ONE of the oldest buildings in Liverpool’s World Heritage Site – Heap’s Rice Mill – will be bulldozed as part of a multi-million pound redevelopment plan lodged by a company registered in the Seychelles.
A planning application has been lodged by One Park Lane Ltd who want to clear the site and build 515 apartments in five blocks between 10 and 25 storeys in height.
Today Peter Brown, chairman of Merseyside Civic Society, said it was now a race against time to save what is an important building within the World Heritage Site standing in the city’s Baltic triangle area.
Last month - and unaware of the planned massive scheme - The Merseyside Civic Society put a bid in with English Heritage to have the mill spot listed on the grounds of its architectural and historical importance.
It emerged this morning that the Government watchdog has earmarked the listing application as a "hot case" which could pave the way for its speedy preservation.
Even so, the big fear is the mill could be removed before that process is concluded.
The proposed development
Dr Brown told Liverpool Confidential: “When we made our application a few months ago for spot listing we were totally unaware of this proposed scheme. We just felt the mill was vulnerable and needed protecting. Not only is it an important building within the World Heritage Site, it is a fine example of Liverpool’s maritime history and a virtually intact structure.
"I am shocked to hear of these new proposals. It would be a great loss to Liverpool’s historic waterfront.”
Today, acknowledging the civic society bid to have the mill listed, Victora Ellis of English Heritage, says in a letter to Dr Brown: "We were aware of proposals to develop the site and were expecting applications for the works to be submitted and it is useful to know that these are now with the Council.
"We have been treating this as a ‘Hot’ case, which means it takes priority over our more standard cases, and we have arranged to visit the property early in July."
Heritage campaigner Wayne Colquhoun said: “It is ironic this scheme has emerged as Unesco is meeting in Doha, Qatar, to discuss Liverpool’s World Heritage Status. In the past few years nearly 50 listed buildings in Liverpool have been demolished. If they pull down Heap’s Rice Mill it could be the move that costs us the WHS title.
“As an apprentice I worked on the police headquarters and at that time Heap’s Rice Mill was surrounded by a collection of beautiful buildings housing sail makers, French polishers, maritime merchants. Heap’s Rice Mill is virtually all that is left. Let us hope there are enough people in this city who care about it and who consider Liverpool has gone too far. Heap’s could be Liverpool’s Alamo in our fight to protect and preserve what remains of our heritage.”
The rice mill has been unused for some years and was last at the centre of attention some years ago when the go-ahead was given by Liverpool’s Planning Committee to convert the old brick mill into hundreds of apartments.
The building dates to around 1780 when Joseph Heap established his rice mill. That would make the building more than 200 years old, constructed during an age when sailing ships dominated the city’s growing dockland.
The same company have made a second application to build two blocks of between 10 and 20 storeys to create 284 apartments on the nearby site once occupied by the uniform suppliers, Greenbergs. That prominently building was demolished some years ago and the cleared site is now used as a surface car park.
Details of both schemes, in the name of One Park Lane Ltd, with an address in the Indian Ocean island, have been lodged with Liverpool City Council’s planning department. Plans for both envisage commercial activities - such as bars, cafes, gymnasiums - at street levels.
The Merseyside Civic Society case for spot listing can be read in full here.
