The city of Liverpool has one of the oldest established Chinese communities in Europe.  During the establishment of the Chinese community trade links were strong between the ports of Shanghai and Liverpool.  The primary goods being traded were silk and cotton wool.  

Many Chinese immigrants arrived in Liverpool in the late 1860’s and established the Blue Funnel Shipping Line that ran a line of steamers direct from Liverpool to China.  Chinese sailors who decided to stay and work from Liverpool settled in an area of the city that was close to the docks in Cleveland Square.

Chinese settlers began to construct their own businesses to supply certain goods to their countrymen who were settled in a strange city with people who spoke a different language.  Boarding houses, shops and cafes opened so that they could buy cooked food and groceries to prepare their own meals.  One of the first ever Chinese shops to open was in Pitt Street.

A few years after World War One, the Chinese establishment of immigrants began to grow and they moved more inland into the side streets such as Dickenson Street and Kent Street.  There were now more than 10 places where you buy or eat Chinese food.  In addition to this, around the same area, a few gambling houses began to open, which were mainly visited by Chinese seamen who required to stay on shore for a period of time.

As there were very few places for the Chinese seamen to go and spend their wages whilst over in Liverpool the gambling dens were pretty much the only place that they visited and people were worried about the amount of seamen that were gambling away their wages.  Therefore, in 1917, a ‘Chinese Seamen’s Welfare Centre’ was opened in Bedford Street that provided a place for them to gather and socialise.

During the 1930’s, the council planned to replace all of the old courts and warehouses in the area known as ‘China Town’ and with the bombing of Liverpool in the 1940’s, this hurried the process up.  However, it destroyed near enough all of Pitt Street and Cleveland Square.  With such events happening Liverpool saw a reduction in its population size and a plan was put forward in an effort to try and attract members of the community back into the heart of the city.  The plan was put forward by a Chinese architectural student but was rejected by the City Council due to cost.

However, members of the community gradually started to move into the new tenements in Kent Street and Pitt Street and many successful plans and projects were implemented, constructing a Chinese Bank and Chinese Newspaper in 1944.  A few years later, a Chinese Seamen’s Club was opened in 1961.

More and more members of the Chinese community started to spread their business across the Merseyside area rather than restricting it to China Town and some shops and clubs re-opened in Nelson Street and Great George Square. 

The Chinese Arch that stands at the entrance to Liverpool’s Chinatown has four pillars, 5 roof sections and is covered in Chinese designs and calligraphy.  It was constructed in 2000 by a number of craftsmen from Shanghai and is the biggest Chinese Arch outside of Asia.