Downtown
Organisation,
46 Rodney Street
Liverpool L1 9AA UK
An independent, non-political organisation, working towards the creation
of an exhilarating, metropolitan, 21st century Liverpool
info@downtownliverpool.org
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May 20th 2005
Liverpool eDigest
Hello
Downtowners,
Next month sees the downtown of Liverpool celebrate the second annual
Downtown Week - a celebration of business
and culture in the city centre.
Anyone can take part, anyone can contribute - it's a chance for everyone
who loves cities and everything that makes cities so special to
tell others - and a reminder to all of us in and around Liverpool to come
into the city centre, enjoy the hustle and bustle, spend some money and
take on board some culture!
If you own a business or just work downtown: get ideas for the small ways
you can contribute to or celebrate DW at www.downtownweek.info
Downtown
Duke Street and Henry Street, once the home of ne'er do well sailors and their consorts is on the up - as well as a cluster of smart new restaurants (Italian, Japanese and Russian!) we notice that a firm of architects has jumped ship from Seymour Street to a swanky new pad downtown.
Sadder news that the Royal Court Theatre may be a home for comedy rather than anarchy - as changes are revealed which would see the end of live music there. Check out our bulletin board for a challenge to list how many famous bands have played there.
Feeling Blue?
-then head down to the Blue Room at the RIBA Bookshop in town - an eye-popping exhibition of glassware from Bombay Sapphire. Oh and while you're there pick up a copy of Christopher Crouch's book on the Liverpool School of Architecture 1888-1914. Good reading; will we see this School's like again??
More Than Retail
A reminder that city downtowns are more than just retail - within 5 mins of the LFC club shop in Williamson Square you can..
-Run through a fountain of 40 water jets
-See a play at the oldest repertory theatre in the UK
-Attend Mass at the Blessed Sacrament Shrine
-Climb 450ft up the tallest tower in the city
-Look at a Rembrandt self-portrait
So let's not too hung up on retail indices and PSDA - welcome additions that they are - as Bluewater is no.10 (2004)!!
5th-12th June 2005
City
Friends reunited
The NWDA has signed up as the latest official sponsor of Liverpool
Capital of Culture - joining a string of other 'regional partners' - their
£2m for press and PR is welcome but can we ask that they avoid repeating
too often Liverpool's role within 'the Northwest'. Most people around
the World will know where Liverpool is - but for the Northwest? Huh?
Where? What? - Who Cares!
No Pain, No Gain?
There has been widespread criticism in the local press from commuters
and users stuck in 'the Big Dig' - the £73m programme of
roadworks in the city. Most complaints surround journey times, lack of
joined-up thinking, etc etc - but there's no doubting the work needs to
be done; we have from one authority that Dale Street is literally
falling to pieces! Check progress and get help with your journey at www.bigdig.liverpool.gov.uk
Lining the River
At last, great news that UK govt funding has been released to
enable the cruise-liner terminal to go-ahead at Liverpool's Pier
Head.
A Sense of Arrival - for generations |
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Bandarin'
Around
UNESCO Chief Francesco Bandarin finally let the cat out of the
bag and put pay to the notion held by many, including one Liverpool Echo
reader recently, that with World Heritage Site status 'The UN
do not have the remit to dictate development or building policy in Liverpool'.
Mr Bandarin clearly
thinks so and our city signed
up for it!
But as the same reader wisely admits 'it is a voluntary, basically
meaningless title that carries no weight of any kind and can be dropped
at whim' Right on!
Will Vienna be the first WHS city to drop it?
Lime
Street Gateway
Coming down.. and Going UP!
The planning application has gone in for this fantastic scheme from Glenn
Howells Architects for a bigger, better and beautiful tower in front
of Lime Street Station, a new public plaza and the very sensible re-conversion
of the un-let ground floor unit in North Western Hall into the new ticket
hall. The height of the tower been announced at 28
stories in the press but 27
in the planning application - so true
to our word we'll keep a watching brief on this when it comes to committee!
Can all city-lovers press for the successful and unaltered go-ahead using
LCC's excellent new online
planning application feedback form?
And while you're there look at the list of statutory consultees
for this development - almost half are heritage organisations,
including English Nature and the Ancient Monuments Society! This ain't
Stonehenge - it's a city!
Only 1 organisation in these consultees could be said to champion
new architecture [CABE]. They could
do with asking groups like this
and this - and even this!
Design Tsar on Board
The excellent Cllr Beatrice Fraenkel, Liverpool City Council's
urban design 'tsar' has accepted the post of Chair of RENEW, the new regional
centre for urban regeneration at the Tea Factory. Cllr Fraenkel was
instrumental in delivering the ropewalks
project, so she will be enjoying the fruit of her labours in Wood
St!
Incidentally, the supplementary planning document for Ropewalks
is in public
consultation until the 4th June 2005. So have your say.
Metropolis
Mersey
Racing
Welcome news that the world’s largest offshore powerboat
championship - Honda Formula 4-stroke power boat racing - is coming to
the Mersey in August [link]
in the Liverpool Grand Prix from 20-21st which will also be screened
on Channel 4.
House and Home
The 'pathfinder' programme of housing
renewal in Liverpool has come in for a rough ride in Liverpool lately,
ITV News even
spent £18k renovating a home in the Dingle to demonstrate there
is a cheaper alternative to demolition. Surely one of the issues with
pathfinder is the fear residents rightly have that the mistakes
of the past are to be repeated - Victorian terrace housing isn't actually
that great but their urban form is sustainable -high density, mixed-use,
street facing and on a grid-plan. Geddit?
The Scouse Riviera
Liverpudlians will know where we are referring too! Can we be sure that
they are getting the road,
rail and sea links they deserve to their 'Capital?' Looking pretty
good, but will some entrepreneur consider a summer ferry shuttle from
Liverpool Pier Head to Llandudno?
And while we are on this will a 'Minister for Transport and Signage' in
the Liverpool Culture Company please get on the phone to the DfT
and get some signs to LIVERPOOL on the A55!
[ps: we're that big City which is actually closer to Wrexham than
Manchester...]
Liverpool's Left Bank
Sadly, Wirral still doesn't seem to get
it - whilst no-one doubts the worthiness of projects such as 'employment
corridors' in tackling social exclusion in the borough, are they at risk
of not playing their biggest hand.. the Mersey, and the view over
to Liverpool. Acknowledge the River and its City (see above) and
much might follow... it's also good for Liverpool! Here's some tips from
San Diego, Bourdeaux
and Rotterdam.
National/International
'BBC-Watch'
Liverpudlians, ever-grateful for whatever scraps fall off the
table from BBC Manchester - will be disappointed that this hasn't
yet stretched to the BBC Weather team and their 3D
UK weathermaps whose new TV graphics appear to have now permanently
scrubbed Liverpool off the map!
Sea
Britain 2005
Year of the Sea and fitting that it's the 25th
Mersey River Festival -biggest maritime festival in the UK -250
000 people come to see it 10-13 June.
In a bit of advance planning, don't forget the 21st-23rd October 2005
is Trafalgar Weekend.
Liverpool has some great Admiral Nelson connections: Memorials
in Exchange Square (1813) and Springfield Park (?), two great paintings
in the Walker (1806,
1859)
and a Long
Haired Lover from Liverpool..
Istanbul
This newsletter and the downtownliverpool.org
site usually avoids mention of Liverpool's other great cultural export
- football. But with May 25
rapidly approaching we will know by the next edition of this newsletter
who will triumph at Ataturk. Until then, let's wish for an exciting,
passionate and safe encounter for all fans - and for a great homecoming..
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