Chas. E. Goad, Four Fire Insurance Plans of Liverpool, 1938-1969

Charles E. Goad (1848-1910) was a railway engineer who founded a fire insurance mapping firm in Montreal in 1875, and made London his base from 1885. His company drew every building in Britain’s commercial districts at 40 feet to one inch, coloured by type of construction, so that insurers could judge fire risk. Working copies like these were kept up to date with correction slips pasted over altered buildings.

Three sheets come from the Liverpool volume III and cover the north docks. Sheet 328 shows Sandon Dock goods station of the London Midland Region, the Liverpool Cold Stores and a container bay between Regent Road and Derby Road. Sheets 338 and 342 cover the blocks between Regent Road and Great Howard Street, with warehouses, bonded stores, garages and the mills of J. Bibby & Sons. Sheet 547, from volume V, covers the streets around Duke Street, Kent Gardens and Pitt Street in the city centre. Several slips read ‘Vacant August ’69’ or ‘Vacant Sept 1969’, recording the docklands as trade moved away.

Lithographed and coloured plans. Sheet 328 is dated ‘Liverpool III, April 1947’; 338 ‘Resurveyed & Reissued Dec. 1956’; 342 ‘Resurveyed & Reissued July 1960’; and 547 ‘Liverpool V, April 1938’. Each carries a Chas. E. Goad copyright line and has a wooden batten riveted along one edge, with a string loop for hanging. As working copies, they show frayed edges, staining and discoloured correction slips.