Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Pier Head, properly known as George's Pier Head, is a riverside location in the city centre of Liverpool, England. It occupies the site of the former George's Dock and is home to a group of landmark buildings known as the Three Graces, as well as memorials, open space, and landing stages for the Mersey Ferries.
The Three Graces are the Royal Liver Building (built 1908-1911), the Cunard Building (constructed 1914-1916), and the Port of Liverpool Building (built 1903-1907). All three stand on the site of the former George's Dock and are individually listed buildings.
The Pier Head was part of the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2004. The designation was revoked in 2021.
Liverpool Corporation paid £277,399 for the Pier Head site following two years of negotiation with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, a deal finalised in the late 1890s. The Board reserved approximately 13,500 square yards of the site for its own new headquarters.
The Fourth Grace project, proposed in 2002 for the Pier Head and adjacent Mann Island, selected a design by Will Alsop nicknamed "the Cloud." It was abandoned in 2004 after fundamental changes to the original waterfront plan made the scheme unworkable.
The Pier Head holds several memorials including the Titanic Memorial to engineers who remained at their posts during the sinking, the Cunard War Memorial, the Merchant Navy war memorial, and memorials to Sir Alfred Lewis Jones and Captain Johnnie Walker. The Chinese Merchant Seamen's Memorial was unveiled on the 23rd of January 2006.