Rediscovering hidden Liverpool

There are many things for an Urbanist to love about Liverpool. I rediscovered many of them when I revisited the city this summer to attend the International Festival of Business. 

I studied Urban Design at John Moores University in the late 90's, did a couple of consultancy commissions there in the early Noughties and have been back a few times since on social/cultural visits. I know the place reasonably well, but it's been over a decade since I went off the beaten track there and thought it was worth a post.

Parts of the City have been completely transformed. The central area now links seamlessly to the waterfront via Liverpool One and connects a 21st Century retail and leisure experience to the waterfront which contains the maritime DNA of the City. 

Link from Liverpool One to Albert Dock on what was previously Chavasse Park

Mixture of old and new on the waterfront

New restaurants and bars that help link Liverpool One to the waterfront

The maritime culture of Liverpool has given the City its distinctive accent (via the immigration of Irish labourers), its food (the lobscouse broth from which the city's inhabitants derive their nickname) and it's trading history which catalysed the building of banks, warehouses, trade halls and pubs. 

Whilst the new additions to the City are important, it is the older parts of the City that make Liverpool what it is. There is an interesting architectural language that binds maritime cities like Liverpool to Hull, Cardiff (Butetown / Mount Stuart Square), Bordeaux, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and many others. Of these Liverpool, I think, communicates this maritime character most convincingly because so little of it has been polished and Disneyfied as a 'visitor experience'. You won't have to look far to see the City that Liverpool once was and arguably still is.



The economic marginalisation of the City in the 70's, 80's and early 90's has meant that much of the city's grit (even some of the detritus) have remained, which is actually really positive because it provides such a strong sense of place and a palpable link to the past.
















What really struck me about returning to the City is how the older, gritty, parts of Liverpool are often only a street a way from the glossy consumer-driven places. In cities like Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester the really interesting (slightly feral!) parts of the city are not always that easy to find, having been cleaned up or swept away by previous generations of development. In Liverpool, you don't need to walk far to find interesting backstreet pubs, 'lost' streets and old port buildings still bursting with a myriad of activity. Just because these parts of the City don't have a Costa coffee franchise doesn't mean that they aren't desirable, or valuable to the City's economic wellbeing or sense of place.

Vacant tobacco warehouse on Stanley Dock awaiting a new purpose

 Side streets between warehouses being used for (not very sexy) employment uses

By James Brown

Connectivity the key to a successful City region

The publication of today's report by an alliance of five cities - Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield should be a wake up call to other areas of the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28654134

The recognition that inter-city region connectivity is key to forming a successful northern economic counterbalance to London demonstrates the maturity of the City Region psyche across the north. It also demonstrates an evolution of Prescott's 'Northern Way' - a sinuous economic link across the M62. It is significant that the rail zeitgeist has infused the latest incarnation of Northern urban connectivity. However, what is really telling is that whilst they may not have solved all of their internal challenges, the leadership of these cities have reached a capacity at which they can collectively strategise for a £15bn investment from the Chancellor, much of which is about improving connectivity.

(Image courtesy of BBC News)

This is particularly relevant to Cardiff but also potentially relevant when one looks at Cardiff, and Newport (and potentially Bristol) together. For example, the urban areas around the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal (which include Widnes, Runcorn, Salford, Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester) are already collaborating to deliver an ambitious connectivity, open space and economic development agenda under the banner of Atlantic Gateway.

The need for the very highest levels of frequency, quality and integration across regional public transport is something that the Cardiff Capital City Region Metro will hopefully address. The importance of today's publication by other cities with whom Cardiff should be competing immediately raises the stakes for the Metro in South East Wales. If the region isn't able to deliver the kind of system that globally relevant city regions now require as standard then Cardiff, Newport and the Valleys will see other regions of Britain accelerate into the economic distance.