, The Builder in the 1840s, 1981, pp. 87–91; 
Gregory, Magazine Modern, 1982; McBride, The 
Development of architectural Office Specialization,  
2009.

32 HarPEr, Victorian architectural Competitions, london, 
1983.

33 Critical Words from Abroad, 1891, p. 198; Boyle, Archi-
tectural Practice in America, 1977, pp. 309–344; Lee, 
Architects to the Nation, 2000; McBride, The Develop-
ment of Architectural Office Specialization, 2009.

34 SHARPLES, Charles Reilly, 1996, pp. 37–38. 
35 DUnnE and rICHMOnD, The World in One School, 

2008, p. 19; Thistlewood, Liverpool School of Architec-
ture, 1995, p. 60.

36 DURAND, La politique français, 1904, p. 287.
37 JEFFERIES, Hamburg, 2011, p. 150; Jefferies, Hamburg: 

a city held together by brick? 2011, p. 4.
38 JEFFERIES, Hamburg, 2011, p. 123.
39 JENKINS, Provincial Modernity, 2003; Umbach, Ger-

man Cities, 2009.
40 Israel, Diasporas Jewish and non-Jewish, 2001, pp. 3–26.

Vassallo, Maltese Entrepreneurial Networks, 2001, 
pp. 125–144; Chamberlain, Diasporic Memories, 2009, 
pp. 177–187. 

41 FELLONI, The Population Dynamics, 2002, pp. 74 –90; 
Cattaruzza, Population Dynamics and Economic Change, 
2002, pp. 176 –211; Dubin, The port Jews of Habsburg 
Trieste, 1999; Herlihy, Greek Merchants in Odessa, 
1979/80, pp. 399–420; Herlihy, Odessa, 1986; Minoglu, 
The Greek Merchant House, 1998, pp. 85–96; Skinner, 
Odessa, 1986, 

42 UM, Spatial Negotiations, 2003, pp. 178–193; Novikova, 
The regeneration of river ports, 2011.

43 ASHTON, Lives and livelihoods, 2003, pp. 113–115.
44 lEE, History and Heritage: the Scandinavian Seamen’s 

Church, 2009, p. 4; Karlsson, Ett hem långt hemifrån, 
1988. .

45 SANDGREN, ‘Så Länge Svenska Män Färdas På Elbes 
Vatten, 1983; Ekelund, Svenska Gustaf-Adolfskyrkan, 
2007. 

46 DELANTY and JONES, European Identity, 2002, p. 453.
47 LEE, Architecture, Culture and Identity, 2011.

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture



52  

77 MErSEySIDE MarITIME MUSEUM, Maritime 
Archive and Library, D/SO/2/1/1, 1873, p. 19; 1877, p. 
22.

78 GILES, Building a Better Society, 2008, p.68.
79 WIŚNIEWSKA, The Structure and Functions of Trading 

Posts, 2011; Sharples, ‘The Mark of Opulence, Taste and 
Skill’, 2012. 

80 FORWOOD, Recollections, 1910, p. 60. 
81 SHarPlES, ‘The Mark of Opulence, Taste and Skill’, 

2012. 
82 SHARPLES, Merchant Palaces, 2007, pp. 4 –7. 
83 SHARPLES, Merchant Palaces, 2007, p. 16.
84 LIVERPOOL Record Office, 920 DUR 4/28/3; DUR  

1/2.
85 HUGILL, Sailortown, 1967, pp. 99, 137–140; Hope, The 

Shoregoer’s Guide, 1964, p. 21; Woodman, Blue Funnel 
Voyages, 1988, p. 137.

86 BELCHEM, Shock City, 2008; Lee, ‘Beer, women and 
song’, 2012.

87 KVERNDAL, Seamen’s Missions, 1986; Karlsson, Ett 
hem långt hemifrån, 1988..

88 PALMER, Seamen Ashore, 1980, pp. 57–59; Rowe, Jack 
Afloat, 1875, p. 8; Kennerley, Seamen’s Missions and 
Sailors’ Homes, 1987, pp. 121–165; The Sailors’ Home, 
1998, pp. 24 –56. 

89 HOPE, City of Liverpool Handbook, 1903, pp. 84 –85.
90 GILES, Building a Better Society, 2008, p. 65. 

91 PINDER, Visitor’s Illustrated Guide, 1904. For a general 
study of the development of Bombay, see Kosambi, Bom-
bay in Transition, 1986. 

92 PADGITT, German Seamen’s Mission, 2001. For a 
general study of German seamen’s missions, see Thun, 
Werden und Wachstum, 1959. 

93  FALKUS, The Blue Funnel Legend, 1990, pp. 114, 310; 
Frost, Racism, Work and Unemployment, 1995, p. 27; 
Evans, Mersey Mariners, 2002, p. 84. 

94 HINKKANEN, Expressions of Longing, 1992, p. 66.
95 ROWE, Jack Afloat, 1875, p.90; Hope, City of Liverpool 

Handbook, 1903, p. 85; Hinkkanen, Expressions of long-
ing, 1992, p. 66; Svenska Kyrkans Arkiv, Gustaf Adolfs 
Kyrka, 1940 – 48. 

96 GRITT, Representations of mariners (accessed 2011). 
97 JONES, The Iconic Rebranding of Liverpool, 2011.
98  HErDMan and PICTOn, Views in Modern liverpool, 

1864, p.33; Sharples, Built on Commerce, 2008, p. 39; 
jones, Putting architecture in its Social Place. 

99 HISE, Architecture as State Building, 2008, pp. 173–177; 
Busquets, Barcelona, 2005. 

100 SOJA, Thirdspace, 1996; Hayden, The Power of Place, 
1995.

101 GILES, The character of port cities, 2011; Hoyle, Pinder 
and Husain, Revitalising the Waterfront, 1988; Breen and 
Rigby, The New Waterfront, 1996; Jauhiainen, Waterfront 
redevelopment, 1995, pp. 3 –18.

The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture