Remembering Liverpool Structures - Bibby Warehouse

Bibby's eleven storey Warehouse in Great Howard Street

 

The immense size of these warehouses reflected the volume of trade in Liverpool at the turn of the century and the need for huge quantities of long-term storage space; cotton, for example, was stockpiled here awaiting favourable market conditions. The construction and opening of the Albert Dock in 1846 was followed by the addition of further docks and warehouses on the same principle: Stanley Dock was opened in 1848 and Wapping Dock in 1855, and large warehouses, similar to those at Albert Dock, were built around them. Warehouses were built for specific purposes, cotton, tobacco, grain, etc. and the greatest warehouse of all in terms of scale was the Tobacco Warehouse built within Stanley Dock in the years 1897-1901. Built from 1897 this immense warehouse was completed in 1901 and was said to be the largest built brick structure in the world, taking some 27 million bricks to do so. It required the filling in of part of the original Stanley Dock and was designed by Dock Engineer Anthony George Lyster. It still exists and is in the process of being re-developed but perhaps the biggest loss, having been demolished in the 1980s, was the imposing Bibby's Grain Warehouse.

Edward Bibby bought the water driven corn mill, Condor Mill, in Abbeystead, Scotforth near Lancaster in 1830. He had worked there as a young man and upon his death it was passed to his son James who had been born there in 1851. A warehouse was then purchased by James in Lancaster to sell flour from the mill and he placed his 14 year old son Joseph in charge who eventually took over the business with his younger brother James. They began a new concept in animal feeds, Bibby's Excelsior Calf Meal, which proved so popular that the two brothers formed a partnership in 1878 and founded J Bibby and Sons Ltd Animal Feed of Liverpool in 1879.

In 1885 they started a mill in Liverpool because of its good rail and sea links and closed their Lancaster mill three years later, but there was a serious fire in the Liverpool mill in 1892 which they rebuilt.. A three masted top-sail schooner of 130 tons at Glasson dock, Lancaster was launched in 1892 which carried Bibby products from Liverpool to other ports until 1898. They then extended the business into oilseed crushing and soap production and were producing massive tonnages as the firm expanded rapidly all over the UK, until by 1895 production of their products had reached 3,000 tons per week.

Bibby's Liverpool Mill in 1911

 James Bibby senior died in 1897 and the sons inherited their father's estate. Following a meal-dust explosion in 1911 at their new animal feeds and oil factory in Liverpool, 39 people were killed.

Bibby's Head Office at King Edward Street

 

The company's head office at King Edward Street was designed by W Aubrey Thomas and opened in 1909. Bibby's also rented the East Waterloo Dock warehouse opposite their Cake Mills from 1924 to store cereals and oilseeds. East Waterloo Dock had become a specialised grain dock with the latest and best facilities for handling bulk grain. They were the first warehouses in the world built to handle bulk grain entirely from a central store with virtually no handwork needed. Bibby's eleven storey Warehouse in Great Howard Street was inspired by the Chicago School of Architecture and designed by W. Aubrey Thomas, the grain and processing warehouse was important enough that it continued being constructed during the Great War with completion in 1917. In 1930 another explosion in a silo killed 11 people out of the growing workforce, and by 1940 the company based in King Edward Street, Liverpool 3 was worth £3 million and employed 5,000 people.

The warehouses demolished in the 1980s now have a Costco store occupying the site. 

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/10/remembering-liverpool-structures_27.html