chinese

Chinese community in Liverpool

Liverpool has one of the oldest established Chinese communities in Europe. The trade links between China and Britain via the ports of Shanghai and Liverpool were instrumental in the establishment of a Chinese community within the city. The main trading goods were silk and cotton wool. The first vessel arrived in Liverpool direct from China in 1834. With the revision of the East India Company's charter, the China trade was for the first time thrown open to private enterprise.

The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in 1866 with the establishment of the Blue Funnel Shipping Line a branch of the Holt Ocean Steamship Company, which ran a line of steamers directly from Liverpool to China. Chinese sailors who decided to stay in Liverpool and work from here settled in an area of the city that was close to the docks in Cleveland Square.

Boarding houses were first opened by the Holt Shipping Company to accommodate their workers. According to Mr. So of the Wah Sing Chinese Community Centre by 1871 there were 202 Chinese settled in Liverpool.

It was here and in the surrounding streets that the first Chinese settlers started their own businesses supplying services to their countrymen who found themselves in a strange city, where the language and customs were alien. For example, they opened boarding-houses where the men could talk in their own language and be understood, cafes so that they could buy cooked food and shops where they could buy the necessary groceries to prepare their own meals. One of the first Chinese shops to open was in Pitt Street.

 Information taken from the website : The Liverpool Chinatown Business Association