Pier Head

The Pier Head (properly, George's Pier Head) is a riverside location in the city centre of Liverpool, England. It is part of the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in 2004.

The site encompasses a trio of landmarks, built on the site of the former George's Dock and referred to since at least 1998 as "The Three Graces":

Also on the site is the grade II listed Mersey Tunnel building, to the east of the Port of Liverpool building. It was built in the 1930s and contains offices and ventilator equipment for the Queensway Tunnel.

By the 1890s the George's Dock, built in 1771, was essentially redundant. It was the third dock built in Liverpool, and was too small and too shallow in depth for the commercial ships of the late 19th century. Most of the site was owned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, set up by Parliament in 1857; a small part of the site still was still held by the Corporation of the City of Liverpool. The Board and the Corporation had differing priorities, and the former were not inclined to forgo any commercial advantage for the benefit of the latter.

In January 1896, the two bodies began discussions, with the Corporation's team headed by Lord Derby (who was then the Lord Mayor), and the Board's representatives led by Robert Gladstone, a member of the Liverpool family of which W.E. Gladstone was the best-known. The Corporation sought to persuade the Board to accept its offer to buy the site, reserving a portion of it for new Board offices. After two years of negotiation this was agreed, and Parliamentary authority was obtained for the deal. The Corporation paid £277,399 for the site, from which the Board reserved about 13,500 square yards for its own building.

The Board pressed ahead with its new headquarters, and announced a competition, restricted to local architects, to be adjudicated by Alfred Waterhouse. Despite some protests in national architectural journals about the exclusion of architects from beyond Liverpool, the local firm of Briggs, Wolstenholme, Hobbs and Thornley was appointed. A neo-baroque design was approved, with a central dome added at the last minute before the final plans were adopted in time for the start of building work in March 1903. The building was opened in the summer of 1907.

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