Port Sunlight (Wirral)

Lord Lever is famous for the creation of Sunlight Soap - a brand which still exists but has now developed into Unliver who make many of the household cleaning products today. He decided to build a factory on the Wirral (across the Mersey River from Liverpool) and set about it in a unique way. Lord Lever was a visionary of his time and in an era of back to back terraced, poverty and squalor he decided that it would make good social (and business of course) sense to build decent homes for his workers. Therefore he built a village (known as Port Sunlight) where his factory workers had access to village greens, community halls and a public house. He also ...  Read the complete review

This review is in two parts. The first is a look at the history of Port Sunlight and the second looks at what a visitor can expect to find at Port Sunlight today. ~~~Building a philanthropic dream~~~ It seems odd now, to name a village after a bar of soap but that's exactly what Lord Lever did in 1888 when he began building his 'Model Village'. He owned the massive soap works in Warrington, (Now Unilever's) and had a vision of a healthy, clean and spacious living environment for his workers and families. Lord Lever was a Victorian industrialist and philanthropist. He described his building of Port Sunlight as 'Profit sharing', ...  Read the complete review