Hartley Hut

Perched on the Liverpool waterfront, the historic Hartley Hut’s offered a place for the gatekeepers to keep warm whilst operating the gates to allow ships to enter and leave the docks. Built in 1844 by Jesse Hartley, stories of the huts include the touching mundanities of everyday life, from getting a haircut or eating a pan of scouse, all set against the vast backdrop of the Liverpool waterfront.

We worked together with architects Harrison Stringfellow to develop a light-touch, modular exhibition within the space as part of the wider National Museums Liverpool waterfront regeneration project. The intervention was designed to clamp tight to the alcoves of the old fireplace, windows and decommissioned gas-lighting of the Grade II listed hut.

We developed the design as an all aluminium construction alongside strategies for maintenance, repair and disassembly. The displays provide an opportunity for interchangeable exhibits within a public setting, allowing the exhibition to change over time without overall intervention. Where the door was once closed to all but the docksmen, now over 180 years later, passers-by are invited into the space to keep warm and read about the stories held within the huts and beyond.