Bramley-Moore Dock was a dock on the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, and part of the

Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of ...

. The dock is located in the northern dock system in Liverpool's

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

area, and was connected to Sandon Half Tide Dock to the north and Nelson Dock to the south. Jesse Hartley was the architect. The dock opened in 1848. The dock was infilled with Everton FC's new home ground,

Everton Stadium Everton Stadium, currently known as the Hill Dickinson Stadium for Naming rights, sponsorship reasons, is a Association football, football stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in Vauxhall, Liverpool, Vauxhall, Liverpool, England. It will be the new hom ...

, being constructed on the dock with a 2025 opening date scheduled. The Club received planning approval for a 52,888 capacity stadium which is set to be opened in time for the start of the 2025/26 football season. The project was cited as one of the reasons for the revocation of Liverpool's

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

status as the

Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City is a former UNESCO designated World Heritage Site in Liverpool, England, that comprised six locations in the Liverpool city centre, city centre including the Pier Head, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, Albert Dock ...

, with the

World Heritage Committee The World Heritage Committee is a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Her ...

stating that the project was one of the developments which had resulted in a "serious deterioration" of the historic site.

History

The dock was opened on 4 August 1848, as part of Jesse Hartley's major northern expansion scheme of that year, and was named after and opened by John Bramley-Moore, chairman of the dock committee at the time. When built, Bramley-Moore Dock was the most northerly part of the dock system. At the time, access to the

was from the south, through the new Nelson and Salisbury Docks, which were all commissioned simultaneously. When built, Bramley-Moore Dock was used for the largest steamships of the era. In 1851, further docks were opened to the north. These included Wellington Half Tide Dock, which gave a second access point for Bramley-Moore into the Mersey. The berthing of the larger ships was moved to the new Sandon Dock and Huskisson Dock within a few years of opening because of the ease of access to the river these docks offered. Around 1900, the Wellington Dock and the adjoining Sandon Dock were realigned, with the half tide dock separated as Sandon Half Tide Dock, as it remains today. Although a mixed-use dock, with one of the original transit sheds still in place, Bramley-Moore did extensive coal trade. The coal handling included both coal for export and bunker coal for

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s in the port, transported from the South Lancashire Coalfield. A high-level railway opened in 1857 to transport coal directly to the north quay. The high-level railway was connected by viaduct to the adjacent

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

line. The high-level railway was operational from 1856 to 1966. After the decline in coal-fired steamships, the dock continued to export coal. Following the demise of coal mining in South Lancashire, and most of the UK, the export market for coal dissolved with the dock ceasing coal exports in 1988. Bramley-Moore Dock is the location of one of Liverpool's brick-built

hydraulic accumulator A hydraulic accumulator is a pressure storage reservoir in which an Incompressible flow, incompressible hydraulic fluid is held under pressure that is applied by an external Prime mover (engine), source of mechanical energy. The external source can ...

towers. The Grade II listed tower is in severe disrepair with Everton's plans for a new stadium including the commitment to invest in heritage and repair and restore the tower for public use. The tower provided hydraulic power to dock gates and lifting equipment but is no longer active. Dkbkpl27

21st century

In 2007, the

Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Greater Manchester, Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes ...

, owners of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, unveiled the £5.5 billion

Liverpool Waters Liverpool Waters is a large scale £5.5bn development that has been proposed by the Peel Group in the Vauxhall, Liverpool, Vauxhall area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The development will make use of a series of derelict dock spaces at Cen ...

regeneration programme. Bramley-Moore Dock is encompassed in the site. Bramley-Moore Dock is the most northern of the docks within the former

and the planned Liverpool Waters and the most southerly of the working docks. The hydraulic tower and dock retaining walls are

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

buildings. Bramley-Moore Dock may have been listed as World Heritage Site but sits behind locked gates, semi-derelict with no access to the public, its heritage assets are decaying and is next door to a waste water treatment plant.

Everton Stadium

In March 2017, an agreement was reached between Liverpool City Council, Everton F.C. and Peel Holdings to acquire the dock for a new football stadium. A planning application was submitted in December 2019, with approval granted by the city council in February 2021 for development of a 52,888 capacity stadium. Everton's plans were stated as delivering a £1.3bn boost to the economy, create more than 15,000 jobs, attract more than 1.4m visitors and act as a catalyst for £650m of accelerated regeneration. At the planning meeting Everton also committed to investing up to £55m to repair, preserve, restore and open up Bramley-Moore Dock's heritage assets. In July 2021, Liverpool Waterfront's UNESCO World Heritage status was revoked. A report from the

described the forthcoming Bramley-Moore Dock development, along with the

project, as having caused an "irreversible loss of attributes". Ground was broken on the project in August 2021. A first test event was held in February 2025, and Everton are due to fully move into the stadium in time for the start of the 2025-26 football season.

References

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