The Playhouse Theatre

This module began with a trip to the playhouse encouraging us as historians to explore the history of our city in a little more depth. To accompany my research I have researched a little about the Playhouse Theatre exploring its vast and rich history as a key factor in the development of Liverpool culture.

Situated in Williamson’s Square in Liverpool the Playhouse, originally titled the Star Concert Hall the playhouse was opened in 1866. Most notably it was “one of the first and soon one of the most prestigious repertory in the country”. By 1898 Harry Percival added a new auditorium and electricity was installed. It was then re-titled the Liverpool Playhouse in 1916. The Playhouse today is the only surviving Victorian theatre still active as a theatre.

Bibliography

  • Melville, Herman,  Redburn: His First Voyage (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1957).

Post 1840s

From the 1840’s Irish emigration slowly increased as a direct result of the Great Famine in 1846. The Great Famine killed over one million Irish citizens dying from starvation and disease. At the end of 1855 one and a half million Irish people had emigrated in hope for a better life overseas in Britain, America and Australia. Britain was an attractive destination with the prospect of work and aid through the English Poor Law system. “Liverpool was a much less distant magnet than America, exerting its pull, not on the minds of prospective emigrants”. Migrants did often use Liverpool as a stepping stone to continue their journey onto North America or Australia, not many had the resources to complete their full journey. Often many used up all of their savings on fares to America yet while waiting they became too ill to travel. Similarly, travellers often fell into the hands of criminals. Arriving into Liverpool unsuspecting passengers were met with the alleyways upon the docks where “a company of miscreant misanthropes, bent upon doing all the malice to mankind in their power.” resided.  Thus, being involuntarily trapped in Merseyside. Between 1841 and 1851 the total Irish-born population in Liverpool rose from 17.3% to 22.3%.It has been estimated that from 1850-1913 over 4.5 million Irish citizens had emigrated from their home country. “The Liverpool docks had become the main gateway to the Atlantic for most of those leaving the British Isles. The Irish Sea was Liverpool’s realm.” Liverpool had grown into “an adolescent metropolis, brazen with success and callous toward weakness.”

Liverpool grew into the “most Irish city in England, one whose dialect even today is hard to distinguish from Dublin’s, most of the distressed classes who haunted its streets and alleys were wayfarers, transients who would never become part of its still-unformed society. Transiency aggravated both their physical distress and the animosity they encountered. By the time the famine emigration reached the Merseyside, its inhabitants were more hardened to the spectacle of public suffering than those of any city in the kingdom.”

Liverpool’s overpopulation was a growing concern amongst the people, council and Poor Law authorities alike. There was a continuing state of alarm at the fear of disease, antisocial behaviour and bankruptcy. “Liverpool’s population had already swollen beyond the control of the municipal authorities by the 1830s, rising by nearly 60 per cent in that decade, from 165,000 to 286,000.” In 1842 Britain was titled the most “unhealthiest town in England,” described by Dr Duncan of Liverpool, one of the era’s leading public health reformers, as “the black spot on the Mersey.”

Interviews

Upon reseacrhing this topic I decided it would be beneficial for me to conduct some interviews with Irish citizens who have emmigrated to Liverpool.

I got in touch with the Liverpool Irish Centre and liaised a good time to go along to chat to the regulars. My visit coincided with the ‘Pensioners Lunch Club’ which gave me a great opportunity to chat to people who have moved to Liverpool from 1950’s – 1990’s.

I wanted to make my interviews as informal as possible, provoking the interviewee to chat as if they were telling a story, more explaining their life rather than answering questions. Understandably it could be quite intimidating for the interviewee to do this on the spot so i decided to create some prompt questions which I asked them to read before the interview began.

  • What’s your name and age?
  • When did you move to Liverpool?
  • Who did you move with?
  • Why did you/your parents choose Liverpool?
  • Where abouts did you first live upon moving to Liverpool?
  • What are your most significant memories from moving to Liverpool?
  • How do you feel people reacted to Irish immigration within Liverpool?
  • How prominent do you think the Irish community within Liverpool is?
  • Do you think Irish settlement in Liverpool has changed over the years? Compared to when you first came to nowadays.
  • How do you think Irish immigration compares to non-EU immigration, specifically in Liverpool itself?