https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...yside-44368901

Liverpool's famous Albert Dock is granted royal title

The city's Albert Dock becomes the Royal Albert Dock after the Queen granted royal patronage


The Royal Albert Dock viewed from the Liver Buildings with the Port of Liverpool Building in the foreground

Quote Originally Posted by BBC News
Liverpool's Albert Dock has been granted a royal title to mark its role in the city's maritime history.

The Grade I listed site will become known as Royal Albert Dock following a ceremony at Tate Liverpool on Wednesday.

It was officially opened by Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert on 30 July 1846 and redeveloped into a visitor attraction in the 1980s.

The new status was sought in advance of the 175th anniversary plans in 2021.

The Albert Dock, designed by architect and dock engineer Jesse Hartley, was given Grade I listed status in 1952 but was abandoned 20 years later.


Quote Originally Posted by BBC News
It was later redeveloped, with the first phase completed in 1984.

Two years later the Merseyside Maritime Museum opened on the site, followed by Tate Liverpool in 1988.

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said the royal recognition "solidifies the significance of the dock".

Other institutions given permission to use "royal" in their name include the Royal Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Birkdale Golf Club.

Among the newer recipients of the accolade is the Royal Papworth Hospital near Cambridge, which carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant.
Very happy with this. It was the redevelopment of the Royal Albert Dock in the 1980s that arrested what seemed like the terminal decline of what was the British Empire's main port/trade city. Things got so bad in the 1970s and 1980s that the government even considered basically abandoning the city as the chronic problems were so insurmountable.

Since then though, things have massively changed. My friends, including one from London, love coming up and only the other day in work I was talking to a couple from London moving to the city. Apparently for the last ten years, excluding London, Edinburgh and Cardiff - Liverpool was economically the fast growing British city.

Thoughts?