Huskisson is one of the docks in the middle of the Liverpool system and is still in use although the huge transit shed on the southern side has been derelict for a while.
A few weeks ago I noticed that it was being stripped out, then one corner started to be demolished so I went for a look in case the whole lot was going to to be flattened.
I haven’t been able to find planning permission for demolition, but part of the seaward end of the shed had already been knocked down sometime between 2012 and 2014 according to satellite imagery.
There wasn’t much inside at the time of the first report, https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threa...e-and-transit-shed-liverpool-mar-2018.112431/, so there are only scraps left now.
The original intention was to add a few pictures of the remaining signage to the original report, but in the end I decided to produce what may be a final record of the place.
Background and externals. I still haven’t found much explicit history for the shed other than it was built in the late 1950s under the aegis of dock engineer Adrian Porter.
Old photos show a single storey structure up to 1956 which then seems to have become the current two storey building.
The office section at the front was occupied by customs and other shipping-related people including the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board engineers.
There used to be white lettering along the top saying “Huskisson Branch Dock No 1” but it’s now almost invisible.
Both sides of the building were served by dockside railway lines which are still there, and goods were transferred to the upper level by hoists operating under the awning on the northern side,
and by electric cranes (now gone) running along a first floor shelf on the southern side.
A picture of the cranes taken in 1966 at the beginning of containerisation, pinched from Peel Ports twitter account.
Like the Tate and Lyle sugar silo just up the road it’s made entirely of reinforced concrete.
In fact the sugar silo was built at much the same time and was connected to the same dock by a conveyor over Regent Road.
Unlike the silo however, this shed is not a listed building.
Externally accessible lavatory block, both M & F, note the poor condition of walls with spalling concrete and rusty rebar.
Explore. Just the usual thing - head in before sunrise and wander around in the gloom peering at stuff waiting for the light.
Some of the pictures are phone and many of the camera ones were hand-held.
Former offices, now completely stripped.
Ground floor.
First floor.
There are hatches in the middle of the floor for transferring goods up and down, but no associated hoists or signs of fixtures in the ceiling above them.
A couple of the wall hoists.
A few views while waiting for sunrise.
Looking towards the sugar silo, now almost hidden by tanks occupying the site of the original No 2 dock.
View out across the Mersey.
There used to be a steam-powered pumping (impounding) station to the left of the wind turbine, which was demolished in the 1990s.
Near where this station was, and just visible behind the multicoloured dazzle ship, is the Endeavour (formerly Habicht II), which partially sank whilst moored in Canada Dock, but now seems to have been re-floated.
Most people have probably only glimpsed the end of this big shed while driving past, and while nobody would call it a pretty building, I quite like its functional no-nonsense character.
Sadly, I suspect this will soon be one less place to go for a wander on the wrong side of the dock wall.
