Liverpool Philharmonic on the Record
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Archive charts the cultural, social and economic history of the City since the UK’s oldest professional symphony orchestra was founded in 1840 and includes many thousands of documents relating to Liverpool Philharmonic’s history.
The collection is now available to the public at Liverpool Record Office after the Liverpool Philharmonic was awarded a £50,000 Heritage Lottery grant to completely catalogue mountains of archive boxes.
It took full time archivist Vincent McKernan and 30 volunteers two years to assemble, although the project was originally initiated through the passion and commitment of amateur archivist and long-standing Liverpool Philharmonic concert-goer, the late Vin Tyndall, who had previously dedicated more than 20 years of his life to voluntarily collating much of the archive.
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic archive was unveiled to the general public for the first time by Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko and Liverpool City Council leader Councillor Warren Bradley in February 2008, as part of Liverpool Philharmonic’s contribution to Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture celebrations.
It includes:
- Autograph books containing the signatures of Charles Dickens and William Thackeray and some of most eminent musicians over the last 170 years (Halle, Rostropovich, Saint-Saëns and Rachmaninov)
- Letters charting Liverpool Philharmonic’s spat with Sir Edward Elgar (in which England’s best known composer was accused of “stupidity and impertinence”!)
- Protests revealing local outrage at the attempts by controversial birth control campaigner Marie Stopes to book Philharmonic Hall for a lecture.
- Photographs of the blaze which destroyed the original hall in 1933.
- Records detailing ‘The Industrials’ – an annual series of concerts which the City’s biggest employers would book out for their workers.
- The orchestra’s morale-boosting tours across the country during World War II.
During the redevelopment of the Liverpool Central Library this archive will be be operated from a satellite building outside the city centre. This is located on Wellington Employment Park South close to Sandhills Merseyrail Station. Access will be by appointment only with at least 24 hours notice required.
Archive Access Arrangements
Liverpool Record Office & Local Studies and Merseyside Record Office, Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool L2 8EW.
Telephone (general enquiries) 0151 233 5817
Telephone (microfilm bookings) 0151 233 5811
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