Wellington Column

Wellington Column, William Brown Street, Liverpool

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1063784
Date first listed:
28-Jun-1952
List Entry Name:
Wellington Column
Statutory Address:
Wellington Column, William Brown Street, Liverpool
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Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.
Date:
2001-10-23
Reference:
IOE01/03972/24
Rights:
© Mr Brendan Oxlade. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1063784
Date first listed:
28-Jun-1952
List Entry Name:
Wellington Column
Statutory Address 1:
Wellington Column, William Brown Street, Liverpool

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
Wellington Column, William Brown Street, Liverpool

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Liverpool (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
SJ 35029 90756

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 05/06/2018

SJ 3590 NW
50/1361

WILLIAM BROWN STREET L1
Wellington Column

28.6.52

GV
II*
Monument, 1861-1863, by Andrew Lawson of Edinburgh who won a design competition in 1856 (construction of the monument was delayed whilst an appropriate site was found). Sandstone fluted Doric column with a pedestal base set upon granite steps and surmounted by a bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington by George Anderson Lawson, brother of Andrew Lawson. The monument is 132ft (40 metres) high overall. The pedestal incorporates bronze plaques displaying the names of Wellington’s victories and on the south side is a relief depicting the charge at the Battle of Waterloo, which was installed in 1865 and is also by George Anderson Lawson.

HISTORICAL NOTE: The Wellington Column was the regular site for outdoor meetings by the Liverpool branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the militant suffrage organisation founded in Manchester by Emmeline Pankhurst and other women from the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1903. The Union followed the ILP tradition of outdoor propagandising, and used recognisable venues in crowded thoroughfares to try to get its message across. The Wellington Column was used from 1907 until 1914 when the WSPU’s campaign was suspended at the outbreak of the First World War. Suffragette speakers at the column included Patricia Woodlock, Liverpool’s most prolific suffragette prisoner, and Alice Morrissey, a founding member of the WSPU, and the wife of Liverpool’s first elected socialist.

This list entry was amended in 2018 as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.

Listing NGR: SJ3502990756

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
359744
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Sharples, J, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Liverpool (2004), 64
Cowman, Krista, Mrs Brown is a Man and a Brother! (2006),

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Wellington Column

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 15-Dec-2025 at 18:50:36.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2025. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2025. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.

End of official list entry

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