[3] Due to its open yet secure design, the dock became a popular store for valuable cargoes such as brandy, cotton, tea, silk, tobacco, ivory and sugar.

[4] The five warehouses which make up the complex cover 1.25m sq ft in size, the biggest such group of Grade I listed buildings anywhere in the UK.

[2] The plans drawn up by Hartley and fellow civil engineer Philip Hardwick for the Albert Dock were at the time considered quite 'radical', as they envisioned the loading and unloading of ships directly from the warehouses.

[5] However, this idea was not new, and as far back as the 1803 Warehousing Act, legislation had been passed to allow this form of development to occur, whilst the concept was first actually used in the construction of St Katharine's Dock in London, which was opened in 1828.

The land earmarked for the site had to be cleared, with 59 tenants being evicted and numerous premises demolished including a pub, several houses and the Dock Trustee's Dockyard.

[10] The dock complex was officially opened in 1846 by Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria and the man in honour of whom it was named.

[12]The Prince was taken on a processional tour through the city, including a visit to the town hall where the royal address was made, before departing aboard the ferry across to the Cheshire side of the Mersey and then northwards towards the Albert Dock.

The sight was really magnificent, all the ships in the docks were decked out in gayest colours and the river was crowded with boats filled with people.

Warehousing in the dock was also expanded to meet the increasing demand by joining together the eastern and western ends of the Southern Stack.

As a result, it became a popular store for valuable cargoes including brandy, cotton, tea, silk, tobacco, ivory, and sugar.

[9] The development of steam ships in the later 19th century meant that soon the dock simply was not large enough, as its narrow entrances prevented larger vessels from entering it.

Generally steamships could be loaded and unloaded far quicker than sailing ships, and in a cruel twist of irony, the dockside warehouses that had once made the Albert Dock so attractive, were now hindering its future development.

[17] By the 1920s, virtually all commercial shipping activity had ceased at the dock, although its warehouses did remain in use for the storage of goods transported by barge, road or rail.

[20] At the same time a change in geopolitical orientation towards Europe, coupled with the advent of containerisation, meant the whole docking system in the city of Liverpool suffered as newer, stronger ports emerged elsewhere in the UK.

[22] With the council reluctant to allow such a grandiose development to occur and with the huge public opposition to it (inspired at least in part by the work of Quentin Hughes), Oldham Estates were forced into scaling-down the plan and so in 1970 returned with a new vision known as "Aquarius City", which had as its centrepiece a 44-storey skyscraper.

Once again the plan failed to develop and no sooner had it been announced, than the MDHB's financial problems reached crisis point, Oldham Estates withdrew their deposit and the whole scheme fell through.

As part of the strategy two flagship schemes were set up: the redevelopment of a site in Otterspool for the International Garden Festival and the regeneration of the Albert Dock.

On a visit to the site, Arrowcroft's chairman Leonard Eppel spoke of how the buildings "talked to him" and upon his return to London set about persuading the company's board to take on the project.

[31] Development within the Albert Dock was rapid and the newly renovated Edward Pavilion (formerly north east stack) was ready in time for the 1984 Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races.

In total it is estimated that the two flagship regeneration schemes of the MDC, the tall ships race and International Garden Festival, attracted over 3.5 million visitors to Liverpool in 1984.

[33] Spurred by the success of the tall ships race and the International Garden Festival, Arrowcroft pushed on with the Albert Dock's renovation.

[39] Two years later, in 1990, The Beatles Story museum opened, the only Beatles-themed visitor attraction in Britain, providing yet another draw to the Albert Dock.

[35] Throughout the 1990s development continued including a new hotel and the conversion of vacant space for use by larger companies such as Telewest (Now Virgin Media).

[40] Finally in 2003, some 22 years after the renovation of the Albert Dock started, the last remaining undeveloped space was brought into use with the opening of a new Premier Lodge hotel in the Britannia Pavilion.

[15] Built almost entirely from cast iron, stone and brick, the Albert Dock was designed to be fireproof, and on completion was the world's first non-combustible warehouse system.

The warehouses are supported by large load-bearing walls that range from being 3 feet (0.91 m) thick at the base to 19 inches (480 mm) on the fourth level.

[43] The floors in the warehouses are supported by large iron columns and the spaces between were considered 'highly flexible', as new windows, stairwells and lift shafts could be added without risk to the building's structural integrity.

The resultant effect of the dock being constructed where it was is that the north and west stacks (now Merseyside Maritime Museum and Colonnades) rise and fall with every tide.

However, after many years of struggling to compete with other major shopping areas in the city, the Albert Dock Company Ltd announced in 2007 a shift into attracting more bars and restaurants.