Liverpool

Up to the start of the 18th century Liverpool was still a small town. Then the first wet dock in Britain was built here and it began to prosper, largely due to the slave trade. Less than 100 years later an incredible 40% of the world's trade was passing through here. Liverpool had been transformed into a bustling cosmopolitan city with immigrants arriving from the four corners of the earth, especially Ireland. The heavy Irish presence was because of the need to escape the great famine. By 1850 one in four of the city's residents was Irish. The new found wealth enabled the city to undertake ambitious construction programmes so changing it forever. Liverpool was the first city to have an Inter-City railway, connecting it to Manchester, so bringing wealth to that famous city too. It continued to thrive as a port through to the mid twentieth century but as in many other cases the port declined and the area was left with huge unemployment and all the social problems that brings.

The 1960s saw Liverpool become Britain's unofficial capital of pop music, and the Cavern Club was where it was all happening. The Merseybeat, the Mersey being Liverpool's major river, was ringing in the ears of people up and down the land. This explosion took place following Brian Epstein's meeting with a group of four young Liverpudlians in November 1961. This group had been playing in Hamburg, Germany and returned to their native city to play at the Cavern Club. Few of the audience there that night could have predicted the future success of this young group called The Beatles. Over the next two years they played almost 300 gigs just at this club and started the wave of success that would sweep the city. Other groups followed, such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Billy Fury to name just a few. However, the Cavern was and still is not exclusively for Liverpudlian groups. Artists from The Rolling Stones to Michael Jackson have played this one-time air raid shelter!

The city is also home to Anfield, where Liverpool football club play. It is arguably the most successful club in English history and won the European club championship again in 2005, the first time since the early 80s. Even today you can hear the Red's supporters singing Beatles tunes in the stands. However, I must also mention the city's other top class side, Everton. The team that play at Goodison Park are no strangers to success themselves and enjoyed a particularly good spell in the 80s. The clubs share an intense rivalry and the Mersey derby is one of the most exciting sporting occasions in the UK.

Another such occasion is also in the Liverpool area - The Grand National, which is held at Aintree. This is a horse race like no other. Up to 40 start this long difficult race over fences up to six feet high and it's a minor miracle that anyone actually finishes the course. The winning jockey will be welcomed home a hero and the winning horse will go down in history. The whole country is gripped by this fascinating event which is all over in less than 20 minutes.

The city has been awarded the title of European Capital City of Culture for 2008. This is a great honour which reflects the city's long cultural traditions and it's expected that up to 14000 much needed jobs will be created because of it and an increase of 1.7 million tourists. The city will also receive a facelift and investment in new services and infrastructure will attract investment for many years to come.

Meanwhile the Cavern is still swinging, looking for the next Beatles more than 40 years on . .