Nova Scotia at the junction with Mann Island, circa 1896(Image: Photo courtesy of Liverpool Central Library and Archives/unknown)It’s now been a century since we said goodbye to one Liverpool district that was like a “little Canada” in the city. Today, thousands of workers, commuters and tourists are familiar with Mann Island in Liverpool city centre – but up until the 20th Century, a shanty town and dock, known as Nova Scotia, could also be found in the area.
According to National Museums Liverpool, the links between Liverpool and Canada goes back to at least the 1700s, when Charles Dixon sailed from Liverpool in the Duke of York, to found a family dynasty in Nova Scotia. Liverpool’s Nova Scotia is said to have gotten its name due to its twinning with Canada’s Nova Scotia.
Back in 2007, archaeologists uncovered more about Liverpool’s lost Nova Scotia, when a team from Oxford Archaeology North were commissioned to carry out a dig, as part of the planning conditions set by Liverpool City Council. The work, to prepare for developer Neptune’s £150m project to build three granite-faced wedge shaped buildings at Mann Island, uncovered the remains of the original streetscape, including Bird Street and also a street known as Nova Scotia.
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In their research, the team also examined historical records and maps. In Gore’s Directory of 1766, they found there were five people living and working in Liverpool’s Nova Scotia.
The population in the area continued to expand and the directory showed people living in the Nova Scotia tended to be those involved in shipping. Made up of dwellings and businesses serving the ships when the city boomed as a trade destination, the whole area of Nova Scotia was redeveloped in the 1920s and 1930s, when all of the buildings were demolished.
The 1835 Gage map of Liverpool, which names Nova Scotia, a lost district in the Mann Island area of the city(Image: Photo courtesy of National Museums Liverpool)Through the generations, the district has been largely forgotten. But in 2022, independent Liverpool bar operator Ma Pub Group opened a new restaurant and bar in Mann Island, paying homage to this chapter of Liverpool’s maritime past.
Ahead of the opening of restaurant and bar Nova Scotia, director Iain Hoskins and the the team worked closely with local historians to find out more about the history of Liverpool’s Nova Scotia, to ensure it wasn’t forgotten. As part of the Liverpool ECHO’s How It Used To Be series, we spoke to Iain, 45, about the Liverpool’s lost Nova Scotia and what life is like in the area today.
Iain, originally from Toxteth, told the ECHO: “This building, it was a trading bar before and we wanted to do something different with it. As people know, Nova Scotia is a region in Canada and the dock was twinned with Nova Scotia in Canada.
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“It’s where all the fine lumber came over for all the shipping merchants. As well as finding out that there’s a Liverpool in Nova Scotia, we also found out there is a River Mersey and a Mann Island.
“We managed to dig into that history, put it front and centre of what the concept of the business was and cherish that history that surrounds that building, because so often this stuff gets lost and forgotten.
Nova Scotia in Liverpool, circa 1930(Image: Photo courtesy of Liverpool Central Library and Archives/unknown)“Nova Scotia was where a lot of other press gangs worked. It was an area very cheek by jowl, it was kind of like gangs of New York.
“Some of the research that we found shows there was 37 pubs in half a square mile in Nova Scotia. In archive pictures, you can see two-storey dwellings that have rope makers, sail makers, all things that were connected with port when it was a shipbuilding port rather than an industrial trade port.
Mann Island has seen much change through the decades(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)“We looked at maps and where these buildings once stood. The two glass Mann Island buildings were based on two huge warehouse buildings that were there at the centre of Nova Scotia.”
Despite being based in a modern building, Iain said the team wanted to pay homage to the lost Liverpool district that once encompassed the area. He said the restaurant and bar is not Canadian-style, but celebrates Liverpool’s Nova Scotia, serving classic meals and our city’s famous dish, Scouse.
The team at Novia Scotia restaurant and bar. Pictured, director Iain Hoskins with Laura Arroyo, Andrea Bravender, Liam Cato and Kseniia Bilenko(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)The interior of Nova Scotia bar and restaurant gives subtle hints to the areas nautical past, from using rustic reclaimed wood to the turquoise and green colour scheme and the logo design featuring a ship steering wheel. Occasionally, customers from Canada visit to hear more about the links with our city.
Iain said: “When we went about styling the restaurant and bar, we wanted to celebrate Liverpool’s Nova Scotia. Many people walk through the front door and have no idea what Nova Scotia was.
Inside Novia Scotia in Mann Island(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)“We do get a lot of Canadians that come over. When we first opened, I had a Canadian radio station call me and they were thrilled that somewhere in Liverpool, UK, is named Nova Scotia, which is a province in Canada. I talked to them about the connections and the trade.
“There’s quite a lot of people that will come as families and some of the older members of the family will know about it. There’s been several times were someone has said, my grandmother was born in Nova Scotia and we didn’t even know where that was in Liverpool.”
Iain Hoskins with a picture board celebrating the history of ‘Little Novia Scotia’ at Mann Island(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)Now over a century on from when the city closed a chapter on this part of its history, Iain said the team are proud to keep its story alive. He said: “We’ve got a big sign up at the front that gives some of the history.
“We do put it on our menu and it’s on our website. The history is there if people want to see it.
“But most people are very, very fascinated. It really is a piece of history that we shouldn’t be forgetting.”
Nova Scotia is at 25a Mann Island, Liverpool, L3 1BP