What do people think of Dale Street?

It has some of the best Victorian architecture in the UK but personally I think it is a moribund street.

Would it benefit from a revamp? Trees perhaps?

The lower end by Hatton garden has the magnificent Municipal Buildings but over the road are boarded up terraces and the tatty row by Jamaica House.

Further up the road the old Insurance building lies empty and would look great done up.

I also would love to see State House demolished and that corner with North john Street redeveloped.

Need to sort out the bits you mentioned. Think having trees would cut out the view of the town hall if looking towards it.

Vernon Arms needs to be sorted out as well, as the owners who closed it have done bugger all with it (think they got refused permission to do whatever with it)

I love the history of Dale Street, one of Liverpool's original seven streets (http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3081)

What do people think of Dale Street?

It has some of the best Victorian architecture in the UK but personally I think it is a moribund st,

I'm just pleased to see someone apart from me use the word Moribund.
I get horripilation when I see the language abused. :PDT_Aliboronz_24:

Plain english was 'invented' by a woman from Toxteth. Don't always use it myself though been described as long winded on more than one occasion!!:ninja:

I have memories of Parades along Dale Street from the Town Hall to Lime Street and St Georges Plateau.
The pavements of Dale Street were thronged with people, balconies of the buildings full of bunting and "ticker tape" style paper being thrown down on us. We also had 'scallies' them days, with bags of flower being thrown down on us. It was all taken in good fun though.
It must have been sometime around VE day because I remember Army tanks, Barrage ballons, along with men from all three services lined up on outside St Georges Hall.
Am I alone with these memories or was anyone else there who remembers ??

Phredd

Plain english was 'invented' by a woman from Toxteth. Don't always use it myself though been described as long winded on more than one occasion!!:ninja:

Suburban,
If you are referring to the woman who had the gobbledegook taken out of govt. forms and replaced with plain English she was from Tuebrook, her name is Chrissy Maher, she started years ago when I lived in Tuebrook by starting a local rag called the bugle,
Google her, she has traveled the world lecturing and had many awards for her efforts, she is an interesting subject, check her out. I'm not sure if she is still alive, she would be very old if she is. She is older than me and I'm ancient.

oh thanks for the info--cheers!:handclap:

I'm just pleased to see someone apart from me use the word Moribund.
I get horripilation when I see the language abused. :PDT_Aliboronz_24:

ha,ha, I had to get my dictionary out for this one Shytalk - - it means, hair standing on end as in goosebumps :D

What do people think of Dale Street?

It has some of the best Victorian architecture in the UK but personally I think it is a moribund street.

Would it benefit from a revamp? Trees perhaps?

The lower end by Hatton garden has the magnificent Municipal Buildings but over the road are boarded up terraces and the tatty row by Jamaica House.

Further up the road the old Insurance building lies empty and would look great done up.

I also would love to see State House demolished and that corner with North john Street redeveloped.


can agree that those bits need improving.

Not sure about the trees though. I can't envisage trees in Dale st.

ONE of Liverpool’s most historic warehouses is to be demolished after being declared unsafe.

Jamaica House, a white rendered building on the corner of Dale Street and Vernon Street, is likely to be knocked down in the next few days after its condition deteriorated to a dangerous extent.

Liverpool council says it has made several attempts to save the building, but its owners claim bureaucracy has made it impossible for them to carry out any work.

A Dangerous Structures Notice under the Building Act was served on the current owners, Mr and Mrs Colin Walker, of Ormskirk, and Paul Harrison, of St Helens, who acquired the building in 2004.

Built around 1800 as a warehouse for wines and spirits at the time of a road widening scheme for Dale Street, it is one of only a handful of surviving Georgian buildings on the street. It is also one of the earliest surviving purpose-built warehouses in the city.

By 1845, it had become the premises for German clock and watch makers Selb and Morath, later becoming Morath Brothers Jewellers, who continued to occupy the building into the 1950s.

The building was included in the council’s heritage grant programme, but a possible offer of grant funding for repairs was not taken up.

During the past month, urgent works powers by the council were abandoned after conservation engineers from English Heritage and the council concluded the building had become too unsafe to work in and too unstable to prop up.

Cllr Berni Turner, executive member environment and heritage, said: “This is a very disappointing outcome for this building, and one which we made every effort to avoid.

“We wanted to preserve this building, but the responsibility for its condition rested with its owners, who steadfastly refused to maintain it to the standards it deserved, and allowed it to deteriorate to the point were it was not safe.

“A piece of Liverpool’s heritage is going because of the failure of owners to face up to their responsibilities.

“It also highlights the fact that councils should be given greater powers and more resources to intervene in cases of significant buildings which are not listed but are at risk.”

However, co-owner Colin Walker claims they have made every effort to try and save the building. He said: “We bought the building because we were told we could get grant funding. However, the way it is allocated means the value of the finished building would be £200,000 less than we had spent on it – this is just not viable.

“We have tried to sort out the issues and have been negotiating since we bought the building, but to no avail.

“We could still be out of pocket, but do own the freehold, so may build a new sympathetic structure, in keeping with the conservation area.”

lizawilliams - Liverpool Echo

This "Dangerous Structure" excuse is used far too often, in order to demolish a historic building.
Couldn't it have been Compulsory Purchased by the Council?

Another building bites the dust and it's feet away from the Council offices. We really are the laughing stock of the world when it comes to saving buildings. A historic landmark going either to make way for a new shop or perhaps the person in charge of looking after this building was too busy trying to buy new kerb stones to make our city look good :rolleyes:

I went to Dale St. nearly every day many years ago to visit Moore & Sons
camera shop to buy my film,paper and chemicals during my lunch break.
I bought a couple of second hand cameras off them. They would let me try
them out for a few days before buying.There was no hire purchase signed
they just gave me a club card and I paid £1 a week. It was next door but
one to the police station, it`s now a sandwich bar. That was in the 60`s
and I still have the cameras in working order.

gregs dad
my flickr site; http://www.flickr.com/photos/exacta2a/

Anyone got a picture of the actual building? I'll need to pray that it's still standing by Monday so I can snap it!

Jamaica House was still there tonight, among several derelict/for sale properties. It's not surrounded by any hoardings yet.

Any pics of Jamaica House, can't picture it in my mind.

Any pics of Jamaica House, can't picture it in my mind.

Monday 3rd December 2007.

http://www.liverpoolviews.co.uk/dale/dale/2007/bds0312071.jpg

Monday 3rd December 2007.

http://www.liverpoolviews.co.uk/dale/dale/2007/bds0312073.jpg

I took one look at the rain and thought 'not a chance' - not the prettiest of buildings I'll grant you and probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for the press.

I took one look at the rain and thought 'not a chance' - not the prettiest of buildings I'll grant you and probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for the press.

Chicken!

:)

Hey ADW - has one of your pics, a close up of the door on the corner disappeared - where's that Tom Slemen when you need him?

Hey ADW - has one of your pics, a close up of the door on the corner disappeared - where's that Tom Slemen when you need him?

:)

Monday 3rd December 2007.

http://www.liverpoolviews.co.uk/dale/dale/2007/bds0312072.jpg

:)

It doesn't look anything like a warehouse to me, which the building next door obviously was, and the next block - with 3 storeys - are older.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2093/2083620009_1f39ef8c7d_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2084407144_6c4b1883f7_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2227/2083620583_0faae7b461_o.jpg

The same building as viewed from the Municiple Buildings Tower:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff183/cadfael1976/108_0803.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff183/cadfael1976/108_0804.jpg

^^^^

Those windows need a good clean!!

:PDT_Xtremez_42:

I'm really sad to hear this building is to be demolished. My interest is that I've recently thought I'd like to buy an antique clock with a Liverpool connection and noticed on websites that Morath Brothers were a leading Liverpool clockmaker and retailer for many decades - they were based in this building. If you put Morath and "clock" into Google you'll find loads of old clocks, including some splendid antiques. I think they were German brothers who imported most of their clocks. I knew they were based at 71 Dale St and recently wandered down to look at it. It's in a sorry state, as the photos show, although if you look carefully at the side wall (on Vernon St) you can still dimly see - through the plaster - a painted sign saying something like "Clock and Watchmakers etc". Imagine what it must have been like inside that building in say 1900 when it was a leading clock dealer... A bit of the city's history is about to disappear.

About a third of Jamaica House had been demolished, when I passed it this morning.

I'm really sad to hear this building is to be demolished. My interest is that I've recently thought I'd like to buy an antique clock with a Liverpool connection and noticed on websites that Morath Brothers were a leading Liverpool clockmaker and retailer for many decades - they were based in this building. If you put Morath and "clock" into Google you'll find loads of old clocks, including some splendid antiques. I think they were German brothers who imported most of their clocks. I knew they were based at 71 Dale St and recently wandered down to look at it. It's in a sorry state, as the photos show, although if you look carefully at the side wall (on Vernon St) you can still dimly see - through the plaster - a painted sign saying something like "Clock and Watchmakers etc". Imagine what it must have been like inside that building in say 1900 when it was a leading clock dealer... A bit of the city's history is about to disappear.

Hi Jonty

I am also sorry to hear about this demolition.

It could be that this part of town had a number of clock or watch makers at one time, as like trades often congregated in certain sections of towns in earlier centuries. John Wyke (1729-1787), who gave his name to Wyke's Court, had property where the Magistrate's Court is now located on Dale Street, and a historical marker records that fact (see below; the back of this building, the former bridewell, can be seen in one of Cadfael's shots from the tower of Municipal Buildings). Wyke, a watch and clock toolmaker in Liverpool and Prescot, was the first English manufacturer to produce an illustrated catalogue of his wares.

Chris

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1060/527622410_5ec99f362e_b.jpg

What a depressing view. Two hundred years old or not I cannot see any beauty in the Jamaica House building and think it right to remove it. In fact that end of dale street is tatty and those squalid buildings with tacky artwork on should also be torn down and put something bright and glassy in its place.:034:

Jamaica House Gone, 12/01/08

http://www.militaryimages.net/ims/pic/5JMbGx/130.jpg

I have an old photo of Dale St from 1890s on Flickr showing the Vernon arms.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackamanfan/2185019739/

The site where the building stood looks as bad as the derelict buliding!! Let's hope something is done with this eyesore and soon!!

The site where the building stood looks as bad as the derelict buliding!! Let's hope something is done with this eyesore and soon!!

I Agree, even if it's just a coat of paint, at least it would look ok.