The modern university city of Liverpool, capital of music and home of three great football teams was during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the richest city in the now United Kingdom.

While London was the capital, the country's wealth derived from England's northern cities which were at the heart of the industrial revolution. The port of Liverpool provided these industrial cities with access to the sea and the markets of the world.

Liverpool was Britain's capital of business and it's maritime trade in goods and passengers created fabulous wealth for some and led to a huge growth in the nation's shipping, banking and insurance businesses, which all had their head offices in Liverpool.

This Liverpool wealth created a spectacular legacy of architecture. The museums and galleries were built in the then fashionable neoclassical style, while city streets include the best examples of Georgian architecture, comparative with the city of Bath.

Alongside these gems are early examples of modernist steel frame architecture which have as their background the sea and the spectacular red brick architecture of the Albert Dock.