Monday 13th January 2020, 7.30 pm in the Methodist Schoolroom

Social Meal

Speaker Ken Pye

The Rise, Fall, and Renaissance of Liverpool

The Story of a World Class City

Ken Pye FRSA is Managing Director of Discover Liverpool. He has expert knowledge of the Liverpool City Region, and speaks with credibility, insight, and passion about his subject. Tonight he describes how the original tiny hamlet, on the banks of the ancient Pool, went on to be the home of the world’s first wet dock, canals, railways, and scheduled transport liners- as well as much more. He tells how the medieval town grew to become the social and commercial “crossroads of the world” during the 18th, 19th & 20th centuries, and how it took its place as the greatest port and city in the British Empire. He then explains how, after WWII Liverpool collapsed into near bankruptcy, catastrophic industrial unrest, political militancy, and total social breakdown, and a time when it was almost written off by the Government and left to die. But the story of Liverpool then becomes one of amazing rebirth, and of its triumphant success as a European Capital of Culture and a World Heritage City and Port. Liverpool is now regarded as being “the friendliest and most exciting city in Britain”