Sailors' homes were philanthropic ventures financed from the subscriptions of shipowners and merchants to provide good, clean and inexpensive accomodation and give sailors a refuge from the grog shops - "drunk for 1d and blind for 2d" - and the attentions of "Judies" such as Harriet Lane, Jumping Jenny and "The Battleship".

Earlier sailors' homes elsewhere
In the early 1820s Reverend G C Smith of the Mariner's Club in London expressed the view that seafarers should be provided with low cost accommodation, banking and employment services between voyages. Britain's first Sailors' Home was opened in Well Street, London by the Reverend C.G. Smith in 1835. It was a place where seafarers could live during their time on shore in a port which was not their home port. Efforts to open a similar home in Liverpool soon followed because, as the port grew, an increasing number of seafarers needed accommodation there.

Establishing a sailors' home at Liverpool
Liverpool made the first efforts, after London, to emulate the same kind of institution. The first meeting in support of a Liverpool Sailors' Home took place on 25 February 1837 and was attended by local shipowners, merchants and other interested people. Nothing came of this meeting because Liverpool's Council refused to back the plan. However, by 14 April 1841 £1800 (equivalent to nearly £90,000 in 2001) had been collected in subscriptions in aid of a Sailors' Home. Even so, the plan did not take shape until Liverpool's Council made land available in May 1844. Temporary premises were opened on Bath Street in 1845, prior to the first Liverpool Sailors' Home opening in Canning Place, near the River Mersey in 1850.

The first Liverpool Sailors' Home
The Home's foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert on 30 July 1846 [more] and it opened in 1850. It was designed by the Scottish-born architect John Cunningham, who later also designed the original Liverpool Philharmonic Hall which was destroyed by fire in 1933. The design of the Home was influenced by great Elizabethan houses such as Wollaton and Hardwick Halls. Cunningham modelled the interior on a ship's quarters, with individual rooms leading off from five floors of galleries like cabins. The columns and balustrades of these galleries were moulded in cast iron using nautical themes such as twisted ropes, dolphins and mermaids. In fact the Home was decorated with nautical symbols throughout.

Although by the mid-20th century some critics compared the Home to a prison, when first built its accommodation was far better than that in many of the lodging houses typically used by seafarers. Nevertheless one of the Home's lodgers disliked it enough to set it on fire in 1860. Its interior was destroyed in the blaze but the Home re-opened in May 1862.

Services for seafarers at the Liverpool Sailors' Home
As well as providing seafarers with good quality, affordable accommodation (in 1856 the Home charged 15/- per week which was equivalent to around £36 in 2001) the Liverpool Sailors' Home offered them other important services. The Home set up a Savings Bank, had its own Post Office so seafarers could keep in touch with friends and family, and provided facilities for honest leisure activities such as billiards and concerts. In November 1883 a Temperance Society was set up to encourage sailors to give up alcohol. The Sailors' Home allowed other maritime charities to use rooms on its premises: the Mersey Mission to Seamen performed religious services there; the agent of the Liverpool branch of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society was based there; and, finally, from 1923 the Catholic Sailors'Club met there.

The Liverpool Sailors' Home in the twentieth century
The Liverpool Sailors' Home continued to provide important assistance to seafarers in Liverpool, during the depression years and the two World Wars. Electric lighting was installed at the turn of the 20th century and central heating was installed after the Second World War.

Demand for accommodation in the Sailors' Home was high during the First World War. Many of the men who stayed there between 1914 and 1918 had been shipwrecked by German submarines. During the General Strike of 1926 shipping activity came to a virtual standstill because of the coal shortage. This caused an increase in the number of seafarers seeking accommodation at the Home. The Home was also very busy during the Second World War when many distressed seamen sought sanctuary at the Home.

However, by the 1960s, the Home was too basic and outdated, and unable to meet the more sophisticated demands of modern sailors. The number of sailors using the Home fell and so it was closed in 1969 and the Canning Place premises demolished. The residential work of the Liverpool Sailor's Home continued in Aigburth until 1975, largely for benefit of elderly and ill sailors still resident at the time. Today the Liverpool Sailors' Home Trust continues to support seafaring organisations on board ship and retired Liverpool seafarers in their own homes.

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