Family Lessons 133: Liverpool Town Hall

When I think of Liverpool City Council, I think of angry, left-leaning councillors in the 1980s bitterly opposed to Margaret Thatcher’s government, and almost as equally antagonistic to their own Labour Party’s leadership, which sought greater moderation. Liverpool's Town Hall, that symbol of municipal government, is a beautiful, Georgian pile sitting in state on Dale Street. It replaced an older one on the next block from the 1670s, which itself replaced a modest construction donated by my 15th x great-uncle, John Crosse, on Juggler Street, now High Street, back in 1515. This thatched ‘common hall’ served as a meeting place and a court room via an external staircase, the lower floor being used as a town gaol and a warehouse. Quite why he donated this property away from the family patrimony and into community ownership is not clear. He may have understood that for a town to grow, develop and thrive it must have its own clear government, and it must have the capacity to punish law-breakers.

Interestingly, the site of the old Crosse family home of Crosse Hall is now occupied by Liverpool’s Municipal Buildings, a stately local government office block on Crosshall Street. If John Crosse and his father, Richard, Mayor of Liverpool in the 1470s, had a penchant for local administration, they would surely be pleased with their legacy.

I have a largely negative view of local government: it is bloated and inefficient, and attracts few talented and energetic persons to its ranks. Yet it really is necessary, or, if you prefer, a necessary evil. Whether a council be run by loony liberals or ot be stuffed with tactless Tory grandees, we should pray for it, as much as national governments. The poor calibre of some district councillors, officers and employees is a reflection on our country and not on the concept of human government itself, which was instituted by God to help mitigate the effects of human depravity.