This blog looks at ways of learning about the world without having to get on a plane (in a bid to reduce our carbon footprint). While a friend sails from Liverpool to cross the Atlantic twice (respect!!) mum and daughter explore a city where travel can be a force for good or very, very bad. Words from Nicola Baird.
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| Clipper Race 2017 - 12 boats lined up for display and tours at Albert Dock. (c) aroundbritainnoplane.blogspot.com |
1 “Thousands of ships must have left from this dock,” said
the man taking photos of the Clipper Race as the first of the 12 boats headed
out of the Albert Dock and towards the start line in the Mersey. As the 20 crew members, including my friend Nicky, waved excitedly to their landlubber friends and family, I found the site of the Sanya Serenity beginning her first leg of the around-the-world leg made me cry. It wasn’t just saying goodbye to Nicky, but also the thought of all
those goodbyes that had happened here on the Liverpool docks.
There’s something about waving off a ship that is potent
with the past. Of course some ships made their fortune in a good way, although Nicky’s
goddaughter, Nell, and I had already seen a display at the Museum of Liverpool about
the way hundreds of Chinese sailors, many with Liverpool families, had been compulsorily
repatriated – with no warning – in October 1945. And of course we knew
something about Liverpool’s slave trade history. But going to sea has the
potential to be a make or break move… we know our friend is really looking
forward to the challenge, but as her boat put up its sails and turned into a
tiny, sleek dot on the River Mersey it felt very sad.
The bigger story
Liverpool played a key part in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But because the enslaved were taken from Africa to the Caribbean slave markets and plantations – what’s now known as the Middle Passage – it was, at first, easy to avoid, ignore or even justify. At the Museum of Slavery there’s a huge amount of information about the slavery and forced transportation of Africans, a voyage that invariably saw many people die thanks to the terrible and cramped conditions they were kept in for the 30+ day passage.
Liverpool played a key part in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But because the enslaved were taken from Africa to the Caribbean slave markets and plantations – what’s now known as the Middle Passage – it was, at first, easy to avoid, ignore or even justify. At the Museum of Slavery there’s a huge amount of information about the slavery and forced transportation of Africans, a voyage that invariably saw many people die thanks to the terrible and cramped conditions they were kept in for the 30+ day passage.
Slavery implicated so many people. Even the foods that today
we are either struggling to avoid, or may even claim we are addicted to, such
as coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate (and possibly rum) were all brought to the
home market from the Caribbean because of the work the slaves did. What we did
was sickening but I really only heard the term “middle passage” earlier this
year. A short film from the poet Benjamin Zephaniah shows him calling it a
“holocaust”, which seems exactly the right term.
The exhibition also contains a section about modern day
slavery, which is thankfully becoming better reported than it was, and thus
easier to tackle. During the summer I’ve read about the Filipino mother abused
by her employers who over worked her and refused to give her pay or her
passport; the Vietnamese girls sold to be Chinese brides; the East Europeans
trafficked into prostitution; the Nigerian teenagers tricked into bondage.
Modern day slavery is under our British noses too: in August 2017 a UK family was convicted of keeping at least 18 people as slaves for around 26 years.
Tip: There’s a lot to see in Liverpool but the Museum of Slavery is a must visit, and it’s free. At it’s conjoined with the Merseyside MaritimeMuseum do go and see the exhibition about the work of the Border Agency which
plays a big role in identifying trafficked people – as well as tracking the
illegal movement of rare animals, ivory, alcohol etc.
2 Liverpool always seems a long, long way from my home. But
once I booked a train ticket I discovered it’s really not far at all, just two
hours from Euston station. As this was part of my holiday Nell and I went there
via Bangor and all those Welsh tourist resorts.
Tip: Liverpool Lime Street station has baggage storage. It gets full up quickly,
especially when the football is on. Solution: get there early, be super polite
or pick another time to visit…
3 Liverpool is still in a building frenzy. I last visited about
10 years ago and I doubt I’d be able to recognise that Liverpool from now –
although the iconic Liver birds are still atop the Liver Building near the
Mersey. It’s a useful landmark if you don’t know the area well, as it’s roughly
where you’ll find the Albert Dock.
Tip: Go to the Museum of Liverpool and see pictures of
what Liverpool used to look like. Even when the Beatles were playing in The
Cavern it was grey and positively run down.
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| Classic Liverpool, there's even the Liver Building in the pic. (c) aroundbritainnoplane.blogspot.com |
4 Zillions of visitors head to the Albert Dock and
waterfront area for the festivals, food stalls, galleries and restaurants. A
taxi driver told me that three cruise ships had pitched up a week or so ago,
each with 1,000 people, but still managed to be absorbed without overwhelming
the city. The absolute best part of Liverpool for visitors is the incredible
signposting to all the places you might want to go – The Beatles Story, the
Tate Liverpool, the Maritime Museum, bus station, train station and shopping
streets – and a huge number of traffic free shopping streets. Somehow this
doesn’t seem to have put off drivers as they’ve been provided with 4,000+
parking spaces in the city centre.
Tip: The only downside I came across on my 2-day Liverpool
adventure is that different companies won’t accept return or all day rovers on
their buses if you’d booked the initial ticket with another bus company.
5 You’ve got to find out something about the Beatles. We
booked the Beatles Story (on line to ensure we didn’t have to queue), which is
a fantastic exhibition. It’s pricey – but everything else on the docks to look
at was free. It’s also valid for 48 hours so if you’ve only made it up to The
Yellow Submarine phase you can take a break and then re-visit the following
day. Like so many of the places we went to at Liverpool the staff were
super-friendly. They also all seemed to have Liverpool accents, which we loved
because it made us feel as if we were really travelling. Long live regional
distinctions. By the end of the
exhibition I was an unexpected fan of George Harrison (his involvement in
Handmade Films helped get my favourite film Withnail
& I funded and he had a cameo role in Monty Python). I also learnt that Ringo Starr had narrated Thomas The Tank Engine for TV and that Paul met John Lennon at
Woolton Fete; oh yes and that Eleanor Rigby was a real person, dead in a
Liverpool Graveyard.
Tip: The Beatles Story is totally recommended. It’s pricey –
but everything else on the docks to look at was free (and pints are cheaper
than down south which eased some of the pain). The entry ticket is also valid
for 48 hours, so if you’ve only made it up to The Yellow Submarine phase you
can take a break and then re-visit the following day.
6 On a two-day break we also had time to visit the Tate Liverpool and the Walker Art Gallery, both with fantastic art displays in huge,
beautiful buildings. I particularly loved the Walker Art Gallery as it reveals
much about how Liverpool tradesmen saw themselves and it’s also been curated to
make clear why this picture is here in this Liverpool gallery.
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| Nicky's godchildren Nell and Max (with Zimbabwe flag) pose in Liverpool. (c) aroundbritainnoplane.blogspot.com |
Summing up: in
2008 Liverpool was nominated as a European cultural capital, alongside
Stavanger, Norway and it has the bonus of having several city centre areas
designated as World Heritage sites. It’s an old city and a busy one with a long
industrial record which has kept its pride thanks to the Mersey Beat
(especially the Beatles). Slavery was a hideous part of its history, but one - as the Liverpool museums make clear - that wasn’t very obvious thanks to the
dirty work of shipping people across the Middle Passage so many miles from
where the ship originally set sail, or returned home. We know more now and it
is important not just to see the historical evidence, but to understand why
that’s created an imbalance of power between the status quo and black African
and Caribbean-heritage families here in the UK.
There are many heroes who made efforts to bring slavery to
an end from Wilberforce to Plimsoll, but it is quite shocking to learn how the
slave owners were the ones to get compensation when their “property” was begrudgingly freed. In a just world it would have been the people given their
freedom who’d have been offered additional financial compensation to help them
find their feet. But it isn’t a just world, still.
In today's Liverpool the obvious signs of great wealth (fabulous public architecture for example), and the people able to have fun without watching their wallets, are never far from the homeless or families in very rundown homes. It's not slavery, of course, but it ought to make us all think about ways we as individuals can help the people who have a great need.
Nicky, my sailing friend who was the reason we all went to Liverpool in August has set up a fundraising page to raise money for Migrants Organise, which works with refugees. If you'd like to donate that would be fantastic, here's the link. Thank you.
