29/08/2026
This is a view of the Liver Bird that most people never get to see the engineering behind one of Liverpool’s most recognisable landmarks.
From the rear, the sculpture reveals the substantial steel braces, support arms and tensioning stays that help keep the wings and body stable high above the waterfront. With a wingspan of roughly 24 feet (7.3 metres), the structure has to cope not only with its own weight, but with constant wind loading, vibration, rain and the harsh weather coming in from the Mersey.
The visible stays are only part of the story. Beneath the copper skin is a substantial steel framework forming the internal skeleton of the bird, while additional steelwork anchors the sculpture securely to the tower beneath it. Together, these hidden structural elements have allowed the birds to remain in position through more than a century of storms and changing conditions.
Each Liver Bird stands around 18 feet (5.5 metres) tall and was installed in 1911, when the Royal Liver Building was completed.
The man behind their extraordinary appearance was Carl Bernard Bartels, a German-born sculptor and woodcarver who had moved to Britain in 1887. When a competition was held to find a design for the Liver Birds that would crown the new building, Bartels entered and won. His design was subsequently brought to life by the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts.
Bartels reportedly travelled to Liverpool while developing his design and studied both the city’s historic Liver Bird imagery and a stuffed cormorant kept at Liverpool Town Hall, helping to shape the distinctive form that became familiar around the world.
His story later took a much darker turn. Despite having made Britain his home for decades, Bartels was interned on the Isle of Man during the First World War because of his German origins and was later repatriated to Germany. His contribution to one of Liverpool’s greatest landmarks subsequently faded from public recognition for many years.
The birds themselves were constructed from shaped copper sheeting over their steel framework. Their distinctive green colouring is not paint, but the natural patina that has developed as the copper has reacted with the atmosphere over more than a century. The streaks, marks and variations in colour across the wings and body are all part of that ageing process.
From the front, the Liver Bird is one of the great symbols of Liverpool. From the back, it becomes something rather different a remarkable combination of sculpture and early 20th-century engineering, revealing the framework, braces and restraint system normally hidden behind that famous silhouette.
More than a century after Bartels’ winning design was raised into position, the engineering behind it is still quietly doing its job while the Liver Birds continue to watch over Liverpool and the Mersey.
Royal Liver Building 360 Tour
