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 The Image of the Liver Bird is widely depicted in many places, and on
many buildings right across the City of Liverpool. In the case of Martins Bank, the bird
doesn’t simply appear on the coat of arms of the bank, it is lavishly
celebrated both in the interior and exterior artwork of the Head Office
Building at 4 Water Street. David
Cottrell, author of “The Little Book of Liver Birds” (Breedon Books 2006) has
kindly given his permission for us to display some of the stunning images
from his book, which show the beauty and fantasy depicted by the Liver Bird,
and other nautical creatures in every corner of Head Office. David has also kindly written the following
piece especially for us, to accompany the images.
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A carving of the Liver Bird on
the exterior of Head Office Building
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No
4 Water Street, completed in 1932 as the new headquarters of Martins Bank, is
a Grade II* listed Liverpool landmark. Under
the stewardship of chief architect Herbert Rowse, its fabulous decorative
elements were a collaboration between celebrated local sculptor Herbert Tyson
Smith and the prolific Liverpool stonemasons
Edmund Thompson and George Capstick.
An octopus looks down from the
underside of a balcony, onto unwary passers-by
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This
was Rowse’s second great realisation of American commercial architecture in
Liverpool and indeed the UK.
Nine years earlier he’d designed the monumental, marble-faced India Building on the other side of Water Street. In
later years he’d create the futuristic entrances for Queensway (the first Mersey road tunnel) and a radical scheme for the city’s
Philharmonic Hall on Hope Street. By the early 1930s, Liverpool was not only
revelling in its commercial might but increasingly receptive to new ideas in
industry and engineering. By virtue of its own maritime history it already
had strong links with the United
States and, unlike other British cities,
was just as young, modern and imaginative. The colour scheme of Martins and
its neighbours in Liverpool’s business
district and adjacent Pier Head – a swathe of greyish, creamy white lends
them an air of dignity and grandeur. It was a deliberate move by local
brahmins to create a skyline like the great American cities with which they
did business by adopting both the signature shade of classical architecture
and the scale and style of what was called the Beaux Arts – balanced,
symmetrical buildings composed of colossal masonry with columns, balconies
and restrained sculpture.
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Royal Court – King Neptune is
seen
in many guises throughout the
building
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Originating
in France, the Beaux Arts
flourished in America
between 1885 and 1920 – ideal for massive buildings like banks, hotels,
museums, court houses and government offices in expanding US cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia
that sought to plan on a large scale. Bringing it to a city as sophisticated
and progressive as Liverpool became a matter
of principle and pride. As the only major bank based outside London (having merged with the
long-established Bank of Liverpool in 1918 and procured 700 branches
nationwide) Martins was seeking a new head office as much as a statement of
confidence as practical requirement – and Rowse was the obvious candidate for
architect. xA
graduate of the Liverpool School of Architecture – at that time dominated by
the charismatic Professor Charles Reilly – he’d won a scholarship to travel
to North America before returning home to
implement what he’d seen. Accordingly, although designed on classical Roman
lines, the 150ft high Martins Bank boasted a steel-frame construction and
advanced system of servicing (ducted pipes and wires, heated ceiling etc).
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Such
a significant building, faced in Portland Stone (stored and cut at the
William Moss masonry in Liverpool), demanded
the very best sculptural decoration. The 9ft bronze doorways of the main
entrance boast front-facing Liver Birds with raised wings and straight bills,
and the adjoining bays have carvings of bald-headed Neptunes
with dolphins and African boys holding coins, anchors and ropes. Over
the fifth-floor windows of the front elevation is a shield containing a Liver
Bird in profile, wings tucked down, surmounting wavy lines representing the
River Mersey, and supported by a horizontal triton and mermaid with splendid
fish tails, fin-like girdles and Assyrian hairstyles. Above the shield is a
grasshopper – a reference to the name of the tavern on London’s Lombard Street where moneylender Sir
Thomas Gresham practised the country’s first banking system in the late 16th
Century.
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A monogram of Martins and
mermaids
provides a signature to the
building
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King Neptune himself looks down,
almost giving the impression
that he and his fellow sea
creatures are guarding the building
and the trade taking place within
its walls…
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Simply stunning, this exterior
relief is also truly
exotic and shows why this
building still has the power
to take your breath away.
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The
Liver Bird, grasshopper and Mersey motif is
repeated in discs either side of the arched main entrance, and there are
similar birds in cartouches beneath each of the 30 ground-floor windows. All
over the façade, upon closer inspection, are exquisite maritime motifs like
lobsters, scallop shells, walruses and delightfully-rendered octopuses on the
underside of iron balconies high above the streets. Inside, they saved the
best till last. The ceiling of the Jazz Age banking hall is embellished with
four slate-coloured Liver Birds in gold shields topped with gold grasshoppers
and flanked by serene and voluptuous mermaids with cascades of golden
hair. And eight floors up is another
artistic tour de force. Drawing the great velvet curtains of the boardroom is
like illuminating the ocean floor. The walnut ceiling is awash with more
mermaids, ships and tridents, sea horses, starfish and jellyfish, as well as
strutting, long-billed Liver Birds picked out in gold, emerald green and
Indian red.
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The Liver Bird struts proudly
through the court of King Neptune, whilst underneath
in the boardroom, the “Court of
Martins” would also sit!
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Modesty forbids – how DID the
1930s parent explain
those voluptuous mermaids to
their goggle-eyed offspring?
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Images and main text © David Cottrell/Breedon Books 2006
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