Heritage Open Day at Lever House, Port Sunlight

Helen Unsworth
Archivist and Records Manager

Average read time: 2 minutes

Heritage Open Day is England’s largest festival of history and culture. Every year in September it brings people together to celebrate their heritage, community, and history. Stories are told, traditions explored, and histories brought to life.  For free!! 

In Port Sunlight we are lucky to have the beautiful village, created by William Lever for his workers, as well as the amazing Lever House, built as the General Offices for the factory.  Whilst the village is a well-known destination for sightseeing, access to Lever House is restricted to employees only.  However, Heritage Open Day allows us the opportunity to welcome a select few visitors beyond the barriers and into Lever House.

Lever House is still a working office space and so capacity for visitors is limited, nonetheless we were surprised (and delighted) when all tickets on offer had gone within a couple of days. 

It was a beautiful sunny day in September when we welcomed our guests.  The sunshine being much appreciated as the tour started outside the front of the building with some history and facts about the construction of Lever House and the clock that takes pride of place over the entrance.  The original building was constructed in 1896, and we led our guests through the vestibule and into the central area, pointing out features and changes to this beautiful building. 

We also told the story of how historically tours around Lever Soap Works being quite the event in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The first recorded evidence we have of the “Grand Tour” dates from 1897 with a report of 600 teachers visiting “the Works, the Village, and its Attractions”.   

The popularity and scale of the tours grew, and by the 1920’s they were hosted by official tour ladies with a full works tour being 2 ¼ miles long! Visitors ranged from day trippers to royalty, politicians, and celebrities of the day. A quote from a staff magazine in 1924 states “From 10 o’clock onwards the inspection galleries support an unceasing traffic, and the staff of attractively uniformed girls is as busy as any section in the factory”.  

Back to the present day, and our guests seemed happy that their visit didn’t entail walking much more than a few hundred metres.  Rounded off with tea or coffee and the opportunity for a Wall’s ice cream on the way out, the interest and enthusiasm shown by our visitors made all the preparation worthwhile. 

This was our second Heritage Open Day, with a 4-year gap in between, mainly due to the events beyond our control.  However, I think we’ve now established an interesting and accessible tour that we can repeat for Heritage Open Day 2024.  But don’t just take our word for how good it was, here’s some comments from a couple of our guests: 

“Excellent!  So much to learn about at Lever House, about the company, the village, and the William Lever & Co. legacy.  The progressive idealism is still impressive.  All credit to the archival team. Thank you!” 

“It has been such a special treat visiting here today – fascinating.  Wish it was open to the public more often as I’d certainly recommend to friends.“ 

So - will we see you in September?