CANNING PLACE, LIVERPOOL, the dock that became the world. Liverpool’s Old Dock opened in 1715, often described as the world’s first enclosed commercial wet dock. When it closed in 1826, the site was drained and rebuilt, the ground under your feet where Liverpool ONE shopping centre now stands is engineered history. After the first dock came the monster: Liverpool’s Custom House, built 1828–1839. It turned cargo into paperwork, and paperwork into power, duties, records, money. This waterfront als