Race to bring historic city gates back home

Nov 3 2008 by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post

CAMPAIGNERS are racing against time to get a pair of gates – considered to be the most important relic of Liverpool’s seafaring history – back to the city.

The Sailor’s Gates, also known as the Henry Pooley Gates, were originally installed in the city’s old Sailors’ Home, in 1850.

However, after the Sailors’ Home was badly damaged in World War II, they were given to the Avery Historical Museum, Birmingham, in 1951.

Determined activist Gabriel Muies has been campaigning for years to get the gates back to their original site, now occupied by the new John Lewis store in Liverpool One.

Developer Grosvenor has identified a memorial garden in Cleveland Square, close to the store, but Rod Holmes, the Liverpool One project director, said decisions needed to be made quickly.

He said: “We need to start the memorial garden early next year and it will be completed in July, 2009.

“It would be nice to get a decision sooner rather than later so that we can make appropriate plans.”

Mr Muies has been given strong support by Liverpool’s world heritage officer, John Hinchliffe.

The city council has been mired in negotiations with Sandwell Council and English Heritage for years. The major sticking point is getting Grade II building consent to remove them.

Current owners Avery Weigh-Tronnix are understood to approve the deal, leaving the onus on the two councils to agree terms with English Heritage.

Mr Muies, a former seaman who set sail on board the Regent Royal from the Dingle jetty in 1955, said: “People from around the world will come to see them in their original setting because so many of our seamen and women have emigrated and will want to see them back.”

The deal would cost between £35,000 and £40,000, and Sandwell has urged Liverpool to make contact.

richarddown