A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and both the great hall and the plateau without are 

 used for the display of statuary. 



Another fruitful new enterprise was begun in 1852. 

 As early as 1849 — before the Free Libraries Act — 

 the establishment of a public library had been pro- 

 jected. In 1 85 1 the thirteenth Earl of Derby had 

 bequeathed his large natural-history collection to 

 the town. At the same time the Liverpool Academy, 

 founded in 1 8 10, had succeeded ia stimulating artistic 

 interests in the town by its annual exhibitions. In 

 order to meet this triple need a private Act "' was 

 obtained empowering the council to establish and 

 maintain a public library and museum with a gallery 

 of arts, to provide lecture rooms and arrange lec- 

 tures. With this were at first linked the Botanic 

 Gardens, originally started as a private organization 

 by Roscoe, but taken over by the corporation in 

 1 846.'" A fine classic building for the library and 

 museum was provided by Sir William Brown, re- 

 placing the rather ragged houses at the north of 

 Shaw's Brow, and facing St. George's Hall. Thus 

 began a noble group of buildings devoted to know- 

 ledge and the arts, gradually extended by the erection 

 of the Picton Reading Room, a fine rotunda, in 1872, 

 the Walker Art Gallery (the gift of Sir A. B. Walker) 



Brown of Astrop, 

 Bart. Gules a cheveran 

 or betvjeen tzuo bears* 

 pa'ws erased in chief ar- 

 gent and four hands con- 

 joined in saltire of the 

 second in base, on a chief 

 engrailed gold an tagle 

 displayed sable. 



Walker of Osmaii- 

 ton, Bart. Or three pal- 

 lets gules surmounted by 

 a saltire argent charged 

 •with a hart^s head erased 

 proper, on a chief axure a 

 garb betiveen tvio stars 

 of the ^r St, 



in 1877, and the Museum Extension and Technical 

 School in 1902 ; a proud adornment to the city, 

 later made still more attractive by the laying out of 

 gardens with statues in the centre of the great place. 

 The development of these institutions during the last 

 half-century can only be briefly summarized. The 

 Central Library, opened in 1852 with 8,296 volumes, 

 now contains close on 150,000 volumes ; it is most 

 strongly equipped on local history and topography, 

 natural history, and the fine arts; the last-named section 

 has been greatly strengthened by the bequest of the 

 Hornby Library, now housed in a beautiful additional 

 room. There are also nine lending libraries in various 

 parts of the city, having among them nearly 140,000 

 volumes."' The Museums fall into two sections — 

 the Museum of Natural History, which has been built 



up round the nucleus bequeathed by Lord Derby in 

 1852, and is now of great range, probably unsurpassed 

 out of London ; and the Museum of Antiquities and 

 Anthropology, which includes some very valuable col- 

 lections mainly provided by bequest of Mr. Joseph 

 Mayer in 1867. The large extension of the build- 

 ings effected in 1902 for the first time gives adequate 

 room for the display of these collections."' In the 

 Art Gallery a large permanent collection has been 

 accumulated by gift and purchase. It includes some 

 modern paintings of wide fame, also the Roscoe col- 

 lection of Early Italian art, formerly housed at the 

 Royal Institution. The controlling committee has 

 wisely set itself to obtain as full a representation as 

 possible of the remarkable group of Liverpool painters 

 who flourished in the middle of the 1 9th century. 

 An exhibition of contemporary art has been held 

 annually since 1 87 1, and many special exhibitions 

 have also been organized.'" 



The increasing attention to the amenities which 

 the council were now showing was exhibited 

 especially in 1868. Up to that date the town had 

 possessed no public parks, except the small public 

 gardens in St. James's Mount; for though as early as 

 1848 the Newsham estate had been purchased, no use 

 had been made of it. In 1 868 powers were obtained"' 

 for the creation of three parks — Sefton Park, Newsham 

 Park, and Stanley Park — at a cost of £6jo,ooo. The 

 expenditure thus begun has been continued without 

 intermission, and supplemented by private munificence, 

 to which the city owes Wavertree Playground and 

 Bowring Park. The total area of parks and gardens 

 laid out in various parts of the city amounts to almost 

 1,100 acres. 



The last twenty-five years of the 1 9th century were 

 largely engaged in a renewed attack on the problem 

 of the housing of the poor. In the earlier period 

 the council had been content with the demolition 

 of insanitary property, a work in which it had been 

 a pioneer ; it now began to undertake the re- 

 placement of the demolished property by model 

 dwellings. The first block of cottages to be thus 

 erected was in 1869."' In 1885 a large group of 

 dwellings was erected, known as Victoria Square. By 

 1900 accommodation had been provided for over 700 

 families. More recently this work has been pushed on 

 with such vigour that in February 1907 over 2,200 

 dwellings were either in occupation or almost com- 

 pleted. The total cost has been more than ^^1,000,000, 

 the interest on which is almost met by the rents paid. 

 The elaborate and efficient tramway service, taken 

 over by the corporation in 1897, has also tended to 

 facilitate the solution of the housing problem. 



Of other municipal activities no account can here 

 be given. But enough has been said to show that 

 the seventy years since the Municipal Reform Act 

 have been marked by a systematic attempt at the 

 reorganization and reconstruction of the city. In the 

 last part of the period the establishment of the sepa- 

 rate diocese of Liverpool in 1880, the more recent 



^^ 1 5 Vict. cap. 3. 



■'■' 8 & 9 Vict. cap. 43. The library 

 of the Botanic Gardens, founded by Ros- 

 coe, was transferred to the City Library 

 in 1907. 



7** Cowell, Liv, Public Libraries, a his- 

 "ry of fifty years (1903). 



72^ Forbes, descriptive account of the 

 Liverpool Museums in Hdbk. of the Con- 



gress of Roy, Inst, of Pub, Health, 1903 ; 

 annual reports. 



'^^'i Annual Reports, 1872-1907. On 

 the Liverpool painters, Marillier, The 

 Liv, School of Painters, 1904. 



'J^ 28 Vict. cap. 20. 



7" The following facts are from infor- 

 mation supplied by the Medical Officer of 

 Health. It may be noted that the Royal 



40 



Com. on the Housing of the Working 

 Classes reported in 1885 that housing re- 

 form was more urgently needed in Liver- 

 pool than in any other Lancashire town. 

 A good account of housing work in 

 Liverpool may be found in the Hdbk. of 

 the Congress of Roy. Inst, of Pub. Health, 

 1903. 



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