Port Sunlight, Wirral Cheshire The Auditorium 1920s

Postcard

 

• Picture / Image:  The Auditorium, Port Sunlight, Wirral, Cheshire
• Publisher:  Lever Brothers Ltd., Pictorial Postcards of Port Sunlight
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s):  n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes & Key words:  some album corner marks (see scan)

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal or Google Checkout ONLY please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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Port Sunlight is a model village on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, and between 1894 and 1974 formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire. Since 1 April 1974, the village is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. At the 2001 Census, its population was 1,450.^[1]

It was purpose built by William Hesketh Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) starting in 1888 for the employees of Lever Brothers soap factory (now part of Unilever). The name is derived from Lever's most popular brand of cleaning agent, Sunlight.

Port Sunlight contains 900 Grade II listed buildings, and was declared a Conservation Area in 1978.^[2] Port Sunlight has been informally suggested for World Heritage Site (WHS) status^[3] to protect it from development and to preserve the unique character for future generations; however, it is not yet on the current UK "tentative list" for future consideration as a WHS.^[4]

In 1887, Lever began looking for a new site on which he could expand his soap-making business, at that time based in Warrington. He purchased 56 acres (230,000 m²) of unused marshy land at the site which became Port Sunlight, which was relatively flat, allowed space for expansion, and had a prime location between the River Mersey and a railway line.

The garden village was founded to house his factory workers. Lever personally helped to plan the village, and employed nearly thirty different architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses with a population of 3,500 were built, together with allotments and public buildings including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air swimming pool, church, and a temperance hotel. He also introduced schemes for welfare, education and the entertainment of his workers, and encouraged recreation and organisations which promoted art, literature, science or music.

Lever's stated aims were "to socialise and Christianise business relations and get back to that close family brotherhood that existed in the good old days of hand labour." He claimed that Port Sunlight was an exercise in profit sharing, but rather than share profits directly, he invested them in the village. He said, "It would not do you much good if you send it down your throats in the form of bottles of whisky, bags of sweets, or fat geese at Christmas. On the other hand, if you leave the money with me, I shall use it to provide for you everything that makes life pleasant – nice houses, comfortable homes, and healthy recreation."^[5]

The historical significance of Port Sunlight lies in its unprecedented combination of model industrial housing, providing materially decent conditions for working people, with the architectural and landscape values of the garden suburb, influenced by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Each block of houses was designed by a different architect. The backs of any of the houses cannot be seen, and each house is unique. In terms of architectural features, there is half-timbering, carved woodwork and masonry, pargetting (ornamental plaster work) moulded and twisted chimneys and leaded glazed patterns. Some houses were built in Flemish style, with bricks imported from Belgium.