When you have been waiting on the platform for 10 minutes it may sometimes seem that train companies have their own concept of time - but actually it was the invention of the railways that standardised clocks.
Before the Great Western Railway was the first to adopt 'London time' in November 1840, places across the country all ticked along to their own version of time.
In Liverpool, we naturally took our separation from the capital even further, with our time calculated by the scientist responsible for ensuring thousands of ships' chronometers across the British Empire were running smoothly.
Astronomer John Hartnupp lived and worked in Bidston Observatory, where he would study the stars from a telescope in one of two massive domes on the roof, working out the time with total accuracy.
Liverpool Time gave dockworkers a crucial few minutes more time to unload cargo before they clocked off for the day.
Fiona James, one of a group of artists that now owns and runs the observatory as an 'artistic research centre', has been looking into the building's history.
She said: "It was something like 11 minutes difference.
"You notice when you come up to Liverpool that the sunset's a little bit later here. That makes a lot of difference if you're unloading a ship."
In Bidston Observatory, a clock would be accurately set according to the measurements taken by whoever was operating the telescope. This was double-checked against a second clock before an electrical charge was set off to the 'One O'Clock Gun' at Morpeth Dock in Birkenhead.
The gun would fire at exactly 1pm Liverpool Time - and later at standardised UK time. The sound would ring out across the River Mersey where the ships' crews could use it to set their chronometers.
Fiona said: "The gun meant everything else could sync up. That ran until '69 and lots of people remember it because you'd be walking down the street and all of a sudden the buses would stop because they'd be ahead of schedule, or there might be people rushing back after lunch.
"It was a really big feature of Liverpool. It was always there every day. I think it misfired six times."
The cannon was fired daily until July 18, 1969, when Sylvia Asquith flicked the switch at Bidston Observatory for the last time.
However, 50 years later to the very minute, she was present for an re-enactment of the One O'Clock Gun - this time a field gun fired by the Royal Artillery from the waterfront near Woodside Ferry Terminal on July 18, 2019.
Liverpool Time remains lost in history. However, knowing how much our city likes to stand on its own two feet, many residents would probably welcome it back.
Listen to the full interview with Fiona James on a tour of Bidston Observatory on the ECHO's Liminal podcast. Click HERE to find Liminal on all podcast apps
