Grotspots

[Kev]

TEN eyesore buildings were today unveiled as top priorities for a pre-Capital of Culture spring clean.

Officials chose a set of grotty locations to spearhead plans to brighten up Liverpool before the start of 2008.

They want to make sure the city is looking its best for the showcase year, when hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected to visit.

Cleaning up or disguising rundown, boarded-up buildings is a key part of the Look Of The City project.

Liverpool council has now chosen the 10 premises it will target under the £4m programme.

They include the former ABC cinema in Lime Street, and the old TGWU headquarters in Commutation Row.

Some of the sites are earmarked for complete redevelopment in the future, but city leaders want them made more presentable in the meantime.

Other elements of Look Of The City will see dirty pavements steam-cleaned, litter hotspots blitzed and streets decked out with colourful flags and banners.

Unadopted roads through Sefton Park, currently riddled with potholes, will also be relaid before 2008.

City’s top 10 targeted

1. West Lime Street

NOW – Shutters and boarded-up shop fronts painted, Las Vegas sign removed, pavements washed.

LATER - Complete redevelopment, hopefully starting in 2009.

2. Former ABC cinema, Lime Street

NOW - Facade cleaned, illuminated sign reinstated, entrance boarded up, broken windows repaired.

LATER - Developer sought to refurbish building.

3. Kensington Fields community centre, Hall Lane

NOW - Doors and windows replaced, kickabout area resurfaced, landscaping improved.

LATER - Ongoing refurbishment.

4. Kingston House, The Strand

NOW - Hopefully demolition of building in November-March.

LATER - New commercial development, possibly starting before end of 2008.

5. Islington and Moss Street

NOW/LATER - Council taking action to make landowners improve properties.

6. Former Yates’ wine lodge, West Moorfields

NOW - Yates’ building used for Turning The Place Over artwork, car park fenced off, short-term improvements to Moorfields station.

LATER - Yates’ and car park could be sold for new office development in two or three years’ time.

7. TGWU, Commutation Row

NOW - Doors secured and painted, forecourt cleared.

LATER - Could be sold to new buyer for refurbishment next year.

8. Gregson’s Well pub, Low Hill

NOW/LATER - Council taking enforcement action to make owner improve property.

9. Norton’s scrap yard, Parliament Street

NOW - Signs removed, walls made good, new adverts in place.

LATER - Potential for 20-floor tower of apartments

10. Islington car park, Islington

NOW - Council-owned section resurfaced, fence put up, new pay & display.

LATER - Talks about future operation of park.

WHAT do YOU think is the worst grot spot in Liverpool?

The worst is Concourse House.

[taffy]

I've always thought that grot building on Hawke St behind the Adelphi Hotel should be demolished. Prime land right in the centre of Liverpool going to waste.

[Ged]

Not on that list but I believe the King Eddy pub has now gone.

[snappel]

It's interesting how the pre-CoC 'clean up' focuses solely on the town centre (ok, Hall Lane is a little way out, but even so...). It just seems to cosmetic and pretend, like sweeping rubbish under the carpet. What about the rest of the city? These aren't 'grot spots' compared so some of the areas of Kirkdale, Kensington and Toxteth that I've been through.

[iain]

Since I've been in Liverpool there's been a run-down place on Smithdown Road, opposite Asda, proper tatty shop fronts (one was still open for a long time) and paint flaking off the whole wall. A few months back it was painted head-to-toe black, and it's hardly an attraction but it's a whole lot better now, nowhere near as tatty. A shame though they got rid of "Gerry The Fridge Man"

One of the most direct routes in to town from the M62 is Edge Lane - if you didn't go down Edge Lane but went down Wavertree Road instead, you'd come across The Botanic Pub, a near shell after much fire damage.

Do the council think that visitors will shut their eyes until they get in to town?

Originally Posted by Cadfael

One of the most direct routes in to town from the M62 is Edge Lane - if you didn't go down Edge Lane but went down Wavertree Road instead, you'd come across The Botanic Pub, a near shell after much fire damage.

Do the council think that visitors will shut their eyes until they get in to town?

Burnt out Ale ouses are common across the city. On my bus route home there is a big pub called the Royal in Bank Hall Terrible! Another one is the Crown on the East Lancs where someone wanted to build apartments and the council knocked them back!!!
Is it really beyond the councils ken to do something about these things?

[iain]

There was one in St Helens a while back. In just a couple of years it went from a lively little local to closed up, then boarded up, then burnt out, then finally demolished. Never went in there, but still sad to see it go in that way

[Ged]

A lone man with a little hammer working on demolishing some of the first floor walls of a derelict property in Moss Street yesterday. At that rate it'll still be there next year.