The Royal Liver Building

Royal Liver Building, Liverpool

At the top of the building, sat on each of the two towers are the mythical Liver Birds, the symbol of Liverpool. They are 18 feet tall, have a total wing span of 24 feet and are made of copper. Local legend has it that if they fly away, Liverpool will cease to exist. The Liver Birds are a cross between an eagle and a cormorant (the bird of good luck to sailors). A German sculptor called Carl Bernard Bartels, who was living in England, designed them. When the Great War broke out, Carl Bernard Bartels was arrested as a German citizen and imprisoned on the Isle of Man. The City of Liverpool removed all reference to his achievements and at the end of the war, despite having a wife in London, he was sent back to Germany.

Royal Liver Building clock face

The clocks, 25 feet in diameter, are bigger than the clocks in London's Big Ben and are the largest electrically driven clocks in the United Kingdom. They were built to give mariners the most accurate local time and are said to be accurate to within thirty seconds per year.

The Royal Liver Building is 90 metres (295 feet) in height and has thirteen floors. When it was completed in 1911, the Royal Liver Building was Britain's first skyscraper. It was built using a revolutionary steel and concrete structure.