Views of the Anglican Cathedral 6

http://www.chesterwalls.info/gallery...somalidoor.jpg

The enormous tower of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral dominates the landscape of the south end of the city.
Here it is seen throught the derelict doorway of a once-grand residence next to the Somali Restaurant in Upper Parliament Street. The Somali provided an excellent (and cheap) vegetable curry upstairs, and a squalid cellar equipped with a juke box and bar downstairs. It was inhabited by an amazing cross-section of humanity and was very much my late-night 'local' when I lived in this part of the city. It was a sad moment when the Somali finally closed.
I took this photograph the day before the building was due to be demolished. As I looked through the lens, clouds started to blot out the sunshine, a shadow slowly creeping up the wall... symbolic, I later felt, of the events of a few months later, when much of this area was devastated during the so-called Toxteth Riots, which resulted in massive damage to property- but much more to community relations. This image is presented in memory of those unsettled times.
In recent years, Liverpool's housing associations have rebuilt here, in the style of the 18th century mansions which formerly occupied the site, to provide accomodation for young people.