GRADE I LISTED BUILDINGS

A

* Albert Dock
* The Parish Church of All Hallows

B

* Bank of England, Liverpool
* Bluecoat Chambers

C

* Liverpool Cathedral
* Church of All Saints, Childwall
* Church of St Clare, Liverpool
* Church of St George, Everton


O

* The Oratory
* Oriel Chambers

R

* Royal Liver Building

S

* Speke Hall
* St Agnes and St Pancras church
* St Michael's Church, Aigburth
* St. George’s Hall, Liverpool

T

* The Parish Church of Saint John the Baptist, Liverpool
* Liverpool Town Hall
* Toxteth Unitarian Chapel

U

* Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool

W

* Woolton Hall

GRADE II LISTED BUILDINGS

5

* 59 Rodney Street

A

* Anfield Cemetery

B

* Bramley-Moore Dock

C

* Calderstones House
* Canning Dock
* Canning Half Tide Dock
* Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool
* Church of St Luke, Liverpool
* Cressington railway station
* Casbah Coffee Club

E

* Liverpool Empire Theatre
* Everton Cemetery
* Everton Water Tower


G

* Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas
* Greenbank House
* Gwalia, Liverpool

H

* Hunts Cross railway station

I

* India Buildings

L

* Liverpool College of Art
* Liverpool Infirmary
* Liverpool Institute for Boys
* Liverpool Lime Street railway station

N

* Nelson Dock
* Neptune Theatre
* North Corporation Primary School
* North Western Hotel
* Norwegian Fishermans’ Church, Liverpool

R

* Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool

S

* St James Mount and Gardens
* St Mary of the Angels
* St Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Liverpool
* Stanley Dock
* Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse
* Sudley House

T

* The Midland Railway Goods Offices
* Toxteth Park Cemetery

V

* Victoria Building, University of Liverpool

W

* West Derby Cemetery

GRADE II* LISTED BUILDINGS

1

* 16 Cook Street

A

* Albion House, Liverpool
* Allerton Hall
* Allerton Priory

B

* Broughton Hall

C

* Church of Holy Trinity, Wavertree
* Church of Saint Andrew, Liverpool
* Church of Saint Bridget, Liverpool
* Church of Saint Francis Xavier, Liverpool
* Church of St Anne, Aigburth
* Church of St Clement, Liverpool
* Church of St Dunstan, Liverpool
* Church of St James, Liverpool
* Church of St Matthew and St James, Liverpool
* Church of St Paul, Liverpool
* Church of St Peter, Liverpool
* Church of St. Margaret of Antioch, Liverpool
* College of Technology and Museum Extension
* Croxteth Hall
* Cunard Building

F

* Fowler’s Building, Liverpool

G

* Gambier Terrace

L

* Liverpool Blue Coat School
* Liverpool Collegiate Institution
* Liverpool Medical Institution
* Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

M

* Manor Court House, West Derby
* Municipal Buildings, Liverpool

N

* National Westminster Bank, Liverpool
* Nelson Monument, Liverpool

P

* Philharmonic Hall
* Liverpool Playhouse
* Port of Liverpool Building
* Princes Road Synagogue

R

* Royal Insurance Building, Liverpool

S

* Saint Philip Neri Church
* Sessions House, Liverpool
* St Bride's Church, Liverpool
* Stanlawe Grange
* Steble Fountain

T

* The Lyceum, Liverpool
* The Philharmonic Dining Rooms
* The Village Cross, West Derby
* Tower Buildings, Liverpool
* Tue Brook House

W

* Wellington's Column
* West Derby Church
* William Brown Library

Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Buildings_and_structures_in_Liverpool)

Isnt my old school The Bluecoat grade II listed?

Isnt my old school The Bluecoat grade II listed?
It is there, under Grade II*

What's the difference between Grade I, Grade II, and Grade III? Is there a website that explains the different criteria and treatment of buildings of the differing grades?

Sorry Folks - My typing Error, its grade II*, not grade III!

Buildings can be listed because of age, rarity, architectural merit, and method of construction. Occasionally English Heritage selects a building because the building has played a part in the life of a famous person, or as the scene for an important event. An interesting group of buildings - such as a model village or a square - may also be listed.

The older a building is, the more likely it is to be listed. All buildings built before 1700 which survive in anything like their original condition are listed, as are most built between 1700 and 1840. After that date, the criteria become tighter with time, so that post-1945 buildings have to be exceptionally important to be listed.

The grades (different in Scotland and Northern Ireland)

The buildings are graded to show their relative architectural or historic interest:

• Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest

• Grade II* are particularly important buildings of more than special interest

• Grade II are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them

Listing currently protects 500,000 or so buildings, of which the majority - over 90% - are Grade II. Grade I and II* buildings may be eligible for English Heritage grants for urgent major repairs. You are extremely unlikely to get any sort of grant for a Grade II or C listed building.

It is there, under Grade II*



haha yeah, blind!!

Isnt my old school The Bluecoat grade II listed?

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/7858/view18wv.jpg

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/4413/view4ha.jpg

How could it possibly not be it's stunning.:PDT_Piratz_26:

well, its stunning from the outside, but inside its a completely different story altogether!

Here ya go, kev:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listed_buildings_in_Liverpool


It has one of my favs on it, the Wellington Rooms (aka Irish Centre) listed as a II*

Wonder what grade the Casartelli building was before it was demolished and rebuilt.

Downtown Liverpool has featured Yo! Liverpool yet again on the front page, thanks Tony :PDT_Aliboronz_24:

Check the attached pic or click here (http://www.downtownliverpool.org/).

http://static.flickr.com/50/141223977_c457c4184d_o.jpg

HA! If I'd known we were famous, I would've combed my hair and put on make-up. :unibrow:

hey kevin, great thread, do you know if Strawberry Fields is a listed building or not...

thanks

Lemmo...:037:

A Liverpool club where The Beatles played their first gig has been given Grade II listed building status.

The Casbah Coffee Club was set up in the home of original Beatles' drummer, Pete Best, after his mother read about beat clubs in London.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison played in the converted coal cellar of the house in West Derby, in August 1959 as The Quarrymen.

Best soon joined as the drummer and the band became The Silver Beatles.

The foursome went on to perform there many times until it closed in 1962.

The club survives in a remarkably well-preserved condition

The Beatles played a farewell gig at the club in front of 1,500 people.

The cellar club was preserved and still contains murals and paintings by the band members and Lennon's then wife, Cynthia.

Culture Minister, David Lammy, awarded the Grade II listed status after a recommendation from English Heritage.

He said: "It is absolutely right that the club where the group first learnt their craft should be badged as an important part of our heritage, and receive the extra protection from harmful redevelopment that listed building status affords."

Bob Hawkins, of English Heritage, said: "The basement rooms are historically significant because they represent tangible evidence of The Beatles' formation, their growth in popularity and their enduring cultural influence.

"The club survives in a remarkably well-preserved condition since its closure in 1962, with wall and ceiling paintings of spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars by original band members along with 1960s musical equipment, amplifiers and original chairs.

"We know of no other survival like it in Liverpool or indeed anywhere else."

hey kevin, great thread, do you know

if Strawberry Fields is a listed building or not...

thanks

Lemmo...:037:

The original Strawberry Fields building is long gone,

so the present one won't be listed.
Don't know about the gates, though.

The Forum / ABC Cinema has been Listed since 1981, but it doesn't seem

to be on either of the two lists.

I am an architectural historian, looking at 20th century churches.

English Heritage list as Grade 2 listed the Third Church of Christ Scientist, Upper Parliament Street. It was listed in 1975. It was built - as the Church of Humanity - by W H Ansell in 1914. It is, according to Multimaps, on the corner of Hope Street and Upper Parliament Street.

It has a telephone number which is not replying. According to another Christian Scientist church in Manchester, it is no longer operating as a church.

Question - does anyone have any idea how I might be able to find out who can let me in to see the inside of this important modernist building?

I am an architectural historian, looking at 20th century churches.

English Heritage list as Grade 2 listed the Third Church of Christ Scientist, Upper Parliament Street. It was listed in 1975. It was built - as the Church of Humanity - by W H Ansell in 1914. It is, according to Multimaps, on the corner of Hope Street and Upper Parliament Street.

It has a telephone number which is not replying. According to another Christian Scientist church in Manchester, it is no longer operating as a church.

Question - does anyone have any idea how I might be able to find out who can let me in to see the inside of this important modernist building?

The Church is closed and was recently sold. Check with Land Registry Office in Birkenhead as to current ownership

I read somewhere that church was going to be converted to Luxury Apartments.

Thanks for your replies.
The building is not registered at the Land Registry, which it would be at once as soon as it was sold. That means, if it has been sold, the deal hasn't been done yet!
I have asked English Heritage if they know anything about it - as it is Grade II, they ought to be informed of any plans.

I have just been on to Liverpool council planning department, and there is no planning application lodged relating to the church.

Which means, if it has been sold, no-one has yet got round to drawing up a detailed development proposal - and I have no way of knowing who bought it!

Incidentally, I have now discovered its address: 35 Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool L8 7LA.

Any more snippets, gratefully received.

Alec

I don't know if this is a silly question or not...but who and what decided if a building is listed or not?

I don't know if this is a silly question or not...but who and what decided if a building is listed or not?

English Heritage, ultimately.
But anyone can put forward a building for Listing.

The Third Church of Christ Scientist on Upper Parliament Street ("Temple of Humanity" as was) is once again on the market. The agent is Dears Brack. However, as the building is listed Grade II, I am not sure whether a change of use to flats will be possible. I will contact the agent to see if I can find out more.

I have been told there was a great scandal around the time of the end of the building's life as the Temple of Humanity, involving a love triangle and a murder. Anyone got any info? I was told Tom Sleman (sp?) Liverpool folklorist and historian knew more, but I have been unable to track him down. He used to write for the Echo, I think, but seems not to now.

Alec

Alec, there's some info here (http://www.geocities.com/stevenhortonuk/positivistmurder.html) and also some interesting patent info unrelated to the church here (http://www.wikipatents.com/gb/515884.html)

A HISTORIC building has been saved from demolition at the last minute after being given listed status.

Conservation officers stepped in at the eleventh hour to save the old Westminster Road police and fire station in Kirkdale from the bulldozers.

Read more and view pictures here (http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6540).

Cheers Paul, I've shortened it 'cause there was already a thread. I've included the link to the thread in your post.

Kev

Cheers Paul, I've shortened it 'cause there was already a thread. I've included the link to the thread in your post.

Kev

Alright Kev.:PDT_Piratz_26:

Just thought an update might be of interest.

There is, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, a "For Sale" sign back up at the Third Church of Christ Scientist in Upper Parliament Street. The agent is Dears Brack. I called them in the week of 15 October, and they said they had had 'a couple of expressions of interest.' As the building is Grade II listed, I am not too sure what any developer will be able to do to the rather striking and uncompromisingly 'Modernist' interior.

By the way, I attended a rather beautiful and interesting service at the church on 2 September, and was warmly welcomed by the congregation. Like many churches they are finding numbers dwindling, and the building - which has extensive rooms in the basement as well as the church proper - is way too big for them.

Thanks to everyone who has offered ideas and help, especially scouserdave, who unearthed stuff on the "Positivist Tragedy".

Alec

Everton Library in St Domingo Rd is up for sale

Its a lovely building but has been left to deteriate since the Library moved out :PDT_Xtremez_12:

http://www.2020liverpool.co.uk/html_files/services/property_item.php?id=0061

If a building is listed is there anyway it can become unlisted? What if a building is bought but left abandoned? I'd hate to see beautiful buidings pulled down and flats built upon the grounds

If a building is listed is there anyway it can become unlisted? What if a building is bought but left abandoned? I'd hate to see beautiful buidings pulled down and flats built upon the grounds

Yes, it's called "delisting", and has happened numerous times to Liverpool buildings, which have then been demolished after being declared "Dangerous Structures".

I understand that the building on Parli has been put back up for sale due to the *charity* that wish to aquire it fell short in their fundraising for a an amount the church had requested.

I wonder if anyone has any information on the seemingly dissused IBO Community Centre Princess Park Drive, surely a building of its stature would be listed but doesnt seem to show up. I am aware that MSDP who are now based on Queens Drive had the building as their home anyone any other information on the building, I mean how could a listed building have that hideous extension ploncked on the back?

I

I wonder if anyone has any information on the seemingly dissused IBO Community Centre Princess Park Drive, surely a building of its stature would be listed but doesnt seem to show up. I am aware that MSDP who are now based on Queens Drive had the building as their home anyone any other information on the building, I mean how could a listed building have that hideous extension ploncked on the back?

I

It is Listed.
(April 14, 1975 II Princes Avenue (east side) L8 Merseyside Centre for the Deaf)
The extension was there before it was Listed.
It was built 1886-7 as the Adult Deaf and Dumb Institute.

The North Corporation Primary School (Bevington Bush, Vauxhall) which you describe as Grade II listed was delisted in 2004 and demolished soon after. The land is currently wasteland although a wall of the school remains.

I understand it was once St Bridgets then became the nit nurse clinic and where you got your BCG etc.

Not arf plugging my site today sorry folks, but there is a pic of it in a snow scene about a third of the way down on this page: http://pic7.piczo.com/inacityliving/?g=41897456

Put up a new page on my Building at Risk page for Kiln Hey :PDT11

http://www.buildingatrisk.co.uk/kilnhey

Talking of listings. Does anyone know where in Liverpool you may find a grade II listed structure inside a Grade I listed building, both designed by the same person.?

Talking of listings. Does anyone know where in Liverpool you may find a grade II listed structure inside a Grade I listed building, both designed by the same person.?

Telephone box in the Anglican Cathedral.
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Well did kid ;)

Galkoff`s Kosher Butcher’s shop in Pembroke Place,

Grade II listed in April 2007 and looks like it will shortly be lost through the deteriorating condition of the city council own neighbouring property.


http://galkoffs.tripod.com/

A snippit of info but the tiles that are still on the shop window, I've a picture of the factory which made them - Overbury Street in Edge Hill.

Could you post the picture please. Do you have any more information on the company that made the tiles and are you sure it is the correct company.
Rosco

Greenbank Drive Synagogue has been been upgraded to Grade II* (from Grade II). Source: Liverpool Echo 31/1/2008 (page 26). The article states that it closed on Jan 8th.

the guy who owns galkoff's and has worked tirelessly in his attempt to save the building is still talking <many years> may i add with the city council and other interested parties. he is only too aware of the state of the adjoining building and is desparate for our city fathers to acknowledge the disrepair and act immediately. the guy in question is liverpool born and bred,who is keen for liverpool to retain as much as possible of its heritage,he was responsible for the listing and we should wish him well in his selfless endeavours.

The owner, Rob Ainsworth of The Liverpool Heritage Society is a very decent chap indeed, I wish him all the luck in the world, he'll need it with that council. When they have a self inflicted 60m shortfall though, the likes of statues for Chavasse, Epstein or old buildings like this will sadly be bottom of their agenda.

The owner, Rob Ainsworth of The Liverpool Heritage Society is a very decent chap indeed, I wish him all the luck in the world, he'll need it with that council. When they have a self inflicted 60m shortfall though, the likes of statues for Chavasse, Epstein or old buildings like this will sadly be bottom of their agenda.

Unfortunately true.
There's another planning application on Tuesday (Town Hall, 9.30) about the proposal to demolish the former Bedford Cinema in Walton.
English Heritage won't list it, despite the fact the exterior is one of only about five in the UK that date from the first year of building cinemas.
Just before Christmas workmen took hammers to all the decorative plasterwork on the facade, because the Planning Committee asked them to consider incorporating the facade in the new development.
I'll go on Tuesday, but I'm not hopeful.

"More Listed Buildings than..................."
Only by accident - certainly not by design.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2120/2133883562_9f652d93df_o.jpg

That's surely malicious and criminal damage. Yes, but try proving it, the local scalls will no doubt conveniently get the blame.

can you believe things like this are still going on in this day and age????? it defies all sense of decency and pride.

Haven't they learnt from the sailors home? the david lewis building? the cavern?

It's terrible, and heartbreaking to see workmen hacking into it. :(

That's surely malicious and criminal damage. Yes, but try proving it, the local scalls will no doubt conveniently get the blame.

They own the building.
It's not Listed.
They only need to say something stupid like the plasterwork wasn't safe.
All the decorations in the waiting room (possibly the only one in the country) were pulled off, because they suffered from "damp", yet they were all on interior walls! :disgust:
This sort of deliberate vandalism is not new - the interior of the Odeon in Manchester was smashed so it couldn't be Listed.

disgusting :disgust: :(

They own the building.
It's not Listed.
They only need to say something stupid like the plasterwork wasn't safe.
All the decorations in the waiting room (possibly the only one in the country) were pulled off, because they suffered from "damp", yet they were all on interior walls! :disgust:
This sort of deliberate vandalism is not new - the interior of the Odeon in Manchester was smashed so it couldn't be Listed.

It just defies belief that people are this ignorant!

as you say Daisychains, it's unbelievable that they would still be destroying stuff like this - in this day and age when we are supposed to be so much more sensitive to our historical buildings. :rolleyes:

as you say Daisychains, it's unbelievable that they would still be destroying stuff like this - in this day and age when we are supposed to be so much more sensitive to our historical buildings. :rolleyes:

here here!

The city council is a joke. I went to see the plans and the info on Sandfield Tower on Monday at Millennium House and it was full of reports from poeple trying to demolish it - most of the archives were more concerned with a garden wall that had been knocked down rather than the bloody house itself!

The city council is a joke. I went to see the plans and the info on Sandfield Tower on Monday at Millennium House and it was full of reports from poeple trying to demolish it - most of the archives were more concerned with a garden wall that had been knocked down rather than the bloody house itself!

I know what you mean.
It's probably PC to shed Crocodile Tears over something that's already been demolished.
And it's so much easier than actually doing a bit of work to decide how to save what's left.

When I was living in Liverpool a surprising number of listed buildings were destroyed by fire. The excuse given was that it was "caused by the rats".

All we could think was that the rats were rubbing their legs together and starting a fire.

Hello Danensis. Welcome. Did you see the 'now' shots i put up of a couple of your old Albert dock photies?

Preservation move threat to £100m Hope Street revamp
Feb 26 2008
by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

DOUBTS were raised yesterday about the future of a £100m Liverpool development, as a former hospital central in the plans achieved listed status.

Campaigners submitted an application to English Heritage to list two buildings on Hope Street – including former homeopathic hospital the Hahnemann Building – which are currently subject to plans for conversion into a boutique hotel, apartments and shops.

The Hahnemann has now been granted Grade II listed status but Maghull Developments, which has put forward a planning application for the part demolition and part conversion are confident the listing will not affect a planning committee decision due today.

The three storey building was built in 1886-7 and was designed by architects F&G Holme and funded by Sir Henry Tate as a free gift to Liverpool citizens.

It was originally called the Liverpool Hahnemann Hospital and Dispensary, being renamed the Liverpool Homeopathic Hospital in 1948.

In recent years it was used as part of Liverpool JMU’s School of Art and Design.

The current plans would convert the building into a hotel with restaurant, bar, spa and conference facilities. This would involve its partial demolition.

Campaigners are now waiting to hear whether a application to list neighbouring Josephine Butler House, also included in the development plans, has been successful.

It was formerly the Radium Institute, and was one of the first places in the country for patients to receive cancer treatments.

Cllr Berni Turner, executive member for the Environment said: “When I saw the plans for the Hahnemann Building I, along with Cllr Flo Clucas, immediately contacted English Heritage to see if we could get this amazing building listed.

“It was the first homeopathic dispensary in the country and the second homeopathic hospital and we do not want to lose a building with an amazing history such as that.

“We have been supported by Save Our City and other organisations and this success in safeguarding part of our history shows the value to the city of having a champion for the historic environment.

“Now we are campaigning to have Josephine Butler House, which is threatened with demolition, listed.”

But Mike Hanlon, managing director of Maghull Developments is confident the development will still go ahead.

He said: “We welcome the news that the Hahnemann building has been granted Grade II listed status and we have worked closely with the local planning authority, conservation officer, Victorian Society and English Heritage for two years to secure this.

“We presented our scheme to the city council planning officers on the basis that the building already had listed status.

“We feel confident that our plans will enhance the Hope Street area in general.”

Wayne Colquhoun, chair of Liverpool Preservation Trust added: “We need some kind of heritage bureau to make sure buildings like this are not threatened in the first place.”

Source: Liverpool Daily Post (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/02/26/preservation-move-threat-to-100m-hope-street-revamp-64375-20523321/)

cancel

Building listed in move on heritage
Feb 26 2008
by Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/liverpoolecho/nov2007/3/9/8B689F0B-0461-E518-F3BA6DE90D9ABBCC.jpg

A FORMER hospital building at the heart of a £100m city centre development has been listed.

The Hahnemann building, in Hope Street, is earmarked to become a boutique hotel, with a modern extension.

But Liverpool council’s request to have the 120-year-old building listed was granted yesterday by English Heritage, which awarded it Grade II status.

The decision will make it more difficult for owner Maghull Developments to demolish or dramatically alter any part of the former homeopathic hospital.

Councillors were due to make a decision on the scheme today.

ECHO columnist Laurence Westgaph has called for the city to “fight tooth and nail” to protect it.

Source: Liverpool Echo (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/02/26/building-listed-in-move-on-heritage-100252-20523218/)

Demolition fears grow as developers move in on ‘iconic’ Victorian building
Mar 3 2008
by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/article/20031701/2008/03/03/12105667.jpeg

FEARS have been raised that one of Liverpool’s architectural gems is being destroyed without planning permission.

Scaffolding, rubble and a skip have appeared outside Josephine Butler House on Hope Street, just over a week before a planning application is due to be heard.

Riverside councillor Steve Munby accused building company Maghull Group Ltd of starting to demolish the 1861 building, which has been put forward for listed building status, before planning consent had been given.

He said: “It’s scandalous they are knocking down the building before the listed building status or planning application is decided.”

More (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/03/03/demolition-fears-grow-as-developers-move-in-on-iconic-victorian-building-64375-20549239/)...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2052/2193178926_d602e4bf41_o.jpg

Unfortunately, despite Liverpool claiming to have "More Listed buildings than Bath", too many suitable candidates aren't Listed, and there aren't enough people who really care.
English Heritage should be bombarded with local buildings which should be Listed in this COC year, because any building that isn't Listed can be demolished with LCC incapable of doing anything.
The buildings will then remain long after 2008.
It's too late to wait until the building is threatened.

There's another application for the housing development on the site of the (to be demolished) Bedford cinema tomorrow.
In this case, EH won't list it.

Josephine Butler House: From what I can see, the yellow brickwork on the front has now been destroyed (by power-tools, by the sound of it).

Oh Dear, COC is going to be known as the year when Liverpool was completely powerless to protect its own buildings, without English Heritage's help.

One good piece of news.
The Jewish Synagogue in Prince's Avenue has been raised to Grade I Listed status.
The highest there is.

Oh Dear, COC is going to be known as the year when Liverpool was completely powerless to protect its own buildings, without English Heritage's help.

One good piece of news.
The Jewish Synagogue in Prince's Avenue has been raised to Grade I Listed status.
The highest there is.

when I was in junior school we had a Jewish teacher and she arranged a class trip there to show us a different culture. it was a beautiful building as I recall so that's excellent news.

The Josephine Butler building should have had applications to list it earlier, though the ones that have been have been knocked back???? - Why???

I hope Maghull developments do as they say and keep the facade at least.

The front of Josephine Butler House, earlier today:

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/south_liverpool/JBH_brickwork.jpg

The front of Josephine Butler House, earlier today:

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/south_liverpool/JBH_brickwork.jpg

words fail me :disgust:

Liverpool, Capital of Vandalism
The supposed city of culture has in fact been pulling down its great Victorian buildings
March 8, 2008
Tristram Hunt

Amid the elegant Georgian terraces that run off Hanover Street, rising up the hill from Canning Dock, you can still get a sense of Liverpool's mercantile past: a lost age of transatlantic trade, civic pride and merchant princes. And just as Liverpool celebrates this proud heritage as European Capital of Culture, the council is cynically signing off on agreeing to the demolition of three of these Grade II listed houses - numbers 68, 70 and 72 Seel Street - for a shoddy new development. Learning nothing from its postwar history, Merseyside is in danger of turning into the Capital of Dereliction as town hall leaders sanction another assault on its architectural fabric.

By far the most elegiac and anger-inducing publication of recent months has been Gavin Stamp's Britain's Lost Cities. Stamp painfully outlines the postwar loss of Britain's urban civilisation and, in doing so, nails the lie that the German Luftwaffe was primarily responsible. Instead, it was the love of the motor car, rise of the town planner, arrival of Le Corbusier's Continental Modernism and an ugly animus for history that did for our regional centres.

“Behind all this,” Stamp writes of England's northern cities, “there was a sense of shame about the industrial past, a visceral and blinkered rejection of the dark but substantial legacy of the Victorians that could amount to little more than civic self-hatred and which resulted in relentless destruction.” Sadly, that shame still lingers.

From Plymouth to Coventry, Glasgow to Worcester, grandiose city plans were published that bulldozed the old and, in its place, laid out arterial roads, car parks, mass-production housing and shopping centres. “Cities must be extricated from their misery, come what may,” came Le Corbusier's battle cry. “Whole quarters of them must be destroyed and new cities built.” And so in Birmingham, the Central Library, Pugin's Bishop's House and the Market Hall fell victim to the Inner Ring Road. In Hull, almost all the dock warehouses, Georgian chapels and Victorian churches were destroyed in the name of postwar regeneration. But few cities suffered as much as Liverpool.

Between August 9, 1940, and May 9, 1941, Merseyside endured 68 air raids gutting much of the historic neighbourhood surrounding the docks. By far the worst architectural victim was John Foster's Greek revival Custom House, a testament to Liverpool's 19th-century ambition to play the Athens of the North: a city of commerce and culture reflected in an uniformly classical urban aesthetic. But rather than rebuilding this shattered civic icon, the postwar planners opted for demolition. It was a decision that set the tone for the ensuing decades of planning terror as dock warehouses, stuccoed Regency houses and elegant piazzas fell victim to the ring-roads and clearances.

Fifty years on, now that Liverpool basks in its status as Capital of Culture, one might have thought the demolitions would ease up. Yet rather than commemorating its extraordinary civic inheritance, the planners are repeating the mistakes of their postwar predecessors. For as Liverpool's prosperity accelerates, the council is still prone to dismiss its marvellous historic fabric as an impediment to growth.

Under the past ten years of control by the Liberal Democrats, some 36 listed buildings have been lost to the bulldozers. Whereas Merseyside once enjoyed a Georgian building stock comparable to Bath, what little remains is now under threat. In addition to the terraces of Seel Street, there are numerous properties in Duke Street, Dale Street and Great George Square - as well as such listed landmark churches as St Luke's, Berry Street and St Andrew's - equally at risk. And that is excluding the Toxteth terraces and Welsh Street houses that remain under planning blight.

The difference this time is that the threat comes as much from property developers, whose lawyers and bully-boy chicanery runs rings round council officers, as grandiose redevelopment schemes. But the results are the same as buildings slip into disrepair, night-time demolitions “happen” and inexplicable planning permissions are granted.

Unfairly, Liverpool has often been accused of wallowing in the past. If only it did. Today what every successful city requires, in the competition for new businesses and graduate residents, is a sense of place and authenticity that can only come from the historic fabric, architecture and attitude of its streets and spaces. The postwar redevelopment of Merseyside did everything it could to destroy that civic identity. If the choice facing the Capital of Culture this year is between the 1820s and 1950s, then it must save the Georgian terraces and ease up on any more Modernist monstrosities.

Tristram Hunt is author of Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City

Source: Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3507204.ece)

£100m Hope Street regeneration plan at risk after listing row
Mar 12 2008
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

A MAJOR £100m development, in Liverpool’s historic Hope Street, was dealt a blow yesterday after the city’s planning committee said it was minded to refuse a key element.

Maghull Developments was seeking permission for four applications in the street, but had angered councillors by “hacking off the front” of Josephine Butler House last week after campaigners had requested it be listed.

More (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/03/12/100m-hope-street-regeneration-plan-at-risk-after-listing-row-64375-20609714/)...

Couldn't agree more. Considering the criteria listing status has to meet, I wonder how properties suddenly become de-listed and demolished so easily. There should be something in place whereby if a property is given listed status, the owners then have a given amount of time to bring it upto scratch (if it isn't already) and cannot allow it to fall into disrepair (in which case it automatically falls into the hands of the council)

Paul 'the Gardens' (A member here) and I were showing the Gardens of Stone film to an audience again last night, and they couldn't get over how communities and buildings were just bulldozed in the name of 'progress' which more often than not just means new road schemes. Council residents have long been cannon fodder, the 2nd Mersey tunnel crossing could well have been at Aigburth if it weren't for the anticipated objections and legal wrangling overs CPO's which were not a problem in the north end. Flyovers, internal mini motoways, 6 lane dual carriageways - the time machine scenario where everything was demolished and rebuilt and all of a sudden all this new major traffic with the world and his dog passing your door.

The ropewalks area should be retained, or at least the facades (like I notice they're doing with a block on Seel St) at all costs and if that means telling developers that that's what they've got to do then so be it.

One of the biggest crimes was to demolish Emmanual-Everton on West Derby Road for the new inner ring road.

What happened? The inner ring road was shot and this is now an empty piece of land. :rolleyes:

I passed Josephine Butler House a couple of times, and they were trying to smash as much as they could. Yesterday and today, the workmen had vanished. They had managed to smash two sides of the building and left a couple of piles of yellow bricks on the floor. What they couldn't remove, such as large sand-stone blocks around the entrance, they just drilled chunks out of. This shows what kind of developer Maghull Developments are. All perfecly legal, of course.

Seel Street: I noticed one of the Listed Buildings has gone completely, and a couple of others look like they'll be next (the ones surrounded by red steel supports)

I thought those red steel supports were to keep the facades up whilst rebuilding the rears.

There doesn't seem much left of those buildings on Seel Street. I was there on Sunday, when one had gone completely. The other 2 still had some of the facade standing. Time to get one last look of those buildings.

I got them on sat. Look better from the rear actually as that steelwork just obscures them.

City ‘no’ on £100m dream for Hope St
Mar 12 2008
by Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

A MULTI-million pound plan to transform Liverpool’s Hope Street has been dealt a massive blow.

Councillors said they wanted to reject a crucial part of a £100m scheme to create new flats, shops, offices and a boutique hotel in the historic city centre road yesterday.

They were unhappy with a proposal to demolish Josephine Butler House, at the same junction as the Philharmonic Hall, and replace it with shops and offices.

Owner Maghull Developments sparked anger by starting to demolish the existing building last week, when heritage campaigners still hoped to have it listed.

More (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/03/12/city-no-on-100m-dream-for-hope-st-100252-20609851/)...

This attack on the Josephine Butler House comes hot on the heels of the hammering away at the facade of the former Bedford Cinema at Christmas.
The Chair of the Planning Committee said he was "Bloody annoyed" at the destruction of the Bedford, which sounded like strong language to me.
However, English Heritage wouldn't list the Bedford, and now won't list the JB House, and, as we've learned, unListed buildings can be demolished at any time.
All the Planning Committee can do is refuse the application, and even if they refuse the application for the Bedford site it looks like it's going to be an empty plot after Easter.

Those 3 Listed Buildings in Seel Street have now all been demolished.

The changing face of Liverpool
Mar 22 2008
by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

With Liverpool undergoing huge regeneration, Peter Elson meets the men deciding the balance between redevelopment and preserving our heritage.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/article/20031701/2008/03/21/12118113.jpeg

NEW town blues was a phase in popular use a few decades ago to describe the despair those poor residents felt about being shipped out of old towns to live in planned developments.

The only problems about these postwar urban utopias for their decanted populations were their inevitable isolation and, more visibly, their completely soulless atmosphere and utterly bland appearance.

What difference between Runcorn or Harlow? Kirkby or Cumbernauld?

How lucky for those that remained behind to continue enjoying the buzz and vibrant personality of a great city like Liverpool, where its many layers of development sit cheek-by-jowel, accumulated over several centuries.

There was no chance that a new town, built from scratch in a few years, could possibly accumulate the richness and diversity of a long-established city created on a piecemeal basis.

But old towns are far from immune from having their buildings redeveloped and replaced.

They, too, can suffer from a new syndrome related to new town blues, namely clone-town Britain, in which everywhere in the country is now resembling everywhere else due to comprehensive redevelopment.

And Liverpool is now joining this trend at a rapid pace. As the city has enjoyed an economic revival, developers have arrived chasing the money.

Nothing like this has been seen in the previous three decades. Missing out on the 1980s Thatcherite economic revival due to the Militant Labour council’s policies, you have to go back to the mid-1960s – early 1970s for a comparable upheaval in the city’s redevelopment.

Commentators have joked that Militant’s deputy council leader Derek Hatton by default did more for Liverpool’s conservation than any other figure.

Everybody is far from happy about this headlong rush to grab swathes of elderly buildings. All too soon these are reduced to rubble and replaced with bland glass, steel and concrete buildings in a style dubbed “cowshed architecture”.

There is far-ranging concern by groups such as Merseyside Civic Society that Liverpool’s hard-won (and potentially priceless) accolade as a World Heritage Site could be lost by reckless redevelopment.

One of the most vocal opponents is Wayne Colquhoun, founder and chairman of Liverpool Preservation Trust, who conducted a walk for the Daily Post around what he feared is the city’s most threatened Georgian building stock.

Keen to reassure the panicking public that all is not lost – or sinking fast into oblivion – Nigel Lee, Liverpool’s planning manager, and Henry Owen-John, English Heritage’s north west planning and development director, based in Manchester, requested a similar opportunity.

“I’m comfortable with looking after the city’s essential characteristics, looking at how you preserve significant buildings as well as accommodating new development,” states Nigel.

“Trying to keep the urban townscape while meeting the new office standards is very difficult. Often ceilings in old buildings are too low to take all the services now needed and it’s a big job finding new uses.

“We’ve seen Tower Buildings and the Albany go over to flat use and Westminster Chambers in Dale Street is undergoing restoration, but we need to keep supply and demand stable.”

Starting off from the council’s Millennium House, Dale Street (which contains Nigel’s office), we agree this is a successful refurbishment of old facades (including the former Daily Post office) with new infills.

Unfortunately, round the corner in Sir Thomas Street we’re immediately faced with what many Liverpudlians consider a catastrophic blunder.

Liverpool’s last complete street of Victorian office facades was forever spoilt when developer Illiad was allowed by both city council and English Heritage to demolish No 6, leaving a great gaping hole.

However, soon after conservationists called for English Heritage to reassess the situation, the building’s decorative stonework was mutilated , as witnessed by city council leader Cllr Warren Bradley, from his office opposite.

Illiad intend to insert a trendy glass-fronted atrium onto No 6’s site as part of its plan to create a new hotel which includes the former Municipal Annexe.

“We’d come to the initial conclusion that No 6 was not listable, as it’s the only brick facade in a row of stone ones,” says Henry.

“We agreed to demolition and then received request for a spot-listing, which is very difficult to deal with late in the day.

“The connectivity between the buildings is difficult and we understand Illiad’s problem with the old structure on this sloping sight and how a new building would resolve it.”

He denies that English Heritage bureaucrats are too slow to get off the mark, while quick-thinking developers run rings around them.

Nigel, who comes from Tuebrook and pledges his deep devotion to Liverpool, says: “You’ve got to go back 10 years and remember how dilapidated and derelict buildings were. We were losing historic buildings all over the show.”

Henry adds: “Some regeneration schemes are not to everyone’s taste, but we were actually losing old buildings because nobody was coming forward with schemes. Now we’re dealing with the problems of success.”

Henry extracts a piece of paper on which he has laboriously written out criticisms of the Royal Liver Building when new. Neil Gladstone despises it as “monstrous” and Prof Charles Reilly complains of its “lack of harmony”. Previously Sir James Picton dismissed Albert Dock as “a naked pile of bricks”.

What is Henry’s purpose in this? He says: “Major change will always be controversial and few people will share their views now.”

Yet if Gladstone, Picton and Reilly knew about Liverpool’s widespread redevelopment they’d be spinning faster in their graves than gas turbines on full throttle.

The Pier Head is undergoing fundamental change as the controversial new Museum of Liverpool rears up Leviathan-like, along with a new Mersey Ferries riverfront block. The new canal link across it removes vital public green space.

Both the new Museum scheme and ferries block, already completely transforming the city’s world famous river frontage, only went through on the casting vote of Lady Doreen Jones, the former planning committee chair.

The Museum scheme involved demolition of Voss Motors, Mann Island, by Herbert Rowse, Liverpool’s most talented and famous architect.

“It wasn’t one of his best buildings and couldn’t be incorporated into the new scheme,” says Henry. “We’ve worked hard to keep important sight-lines between new buildings,” explains Henry.

In fact, it’s incredible this was allowed to happen. The English Heritage-listed Mersey Railway pumping station is untouchable in the midst of the scheme which will see three black-granite clad apartment blocks rear up on Mann Island.

If so much as a potting shed by architects Wren or Lutyens were touched in southern England there would be hysteria in the national press.

The new Liverpool of towering high rise has not been kept away from the historic city core, as in London, at Canary Wharf.

Meanwhile, Grosvenor’s vast Liverpool One retail development and regeneration around the Ropewalks/Duke Street area put increasing pressure on another area of historic properties.

“We’re very concerned about this. I get very angry and frustrated with the big property owners who don’t respond to our advice and warnings and are determined to go-ahead with their schemes,” says Nigel.

He chews his gum harder than ever and says: “I feel like a spinning top. If I advise refusal of permission to redevelop, the Daily Post business pages accuse me of stifling regeneration.

“If I give the go-ahead to new schemes then the conservationists are jumping up and down accusing me of destroying Liverpool’s heritage. It’s a no-win situation.”

peter.elson@dailypost.co.uk

Source: Liverpool Daily Post (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2008/03/22/the-changing-face-of-liverpool-64375-20658839/)

1. Hillfoot Lodge Camphill Road built 1840. 2. Ashton Square Woolton built late 1700s. Even the cobbles on the footpath are listed!

:handclap: Excellent Chris

D-Day for decision on controversial demolition of historic building to make way for shops and offices
Apr 8 2008
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/liverpoolpost/nov2007/6/0/8B002916-AFEB-41EC-8B557029B5D14EDD.jpg

COUNCILLORS will today decide whether to stop the demolition of a historic Liverpool building for the creation of a retail and office development.

Last month angry members of Liverpool’s planning committee said they were minded to refuse Maghull Developments permission to demolish Josephine Butler House, at the junction of Myrtle Street and Hope Street.

More (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/04/08/d-day-for-decision-on-controversial-demolition-of-historic-building-to-make-way-for-shops-and-offices-64375-20733169/)...

Campaigners lose battle to save historic city centre building
Apr 9 2008
by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

A HISTORIC Myrtle Street building will be flattened after a £60m development was finally rubber stamped for the site yesterday.

Josephine Butler House – a former laying-in hospital dating back to 1867 – will be replaced with a six-storey block of offices, shops and restaurants.

The proposed building was yesterday labelled by heritage campaigners as more befitting for Milton Keynes than Liverpool’s Georgian quarter.

More (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/04/09/campaigners-lose-battle-to-save-historic-city-centre-building-64375-20738858/)...

Listing status scuppers plan for student flats
Apr 9 2008
by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

PLANNERS yesterday threw out an application to demolish the Gregson Memorial Institute on Garmoyle Road, Wavertree after the building was granted Grade II listing in February.

Trustees of the building had applied to knock it down and build 20 one-bedroom student flats in its place. But the Department for Culture Media and Sport listed the building on advice from English Heritage.

English Heritage’s report pointed to its eclectic style, individual design and rich interior decor.

It says the Gregson can boast Old English, Arts & Crafts, and Baroque influences.

It was built in 1895 by designer A P Fry who was commissioned by Isabella Gregson. It is thought Isabella was the granddaughter of Matthew Gregson, who helped develop the Blue Coat School, the Liverpool Library and the Botanic Gardens.

Source: Liverpool Daily Post (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/04/09/listing-status-scuppers-plan-for-student-flats-64375-20738856/)

Vulcan Street warehouse (on the Dock Road) has been Listed. The Liverpool Echo states it was one of the first fire-proof buildings built.

The owner, Rob Ainsworth of The Liverpool Heritage Society is a very decent chap indeed, I wish him all the luck in the world, he'll need it with that council. When they have a self inflicted 60m shortfall though, the likes of statues for Chavasse, Epstein or old buildings like this will sadly be bottom of their agenda.

Hi Ged.
I've Googled Rob Ainsworth and found the above.

Greg's Dad.
I didn't know your famous photo of St George's Place had been issued as a postcard?
http://www.liverpoolhistorysociety.org.uk/liverpool_postcards.htm