Image of the week 2012, number 14....

This image was shot just on the edge of Liverpool one and features a detail of the old Liverpool Sailors Home that occupied a site nearby from 1850 until 1969. The home and the gates have an interesting history, from their original place at the entrance to the home in 1852, through to their removal to a museum Birmingham after the Blitz.

The home was demolished in 1974. The gates had languished, rotting away in the Avery museum in Sandwell, until the summer of 2010 when the gates were taken to to Barr & Grosvenor Ltd’s foundry in Wolverhampton for restoration under the guidance of the company’s head, Dominic Grosvenor. The £32K estimated cost of the restoration was borne by Avery.

In March 2011 Officers at Sandwell Council approved an application to have the Sailors' Home Gates relocated to Liverpool as they felt the gates would have more significance to the community in their home city than in Sandwell.

After restoration, the gates were returned to Liverpool on 8 August 2011 and were re-erected under the name "The Sailors Home Gateway"and can now be found at the end of Paradise Street in Liverpool One, close to their original home.


Lumix GF1, 1/1250, f2, ISO 100