Before a single warehouse went up at Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock, engineer Jesse Hartley set one alight. He filled a test structure with timber and tar and watched it burn, refining a fireproof mix of cast iron, brick and stone. Opened by Prince Albert in 1846, the result was the world's first non-combustible warehouse system, and remains Britain's largest collection of Grade I listed buildings.

Sugar, brandy, tobacco and cotton filled these warehouses, much handled by the Tate family, Liverpool sugar refiners whose Caribbean trade later funded the Tate Gallery among the docks today. Requisitioned for Atlantic Fleet submarines in the Second World War, the dock took a direct hit in the 1941 Blitz, before its 1980s revival brought in The Beatles Story.

VoiceMap's audio tours trace Liverpool's musical heritage here and uncover its role in the slave trade, walking visitors past Canning Dock, named for a slave trade supporter.