Hidden History

Liverpool Heroes 1: John Alexander Brodie, City Engineer

Black and white photo looking along the length of the East Lancashire Road as it was being built

In writing about the historic landscape of Liverpool, it’s often the case that the people get mislaid, or hidden from the narrative. This post is the first in a series which aims to redress the balance, and ties in (rather loosely) with Liverpool’s Year of Radicals, which was celebrated in 2011.

These people weren’t radical in a left-wing sense (some far from it) but they were the pioneers, the bringers of change. They certainly left their mark on the landscape, some in subtle ways. A couple of these people are obvious choices, and some less so. Either way I hope you learn something new and interesting.

And so without further ado, and in no particular order, we begin with…

J.A. Brodie (1858 – 1934)

J.A. Brodie was the Liverpool city engineer from 1898 and due to his achievements was the first local authority engineer to be made President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The list of accomplishements is impressive, as is the effect he had on the shape of the city.

Brodie was one of the first to suggest an electric tram system for Liverpool. The city’s electric trams ran from 1898 to 1957, and even today the tracks pop up from time to time during roadworks. The central reservations where the trams often ran along main roads are still to be seen in Queens Drive and Prescot Road.

He proposed the development of a ring road, the aforementioned Queens Drive. Roads such as Black Horse Lane in Old Swan were diverted or straightened and widened in the 1920s and 30s. At this time the suburban sprawl of West Derby, Tue Brook and Childwall were yet to be realised, but even today Queens Drive holds up well with the volume of traffic which couldn’t have been foreseen 90 years ago.

In 1905 the first pre-fab concrete tenements were built in Eldon Street. Brodie had been experimenting with concrete as a solution to the housing shortage, and in 1905 he exhibited a pre-fab cottage at the Cheap Cottages Exhibition in Letchworth. There’s probably little need to elaborate on the use of pre-fab concrete in Liverpool buildings in later years, but for better or worse (and despite trade union opposition to Liverpool’s production of concrete prefab parts) J.A. Brodie was a pioneer here.

As if being responsible for one of Liverpool’s major thoroughfairs, and a pioneer in building technology we still live with wasn’t enough, Brodie also put forward the idea for the East Lancs road, so that we can more quickly get to our neighbours in Manchester. And finally, of course, he invented the goal net, an invention of which he was particularly proud.

So: J.A. Brodie: engineer, architect, footy dispute preventer. And a man who’s effect on the landscape of Liverpool can be seen almost a century after he died.

10 Comments on “Liverpool Heroes 1: John Alexander Brodie, City Engineer”

  • Malcolm Hooley

    says:

    Minor correction – Although the central reserve in Queen’s Drive was designed to take tram tracks these were never installed and trams never actually ran along Queen’s Drive. However many tram routes crossed Queen’s Drive including 19 & 44 (East Lancs Rd), 43(Utting Ave), 13 & 14 (Townsend Ave), 29 & 49 (Muirhead Ave), 12 (Mill Lane), 10 (East Pesccot Rd), 40 (Edge Lane Drive), 6 (Bowring Park Rd).

    Reply

    • Martin

      says:

      Hi Malcolm,

      Thanks for your correction – always welcome here! Sounds like I need to get a more detailed map of tram routes and see where these fossils of early plans never led to actual use.

      Martin

      Reply

  • K Brewer

    says:

    Read about John Brodie – lived on Brodie Avenue for many years with my parents and brother what an amazing man Brodie was!

    Reply

  • James

    says:

    It may be stating the obvious but wasn’t J.A.B also the engineer for the Mersey Tunnel? If that’s the same Brodie then his house is on Ullet Road next to the petrol station and has a Blue Plaque.

    Reply

    • Hi James,

      Yes, you’re right – he put his fingerprints on many projects! Thanks for noting the location of his house.

      Regards,
      Martin

      Reply

  • Will

    says:

    My dad used to say that the designer of Queens Drive killed themself after criticism over the expense and the road being “underused” at first. If not Brodie, then who?

    Reply

    • Hi Will,

      I’ve not heard that story before, and it looks like Brodie lived to a ripe old age! I have heard that there was early criticism of Queens Drive because it was underused when first opened, but I’ve not seen a source for that, so it might be just part of the myth that grows up around these things to emphasise how forward-thinking they were!

      Best wishes,
      Martin

      Reply

  • Andy Maisey

    says:

    I think it’s worth pointing that the spelling of the name of the Liverpool ring road is not “Queens Drive” nor is it “Queen’s Drive”. The correct spelling is “Queens’ Drive”, (apostrophe after the “s”!). That is because in 1910 when it was opened it was named to celebrate the fact that we’d had two queens on the throne that year: one was Queen Alexandra (of Denmark) wife of Edward VII who reigned from 1901-1910 and Queen Mary wife of King George V who reigned 1910-36.

    Reply

  • gary speakman

    says:

    Hi all. I am trying to establish where my grandma worked in domestic service in Liverpool, probably between 1923 (aged 14) and 1930. She referred to being an in-betweeny maid for a family with the father an engineer (or architect??) associated with the Mersey Tunnell. We never ran the story to ground and she is no longer with us. She married in Wigan in 1931 and is listed on the census in Wigan in 1921. But as she had been orphaned at the age of 4, domestic service may have been more attractive to her, especially in a big city like Liverpool. Do we know who of the main contributors to the Tunnel lived in Liverpool and may have had servants?? And if so, whereabouts. Any help appreciated.

    Reply

    • Hi Gary,
      The most likely candidates are JA Brodie himself, who lived in Liverpool, or Basil Mott, though I can’t say for certain whether Mott ever lived in Liverpool. It could also have been Herbert James Rowse, an architect rather than engineer.
      Brodie died at Aigburth Hall in November 1934, so that might be an avenue of research.
      Best wishes,
      Martin

      Reply

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