Palais de Luxe, Lime Street, and ‘Technical Achievement’

[Colin Wilkinson]

Palais de Luxe, Lime Street, 1948

Palais de Luxe, 1959

Technical Achievement, 1960
I have learnt not to push my lack of knowledge in certain subjects. Railways and ships spring immediately to mind – there are hundreds of experts out there who will tell you how many rivets were used in every ship and train. Cinemas has its own aficionados whose knowledge puts mine to shame. I published Harold Ackroyd’s Picture Palaces of Liverpool a few years back (recently reprinted) and received a number of letters pointing out small errors of fact that Harold had made, particularly about opening dates. So if I do get the occasional fact wrong, please accept my apologies and post your corrections – I won’t be insulted.
The Palais de Luxe was a place of entertainment from the 1840s when it started out as the Teutonic Hall. Many of the most famous acts of the nineteenth century trod its boards, including Henry Inving, General Tom Thumb and Dan Leno. Curiosity acts included the Siamese Twins and Anna Swan, the Nova Scotia Giantess. Less curious but equally politically incorrect were the minstrel troupes that were immensely popular including the American Slave Serenaders, advertised as ‘the only combination of genuine darkies in the world.’ The Teutonic Hall had changed its name to St James’s Hall in 1868 only to burn down in 1875. Rebuilt, it eventually was renamed the Tivoli Music Hall before switching to films in 1908. Its final renaming as the Palais de Luxe saw it survive wartime bombing (the top photograph shows how close it came to total destruction), a further fire in 1951 and rebuilding for a final time before it eventually closed in 1959 to make way for the current uninspiring shop development.
In the second photograph, an interesting sculpture can be seen on its facade. This was the largest aluminium statue in the country, designed by WL Stephenson, principal of the College of Art. Titled ‘Technical Achievement’, it was rescued from the scrapyard by the architects of the Palais de Luxe and re-sited at Riversdale Technical College at Aigburth. In 1972, Technical Achievement was taken down because it accumulated bird droppings and was regarded as a health hazard and put into storage but what happened to it since? Does anyone know? It may not be a masterpiece but it is an interesting example of 1950s art and could make a strong visual statement in the right place (outside FACT?).

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[az_gila]

Boy.. you would think that there would be many places that woud love to have that bit of public art....

It might be old, but it's still applicable today....

[Ged]

Check out jibup on flickr. His interest is Wolfendens crane company and there's pics of this being taken down later on.

[wsteve55]

Interesting info' and pic's there, Colin! I've no memory of the "Palais",and surprisingly, few others I've mentioned it to,remember it either!? Considering it existed in some shape or form,for so long,there's little about it,and it would be great to recover that piece of artwork,and F.A.C.T. sounds like a perfect home for it!

[gregs dad]

You were able to visit the Forum in the afternoon,Scala first house in the evening then the Palais de Luxe or the Futurist for the second house watching 3 shows, if you had the money, all within 100 yards.
Th Echo always had the full list of what`s on in all the cinemas on its front page.

[Rhoobarb]

Surely someone at the council knows where it is. I guess the storage places are secret for obvious reasons, but they must be big considering the stuff that is in storage.

[wsteve55]

Surely someone at the council knows where it is. I guess the storage places are secret for obvious reasons, but they must be big considering the stuff that is in storage.

I wouldn't count on them behaving so responsibly! Things like this,have a habit of being dumped somewhere out of the way,for a while,then disappearing altogether! If they couldn't look after the city's silver regalia,some of which has gone missing,there's not much chance for anything else!

(while I'm at it......anyone know the fate of the black beacons(?) that used to stand outside the tunnel entrance? I think they are still in place,on the Birkenhead side.)

[az_gila]

I wouldn't count on them behaving so responsibly! Things like this,have a habit of being dumped somewhere out of the way,for a while,then disappearing altogether! If they couldn't look after the city's silver regalia,some of which has gone missing,there's not much chance for anything else!

(while I'm at it......anyone know the fate of the black beacons(?) that used to stand outside the tunnel entrance? I think they are still in place,on the Birkenhead side.)

Scrap aluminium is around 60p a lb. They could get a few quid for it at the scrap yard...