10 Rumford Place

Smuggling and espionage in the American Civil War

This pleasingly modest brick building was the headquarters of a covert operation during the American Civil War to support the Confederates in defiance of official British neutrality. The oldest part is the 1830s Georgian-style frontage in the second courtyard, the only surviving example of an early office building in central Liverpool. This was the address of Fraser, Trenholm and Co, the British arm of a shipping firm based in Charleston, South Carolina. When, in 1861, the Union began the blockade of the Confederate ports in the South, the company drastically changed direction. It became the unofficial European banker for the Confederates and began to break the blockade, running goods to the South and smuggling cotton out.

James Bulloch, a Confederate agent, arrived in Liverpool in 1861 and went to 10 Rumford Place with a shopping list that included pistols, warships, and 4,000 pairs of flannel drawers. The Confederacy had no fleet and no access to supplies because of the blockade. Through Bulloch, orders were placed with Merseyside shipyards for the Florida, built by Miller and Sons in Toxteth, and the Alabama, built by Laird in Birkenhead. Both were spirited out of Liverpool, and inflicted great damage on Union vessels, although, due to espionage carried out for the American consul in Liverpool, two ram ships built by Laird for the Confederates were seized by the British government.

Liverpool also had a curious role in the ending of the Civil War, usually said to have been on April 9, 1865, when the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Unionist general Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. The war actually ended in Liverpool seven months later. The Confederate ship Shenandoah had been at sea and unaware of Lee’s surrender. It sailed into Liverpool and it was in the Mersey on November 6 that the Confederate flag was lowered for the last time.

Address 10 Rumford Place, Liverpool L3 9DG | Getting there 5-minute walk from James Street station | Tip Round the corner on Chapel Street is Liverpool Parish Church, dedicated to Our Lady and St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors. Known as the Seamen’s Church, it has a weathervane in the form of a ship.

Browse for curios in an Aladdin’s cave

The long, narrow interior feels like a slightly musty souk, piled high with bric-a-brac of all kinds – antiques, collectibles, Asian art, kitchenalia, vintage clothing, and good old junk, displayed on a jumble of shelves, ledges, and tables or in vitrines, interspersed with straggly houseplants and potted palms. There are extraordinary, fascinating, rare, and useless objects everywhere: clockwork toys, Soviet porcelain, a copy of Ken Dodd’s Diddymen Annual, a bit of famille rose, a Korean figurine, Murano glass, suitcases with old luggage labels, Art Deco scent bottles … As you progress further into the shop, past the racks of clothes, and hats – including an unusually large collection of cream and beige corduroy jackets, towards the vinyl and books at the back, you regress into a dreamlike state, induced by the sound of ambient music and the faint smell of incense. While you browse, you’ll discover things you haven’t seen since your childhood – a pair of 1960s nylons, a chunky 1950s white telephone – or things you have never seen at all, such as a pair of lavender bags made to look like tiny ballet shoes.

As the owner Trevor explains, the shop was not planned, it just evolved. He started out selling 20th-century decorative art and vintage clothing in Birmingham in 1976, moved to Liverpool to a stall in the legendary Aunt Twacky’s Bazaar in Mathew Street, and in 1977, opened a shop in Renshaw Street. This is his third shop in the same street; the tall, narrow Arts and Crafts frontage was formerly Quiggins Marine and Architectural Ironmongers, who supplied the Titanic and the Liver Building. Although the address is No. 75, he brought the number 69A from his previous shop.

A fixture at 69A is a fat ginger cat called Murdoch. He is usually to be found sleeping in the sun on a ledge near the door, but beware! He is liable to appear from nowhere and leap onto the counter just as you are trying to pay.

Address 75 Renshaw Street, Liverpool L1 2SJ, +44 1517088873, www.69aliverpool.co.uk

Getting there 10-minute walk from Lime Street station; 8-minute walk from Central station | Hours Daily 1 – 6pm | Tip Meditation fans will love the Olive Tree (61 Renshaw Street), selling fair-trade products, yoga mats, singing bowls, reiki candles, incense, and essential oils.