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The Prince of Wales visits Liverpool on St George's Day to mark the city's 800th anniversary

23rd April 2007

The Prince of Wales visited Liverpool on St George’s Day to help the city celebrate its 800th anniversary today.

His Royal Highness also made a keynote speech calling for mankind to live in greater harmony with the environment.

The Prince arrived at Liverpool Lime Street station by royal train and walked the short distance to the steps of the newly restored St George’s Hall, where he was greeted by dignitaries and members of the public.

One of the dignitaries was The Duke of Gloucester, who is the Royal Patron of the Hall’s restoration appeal.

The Prince was shown the restoration work in the main hall and met Dave Lacey, the project manager who showed The Prince round the building privately some 20 years ago at a time when its future was uncertain.

Afterwards, The Prince was conferred with an Honorary Fellowship by Liverpool John Moores University before giving this year's Roscoe Lecture, about living in harmony with the environment.

After expressing his delight with the "splendidly restored" Hall, The Prince expressed his concern that society had “lost something very precious - an understanding of our interconnectedness with Nature and a world beyond the material.”

His Royal Highness urged the audience, which included guests ranging from former politician David Owen to hairdresser Andrew Collinge, that society needs to change before it is too late.

He said: “I believe that true “sustainability”, to use a now common word, depends fundamentally upon us shifting our perception and widening our focus, so that we understand, again, that we have a sacred – yes, a sacred – duty of stewardship of the natural order of things.

“In some of our actions we now behave as if we were “masters of Nature” and, in others, as mere bystanders.

“If we could rediscover that “sense of harmony”; that sense of being a part of, rather than apart from Nature, we would perhaps be less likely to see the world as some sort of gigantic production system, capable of ever-increasing outputs for our benefit – at no cost.”

“We are in danger of being like the analogy of the poor frog. Had he been thrown into a pot of boiling water he would have jumped straight out again.

“But he was put into a pot of lukewarm water and the heat was only slowly increased so that, without noticing it, he slowly boiled to death.”

The Prince said that man should aim to behave more like bees, which produce honey without destroying the flower from which they take the nectar.

He said: "Contrast this with our convenience-based, throw-away consumerist society, dominated as it is by the increasing demands of individualism - at whatever cost, it often seems, to society or the environment.”

After his speech, The Prince attended a private reception before touring the Great Hall, the Court room, the cells and the heritage centre.

His Royal Highness unveiled a plaque to mark the official re-opening of the building and viewed a painting which was commissioned to mark the city’s 800th anniversary.

After The Prince was presented with a print by the artists, His Royal Highness struck a bell which started an hour-long peal which rang out across the city with all major church, civic bells as well as ships’ bells and a cannon taking part.

Among the bells that rang out across the city were the 15-ton "Great George" in Liverpool Cathedral, and shipping fog horns on the Mersey.

The cacophony also featured suspended car wheels which were struck with mallets from the roof of the World Museum Liverpool.

The Prince then went on to visit Toxteth in Liverpool to hear about the work undertaken by the community groups who work at the Town Hall and the multi-faith community work carried out by Liverpool Community Spirit, an independent partnership of diverse faith and cultural communities.

His Royal Highness joined representatives of the various faiths around a special table which was designed to incorporate representative symbols of each faith with a linking motif of the Mersey River flowing around the edge.

In the main hall, The Prince met groups illustrating the work of diverse groups such as the Elder Buddies project which has brought together young people with older members of ethnic communities to produce a This is Your Life booklet.

His Royal Highness chatted to Liverpool artist George Cross about his work with schoolchildren who have been copying his style of paintings depicting city scenes.

Representatives of other organisations also showed their work, such as the Somali community, the Greenhouse project and a local scheme which provides allotments for refugees with some of them displaying the produce that they had grown.

To mark St George’s Day, children from St Margaret of Antioch primary school performed a special play.

The Prince also heard about a campaign by local people to save a street of Victorian terrace houses due for demolition as part of a regeneration project.

The Prince said he believed these houses were "very solid buildings" which could be restored.

He added: "It's remarkable that many of these buildings can be brought back to life relatively easily."

The Prince also met Rastafarian Erroll Graham, 43, who was one of the first recipients of a Prince's Trust grant 30 years ago which enabled him to build a sound system for his local youth club.

His Royal Highness discussed reggae music with Mr Graham before showing him his watch, which he revealed had been a present from Haile Selassie, former Ethiopian Emperor and head of the Rastafarian religious movement.

Before he left the Town Hall, The Prince unveiled an icon of St. George which was commissioned to hang in a Liverpool church where the Ethiopian community meet.

The Prince ended his day in Liverpool by attending a special civic Thanksgiving Service to mark the 800th Anniversary of Liverpool at Liverpool Cathedral.

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