The Liver Birds

The Guild flying high - from Bromsgrove to Liverpool

The story of the Liver Birds

In the October edition of Completely Bromsgrove we showcased the Bromsgrove Guild’s work creating the Buckingham Palace gates. This month we look at the construction of the Liver Birds and how they were created in Bromsgrove to sit and watch over the sea and the city in Liverpool.

The construction of the Palace gates had given the Bromsgrove Guild notoriety and orders were coming in from far and wide. The Royal Liver Assurance Company were looking to commission the construction of two mythical Liver Birds to sit atop the twin towers of its new head office at Pier Head, Liverpool when it opened in July 1911. The building itself ground-breaking with its concrete construction.

On winning the contract for the Liver Birds the team at the Guild faced the challenge of creating statues large enough to be seen from afar on their perch three hundred feet above the ground, whilst being sturdy enough to withstand the high winds of the coastal city, without being too heavy!

The design of the Liver Birds had been decided by a competition, won by Carl Bernard Bartels, a German wood carver living and working in London, but the team at the Guild were responsible for their make-up.

Soon work began to create the birds in the Bromsgrove workshops, using beaten copper sheets covering a steel frame, with an additional challenge shown in the order book (now kept at Avoncroft Museum). The order was written into the book on 10th April 1911, and in red ink at the bottom of the page a note reads “This order is to be completed by May 12th under penalty of £20 per week”!

The only way to transport the statues over 100 miles from Bromsgrove to Liverpool in 1911 was to dismantle them, take them in small sections to Liverpool, and rebuilding them in situ, and in time for the building’s grand opening on 19th July. The final challenge – they were to be gilded in gold leaf. George Whewell from the Guild who worked on the construction said that twice as much gold blew away in the wind as was applied to the birds because of the sea winds 300 feet up!

And so, for over 100 years these mythical birds from Bromsgrove have stood watch from their lofty perch in Liverpool. Bertie looks over the city and watches over the people, Bella looks out to sea to safeguard the prosperity of all. Each statue is 18ft (5.4m) tall with a wingspan of 24ft (7.3m), weighs 4 tons and carries a sprig of seaweed in its beak. Of symbolic importance to the city of Liverpool, and a testament to the talent of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts.