Toxteth Liverpool CSMP

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General information

• part of inner Liverpool

• 1.5km south of city centre

Natural characteristics

• occupies undulating land rising from banks of River Mersey

• Mersey is fast flowing, narrows before passing Liverpool Bay

Past Characteristics

• Saxons established settlement

• 1086 Domesday survey recorded it as one of coastal villages on river Mersey banks

• 13th century - King John control when large royal hunting forest

• 16th century - became opened up for farming using water from dammed stream

• industrial revolution meant Liverpool as major port

• Toxteth became urban + industrial with copper and ceramic works

• River bank lined with docks, ship-building yards. Handling of timber, much from Scandinavia

• residential developments, was attractive greenfield site for developers for middle class wanting to escape declining environmental quality of city centre

• commuters journeyed daily

• 19th century - cheap, poorly constructed housing. Epidemics like typhoid spread quickly

• middle class moved to edge of built area

Demographic

• fewer elderly, 75% ages 16-64

• 78% white

• 7% Black African Caribbean

• opportunities for migrants following WW2, employment + housing

• 19th century, large Irish influx

Socio-economic characteristics

• owner-occupiers - 24%

• rent from social landlord - 34%

• very bad health - 9.4

• aged 16 or over with no formal qualification - 27%

Cultural characteristics

• Muslim 10% - Ramadan + Eid

• Christian 70% - Black African + Caribbean distinctive Christian worship different from English tradition

• Synagogue for Jewish

Political characteristics

• part of Riverside Ward, 1/30 making up Liverpool City Council

• city council powers include education, children’s services, regeneration, housing + sustainability

• part of Liverpool Riverside parliamentary constituency electorate of about 73,000

Built environment

• adapted by migrant communities

• Mosques + ethnic retailers are indications of change

• many building changed use, new ones constructed

Shifting flows of resources + ideas change local places

• loss of employment in docks + manufacturing

• containerisation + movement of docks further north led to unemployment

• riots in 1981 was due to poverty and was civil disturbance

• regenerated docks since 1980 to improve

• 1988 major art gallery, Tate Liverpool, employment

• some of waterfront recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site

• offshore wind technology for energy

• lack of skills + qualifications needed to access economy of Liverpool