Port Sunlight was the vision of one man, William Lever. He was born in 1851, the son of a grocer, and after working in the grocery business, he started to specialise in selling individually wrapped bars of soap.

First Bar of Sunlight Soap c.1884

The business was so successful that his factory was soon running at full capacity and by 1887 he needed to look for larger premises.

He chose the site at Port Sunlight for the new factory because it was near a potential source of labour in Birkenhead, and had facilities for road, rail and water transport.

William Lever, Lord Leverhulme