Why Liverpool matters to Cunard

Certain aspects go hand-in-hand as the ultimate pairing: Golf and tartan, Lennon and McCartney, the Post Office and scandal. Then there’s the relationship between Cunard and Liverpool – a grand and romanticised affair stretching back into the decorated annuls of history.

Of course, Britain’s main port has become universally recognised as elsewhere; Southhampton. The southern calling point has played host to an armada of cultural vessels and events throughout the decades, including historical juggernauts from White Star Line, P&O Cruises and United States Line.

As a shipping haven, Southampton remains the equivalent of Cirque Le Soir. It’s the easy-access seaport that ensures eternal popularity. Yet, few maritime aspects offer the same intimate coupling as a Cunard voyage and the northern port of Liverpool.

The combination boasts an unrivalled heritage that competition would kill for, steaming beyond a marketing ploy and firmly acknowledged as an outright institution.

We’d argue that the partnership of Liverpool and Cunard epitomises humanity’s golden age of Transatlantic travel, providing status that is more than a simple badge of honour.

The city embodies our connection to the ocean, providing a poignant reminder of our complex relationship with marine conduct. Liverpool ain’t all about The Beatles (who started out on a Liverpudlian boat now sunk in the Thames), Cilla Black and Kim Cattrall (a cruise ship Godmother), y’know.

As Cunard’s genesis point, Liverpool’s connection with the top-tier cruise line stems back to 1840, when Samuel Cunard dispatched his first custom-built ship – RMS Britannia – on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston, USA, via Halifax.

However for those historical nit-pickers amongst us (*raises hand*), there’s a clause in that statement; Cunard’s Liverpudlian offices actually opened one year earlier.

I know, I know – that’s a very small detail to most, but when you clock the architectural and social impact Cunard had on the so-called Second Capital of Ireland, you can understand the cruise line’s significance to the city’s foundations – and why Cunard’s relocation to Southampton during the 1960s felt so consequential.

Cunard’s origin: From Liverpool with love

Prior to the inaugural voyage of RMS Britannia, Cunard opened an office at 14 Water Street (now serviced offices) to deal with legal and administrative affairs. As the business grew, larger premises were quickly required and Cunard’s operations relocated to 8 Water Street (now rather swanky apartments), on the corner of Rumford Street, during August 1857.

This larger office became the headquarters of an ever-growing empire, bringing dignified efficiency and elegance to an otherwise treacherous industry. The original intention to provide a regular shipping circuit from Great Britain to North America swiftly expanded into a kingdom of routes and vessels, trademarking successful operational blueprints for rivals to mimic.

The head office was responsible for arranging and operating no fewer than 46 ships - 19 on the Atlantic run, 12 in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and 13 serving Glasgow, Northern Ireland and Bermuda.

Intricate complexities of travel arrangements for US-bound immigration then came a-knockin’, with the engineering of routes and administration taking place on Liverpool’s Water Street. You can still feel the excited winds of travel radiating from the street’s pavement when visiting today.

Such was Cunard’s ever-glowing Liverpudlian prestige, His Majesty King George V and Her Majesty Queen Mary made the first senior Royal visit to a Cunard ship – RMS Mauretania, while docked in Liverpool – during July 11, 1913, heightening the city’s importance upon the world’s stage.

Since then, every reigning monarch has spent time aboard Cunard ships, not to mention acting as the official Godmother.

Cunard quickly mushroomed into a mantra for success over the next half century, pressing forward with the construction of their own (and much larger) Cunard Building – a project boasting 180,000 cubic feet of Portland Stone, alongside 50,000 cubic feet of Italian marble, showcasing a design based on the family home of Pope Paul III.

The prestigious Cunard building became occupied in June 1916, swiftly claiming the heart of Liverpool’s city centre.

The Cunard building

The ever-expanding Empire was governed from the fifth floor of the new Cunard Building, a first-class storey that housed a sophisticated Boardroom alongside the central naval architects’ department.

More than 1000 staff worked within the Cunard building at any one time, with the publicly-accessed ground floor offering a majestic pillared ticket hall, leading to the first-class waiting lounge and currency exchange. Second-class and third-class passengers were handled in the first level of the basement, where emigrant administration and compulsory medical examinations took place.

Throughout the half-century that Cunard inhabited their custom-built structure, activity rarely ceased. Practically a 24-hour operation, the Cunard building remained a burning hive of excited activity and proud exploits. Entire working lives played out across the marble floors, with sub-basement levels later acting as an air raid shelter throughout World War II.

The Cunard building still stands as a prominent and dignified portal of British achievement, reverberating a quiet historical energy that’s soaked through the walls of time.

That hearty ocean aroma is still detectable in the air, laced with the ghosts of thrilled passengers and crew on a wave of adrenaline.

Prudential plc bought the building from Cunard in 1969, four years after English Heritage awarded the office block Grade II listed status. The title deeds have passed between different owners since, including the Merseyside Pension Fund and Liverpool City Council, who floated the concept of using the grand structure as a contemporary cruise terminal; before concerns about border control and security firmly terminated proceedings.

Cunard’s final days in Liverpool

Having weathered the Great Depression, and later instructed by the UK Government to merge with rival White Star Line, Cunard’s focus had shifted away from Liverpool by 1967.

The geopolitical seascape had ultimately changed, with America-bound immigration practically discouraged by the US authorities following the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

The inevitable and fashionable rise of air travel subsequently ensured that all remnants of the Transatlantic golden age dissolved into the ether.

Cunard decided to change tact; altering their business model to incorporate luxury cruises and global tours, sunsetting age-old services on account of a new Technicolor world.

Dwindling Transatlantic passenger numbers, amid the old-school approach to shipping, had provided the board with accounting nightmares. The likes of RMS Queen Mary consistently operated at a serious loss, prompting a tectonic shift from firmly-rooted heritage; Cunard had to move with the times.

In fact, their celebrated New York route had moved to Southampton many years prior, with the main bulk of Transatlantic sailings having shifted from Liverpool in 1919.

RMS Queen Mary (and her sister ship RMS Queen Elizabeth) were sold to the highest bidder, with RMS Queen Mary narrowly avoiding the scrapyard, whereas Cunard’s head office was relocated to New York City. Liverpool remained Cunard’s administrative centre, while the operational base moved to Southampton. However, the administrative operation didn't hang around for much longer.

After 128 years as the focal point of Liverpudlian commerce and employment, the Cunard building echoed with the transitional sound of a disquieting future.

The last traditional sailing from Liverpool to New York took place on November 30, 1967, with RMS Sylvania casting off for the horizon; drawing a lucrative chapter of Liverpool’s history to a close. The final mainstream Cunard departure occurred on January 30, 1968, as RMS Franconia (previously known as RMS Ivernia) took to the seas for a route to Bermuda and New York. The world fell silent for a generation of Liverpudlians that day.

It’s curious to note, however, that Cunard never formally announced an end to its Liverpool operations. As with similar announcements made by Abba, or Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, there was no official or emotional termination.

Cunard were just taking a break, with sailings ‘suspended’ from Liverpool. Regardless of formal declaration, the Liverpool docks suddenly felt hollow; the winds of change had cast a devastating blow.

As of February 1968, all that remained of Cunard’s Liverpudlian operation was the cargo division. In essence, Cunard had left home – and the residents were crushed. A flurry of nostalgia hit the city in those last operational months, where wartime memory was still strong.

Y'see, Cunard had operated out of Liverpool during the darkest stretches of both World Wars – providing hope and pride when the nation needed it most. Enemies relied on Cunard’s gentlemanly conduct throughout WWII, expecting chivalrous vows against using lethal force.

However, allies were assured that the gallant cruise line subscribed to no such niceties. RMS Queen Mary was credited with shortening the war by over 12 months – a claim that originated with Sir Winston Churchill. Well – he would know, wouldn’t he?

Why did Cunard leave Liverpool?

Brute economics meant that the Atlantic game was up. As global travel underwent an airborne revolution, the ocean-going, fuel-guzzling leviathans of yesteryear slowly disappeared from the scene.

Some fell into the hands of new owners who renovated each ship for cruise activity, rather than the clock-work service now taken by aircraft, whereas others met with the breakers yard.

Oil prices also enjoyed a skyward trajectory, guaranteeing that Cunard’s ageing fleet was poised for the chop. RMS Queen Mary found a new home as a permanent fixture in Longbeach, California, whereas RMS Queen Elizabeth traversed the oceans across to Hong Kong, eager to begin life as a floating university. Sadly, that project was ill-fated.

The situation boiled down to ‘out with the old, and in with the new’. Cunard’s cutting-edge QE2 was already set to replace RMS Queen Mary and her sister-ships, traversing the world on a rather different mission. Gone was the class-based system of Transatlantic necessity, instead replaced by leisure-fed tourism.

With a shake-up of operations and a pin-sharp focus on global cruising, Cunard decided that operating out of Southampton – alongside global headquarters in New York – provided better access for those likely to purchase a cruising package. By that, I think we can translate, the time had come to chase ‘those with money’.

It was also generally assumed, through the power of societal research, that Liverpool was too far away for the London socialites and tourists to consider travelling. Especially when other cruise providers sailed from Tilbury, practically on the doorstep. It all led to one thing – saying farewell to Liverpool, much to the heartbreak of local communities; most of whom had either sailed or depended on Cunard’s trade.

Cunard remembers

Unlike those who leave their home town and never return, despite using their regional stance to make an impact (here’s looking at you Sting), Cunard has never forgotten its Liverpudlian roots. Rather, Cunard has returned on numerous occasions, with the QE2 and QM2 paying homage to Liverpool and becoming frequent visitors to the docklands.

On 3 October 2008, the QE2 made Liverpool one of her final ports of call during her concluding voyage, causing a media sensation and a public outpouring of affection. The direct successor – QM2 – made her first visit to her spiritual home in 2004, with several appearances upon the dockland skyline over the following years.

Upon the 175th anniversary of Cunard’s first Transatlantic crossing, boardroom bigwigs and operational personnel worked together to create the finest display of Cunard-ism ever witnessed, with Liverpool playing the proud host.

All three Cunard Queens – QM2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth – met on the River Mersey on May 25, 2015. Having arrived the previous day, QM2 briefly excused herself to welcome her two fleetmates at the mouth of the river, before all three sailed in formation towards Liverpool. The ships performed a series of impressive manoeuvres while the Red Arrows flew overhead, presenting Liverpool with a glorious love letter.

The liners spent several hours together before parting for their respective routes, but the message was clear. Although a changing world found Cunard seeking economic survival with a radical change of location, the Liverpudlian spirit still resides within Cunard’s DNA.

Is it any wonder, then, that the impending Queen Anne will enjoy her launch ceremony in Cunard’s spawning point? Quite frankly, it’s been a long time coming.

Queen Anne: Naming ceremony in Liverpool

Queen Anne's naming ceremony will take place on the Mersey waterfront at Liverpool on June 3, 2024, marking a swift change from the usual Southampton affair. And, considering Cunard’s intimate relationship with Liverpool docks, there is no finer or more appropriate place for the event to take place.

Cunard's president, Katie McAlister, said: “Cunard has an incredible bond with the city of Liverpool. It is where our founder Sir Samuel Cunard began his Transatlantic line in 1840, so what better place to officially name our new ship than somewhere that holds so many special memories. Liverpool is known the world over as Cunard’s spiritual home and we are all so excited for the city to see Queen Anne up close on her maiden call.”

Queen Anne is, at the time of writing, close to completion in Italy’s Fincantieri Marghera Shipyard. The cruise liner is already set for a global inventory, but wherever she goes, the spirit of Liverpool carries her with indefatigable gusto and heritage that few other cities can match. Cob on!