Liverpool Sailors' Home

The need for a Sailors’ Home had been identified: to provide for seamen frequenting the port of Liverpool, board, lodging and medical attendance, at a moderate charge; to protect them from imposition and extortion, and to encourage them to husband their hard-earned wages; to promote their moral, intellectual, and professional improvement; and to afford them the opportunity of receiving religious instruction.

A reading-room, library, and savings bank will be attached to the institution; and with a view to securing to the able and well-conducted seamen a rate of wages proportionate to his merits, a registry of character will be kept.

Among the ulterior objects in contemplation are schools for sea-apprentices, and the sons of seamen, with special regard to the care of children who have lost one or both their parents receiving religious instruction.As well as providing safe accommodation for an average of 200 men each night, the home provided a vital service, introducing professional, experienced merchant seamen to captains of safe seaworthy vessels.

During the construction of The Liverpool Sailors' Home (1845–52), it is clear from contemporary reports that John Cunningham, worked closely with Henry Pooley Jnr.

By April 1852 the lower sections of the gates had been installed, decorated with a combination of elements from the interior balconies; four great panels of rope-work with central mermaid and trident figures identical to those inside.

The two outer panels were fixed whilst the two centre sections rolled behind them on rails where they were hidden from sight while the Home was open for business.

The iron-work of the lower gates, being on such a large scale, produced a solid, intimidating aspect compared with the much lighter appearance of the balcony railings.

The upper part of the gates which reflect the sandstone carvings above the entrance were added later and show a much lighter touch, using the spaces between the iron to great effect.

The Minutes of Sailors' Home Management Committee, contain the following entry: “1852 July 14 - "Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Pooley were present in reference to the accident of the falling of the outer gate upon Mrs Price, causing her death.

On the night of Sunday the 12th, between eight and nine O'clock, he was closing the ornamental gate, (which is massive iron, and divided into three compartments) with his wife, his daughter, and her child, standing by his side.

He was shutting the gate in the usual way, when the centre compartment slipped out of the groove and fell upon his wife and daughter, both of whom were taken to the South Hospital where the deceased died next morning from the injuries which she had received.The verdict of the inquest was that Mrs Price had been "Accidentally Killed".

It was not Mr. Pooley or his foreman that were brought to account but the unfortunate doorkeeper, Joseph Clark who was suspended and replaced by William Elliot at 18/- per week.

The following is taken from contemporary accounts: "Early on the morning of Sunday 24 November, nearly an hour after midnight, Police constable number 324A, Brownlow Locke, of the Liverpool City Constabulary, met his death in a very strange and unexpected manner."

The constable, it appears, had left his waterproof cape at another part of his beat, and had stood inside the entrance of the Sailors' Home to shelter from the storm.

"The heavy mass of iron which caused the officer's death lay prone alongside of the front of the building for some time and was an object of curious investigation by morbid passers-by who knew of the sad affair."

Despite fierce public declarations on December 5 the Committee met to consider the suggestion of Mr. Duder's (the prosecuting solicitor) that the Home should make an offer to the Policeman's widow.

The Chairman presented Messrs. Killick and Cochran's suggestion an estimate for placing a new wrought iron top guide rail for gates, the Secretary was instructed to request them to proceed with the work at once and to ascertain if they consider the ground runners in good order and also if the new chains supplied by them had been tested and to what extent.

At the same time the Chairman presented the report and balance sheet for 1907, which was passed subject to £ 100 being carried to a suspense to cover a grant for Policeman Locke's widow and costs."

Visitors to Anfield Cemetery will look in vain for any monument to Constable Locke, whose grave is unmarked despite the unusual nature of his passing and the pomp and ceremony of his burial.

On 11 June 1951 it was reported that the gates were 'quite improperly' holding up the archway above them, and considerable work would be necessary before they dare be removed by the Sailors' Home Contractors.

Despite this report the gate had been in place for nearly one hundred years and had supported the entrance arch, just as John Cunningham and Henry Pooley Jnr.

This may be malicious damage caused by seamen angry at being locked out of the Home after curfew, or during the three occasions, two of them deadly, when the chains failed to stop the massive doors coming off the rails.

The gates could have either been returned to Avery’s historic Soho Foundry site or to the St Thomas's Church memorial garden, close to the replica of the 1850s Liverbird carving which stood above the building's entrance.