On Wednesday, October 25th, 2017,  we were once again treated to a lively, inforamtive talk by Graham Sutherland, entitled Liverpool Resurgent.

Basically he outlined the rise, fall and the current resurge of this well-known and, by many neglected, English city.  Most of us connect the city with the Beatles in the 1960s, but it was already important in the year 1207 under Kind John.  Our queried looks (King John?) prompted Mr. Sutherland to add King John’s reign is connected with Robin Hood!  Without bombarding us with dates, wars, etc. Mr. Sutherland succeeded in giving us a survey of the importance of this city as a port as early as the 16th century.  Its wet docks, where the ships could actually unload goods dockside, without anchoring in the bay and then transporting the goods on smaller boats to the docks, were the first in the world, 16th century.  Its prosperity continued until the mid 1900s, when container shipping changed the whole shipping scene.  Then of course the Beatles in the 1960s caused a stir, but by the 1980s, under Margaret Thatcher, the city was on its way down.    She actually had given up on Liverpool.  But it didn’t give up on itself.  And, in 2008 it was declared the Capital of Culture and its City Centre and the Docks became a UNESCO World Heritage.

Mr. Sutherland conveyed all this and more to us, with the help of visual inserts via beamer, within an hour, leaving all of us amazed and interested in this somewhat forgotten city.  By comparing the historical city with modern Liverpool, he gave us the impression that it really is a city worth visiting.

And last but not least – it is one of Cologne’s twin cities.