buildings, but no such prospective tenants came forward, and it was decided to offer the freehold of the sites for sale. However, at an auction of the sites in 1905 there were no bidders. The following year, the Royal Liver Friendly Society made an approach through Walter Aubrey Thomas, a local architect, successfully offering considerably less for a site than the corporation had hoped for: £70,000 instead of £95,000. Gladstone and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board expressed consternation at the height of the Royal Liver Society's proposed new headquarters, sometimes described as "England's first skyscraper", but after much debate the corporation approved the plans. The last of the three Pier Head sites between the Liver Building and the Docks and Harbour Board offices was for some time intended to be developed on behalf of the corporation, partly to replace a nearby public baths and partly as offices for the city's new tram network. This scheme fell through, and in the early years of the 20th century a combined public baths and customs house was proposed. After several years that scheme, too, came to nothing, and in 1913 the Cunard shipping line announced its intention to build a new headquarters in Liverpool. The Cunard Building was built of reinforced concrete, clad in Portland Stone, in a style intended to recall grand Italian palaces, described by the architectural historian Peter De Figueiredo as "a match for its more ostentatious neighbours in expressive power but greatly superior in refinement of detail and proportion." In 2002, the Pier Head, and the adjacent Mann Island, were subjected to an ill-fated development scheme known as the "Fourth Grace" project. This, with the winning entry, designed by Will Alsop and known as "the Cloud", was abandoned in 2004 after "fundamental changes" to the original waterfront plan left it unworkable. In 2007, work began on a new scheme, to re-house the Museum of Liverpool Life. The new museum, known as the Museum of Liverpool opened in 2011. Work also started in 2007 to build a canal link between the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the South Docks. The £22 million pound, 1.6-mile extension to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was officially opened on 25 March 2009 and opened to boaters at the end of April 2009. It links the of the existing canal to the city's South Docks, passing the Pier Head and its landmark buildings. Landmark