The story of Liverpool is the story of great wealth, and also great poverty. Many of the grandest buildings behind you on Castle Street were banks, built to handle money made from the slave trade, but those working the ships saw very little of that wealth.
 | | The railings include pineapples |
Castle Street is one of the original seven streets of Liverpool dating from when King John granted the royal charter in 1207. The original Town Hall was a thatched roof building with the Mayor’s office above, and trading below. The current Town Hall, the third to be built on this site, is one of the oldest buildings in the city centre. The first Town Hall was built in 1515, the second in 1673. The existing Town Hall was built in 1754 but then damaged by fire and rebuilt between 1795 and 1820. If you look closely at the railings you can see elephants and pineapples which reflect the trade that came in and out of Liverpool. The dome on top of the building is faced by four clocks flanked by lions and unicorns. The figure on top of the dome is Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and protector of cities, the figure is made of terracotta and covered in 87,000 square inches of gold leaf. At the north end of the building are four statues symbolising the four seasons, these were originally part of the Irish parliament building in Dublin. Exchange Flags
 | | The splendour of the Town Hall staircase |
At the rear of the building is Exchange Flags, an area enclosed by buildings and the original trading site for merchants. The area was originally nothing more than a muddy site where merchants met to conduct their trade deals, however rain would make the area messy and force traders to use shop doorways, so it was decided to pave the area and business performed on the site became known as ‘trading on the flags’. This continued until the late 1800’s when the invention of the telephone drove traders into officers. The statue in the centre of Exchange Flags is of Lord Nelson and was created in 1813. The fundraising for the statue was initiated by William Roscoe who was a leading campaigner for the abolition of slavery. The statue shows Nelson with his left foot on a fallen foe and his right foot on a cannon. He is also holding a sword with three crowns representing three battles, a figure of Britannia is weeping for the loss of Nelson. A varied history The Town Hall has witnessed many dramatic events, in 1775 the American Revolution was badly disrupting trade and many ship owners cut wages or laid off workers, Liverpool witnessed it’s first seaman’s strike. Matters were soon out of control, when an unarmed seaman broke a window police opened fire on the crowd killing at least two people. Gun shops were looted and cannon brought from ships and fired at the Town Hall, taking chunks out of the walls. The local magistrates were forced to call the military from Manchester to regain control.
During the Second World War the city council removed many of the treasures from the Town Hall for safe keeping, the council chamber and ballroom were badly damaged during bombing. Liverpool Town Hall has been at the centre of many civic events. The front balcony has been used to wave at crowds by the Beatles, members of the Royal Family and both Liverpool and Everton football clubs. The balcony at the North side is called the Queen’s Balcony after Queen Victoria who in 1851 stood there to greet the city’s merchants. | 
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Introduction