On 26th September 1882 an advertisement appeared in the Liverpool Mercury, offering for sale "Old Building Materials contained in the premises Nos. 2 to 10 George's Dock Gates, extending backward to Prison-weint". These materials would have included the pedimented door surround, which had no doubt caught the eye of Mr Robertson as something that would adorn his property in Gateacre.

Four days later, on 30th September, the Liverpool Albion reported as follows:
"On the 1st of next month (October) a great improvement in the roadway opposite the George Landing-stage will be made. A considerable portion of the Church of St Nicholas will be cut away, and several warehouses, &c, including the old 'merchants coffee house', will be demolished. We may inform those of our readers who are not aware of the fact that the merchants coffee house is the oldest building of its kind in the city. It includes the slave market, a room where our ancestors used to purchase their slaves."

So that is where the gateway - and the legend - originated. But was the story about the slaves true? The deeper Glen and Darren probed, the more complex the explanation became. All will be revealed in our next Newsletter (and at our Zoom meeting on 27th February). If you can't wait that long, their book, ''Liverpool's Slave Gate", is available as a PDF download from bit.ly/LSG2023

Please note that, although the PDF is downloadable free of charge, a 'BuyMeACoffee' button on the web page enables readers to make a voluntary donation towards the project costs.