Friday Nov 9 2012: Update: Hope Street this afternoon WON the Great Street Award at a ceremony held by the Academy or Urbanism in London.
TWO cathedrals, three theatres, food, drink, Georgian architecture and, of course, Ye Cracke.
It's always been well worth hanging around Hope Street, now it's about to find out if it is THE Great Street in Europe.
The street is short-listed for The Great Street Award in the national Urbanism Awards 2013, aimed at recognising the best examples of urban places in Europe. The other short-listed streets are Exhibition Road in London and Chapel Street in Penzance.
Hope Street Hotel, incorporating The London Carriage Works restaurant is also short-listed in The Creative Re-Use Awards category, set up to give special recognition to worthy projects that sit within a street, neighbourhood, town or city.
The awards are chosen by the Academy of Urbanism which uses the awards to learn from and promote best practice in planning and urbanism. The winners will be announced at the Urbanism Awards 2013 Ceremony at The Connaught Rooms in London on 9 November.
Gary Manning, he of The Quarter, HOST and 60 Hope Street restaurants (fondly known by locals as Manning Town), told Liverpool Confidential over an excellent chocolate brownie this week that he plans to represent Hope Street in London with Simon Glinn, of the The Philharmonic Hall. Simon, of course, is the main man behind the hugely successful Hope Street Feast.
In September, Hope Street was runner-up in Olive magazine's 2012 Alternative Restaurant Awards in the Britain's Best Dining Road category, behind winner Bermondsey Street in London.
Between them, Hope Street’s organisations, businesses and attractions have attracted numerous regional, national and international awards recognising the excellence of their cultural, tourism, food and dining offers.
Michael Eakin, Liverpool Philharmonic’s chief executive, said: “Recognition nationally in media, and through awards that showcase the unique vitality of Hope Street, demonstrates that the area is a significant asset in Liverpool’s cultural offer and economy, as visitors are increasingly seeing it as an essential part of their visit to the city."
Banding together
Building on the success and growing profile of Hope Street as a visitor destination, an informal consortium, established in 2009 of some of the most important businesses and organisations on and around Hope Street, has successfully applied for Community Interest Company status and is now known as the Visit Hope Street CIC.
Its members are the Everyman Theatre, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Unity Theatre; Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral; Hope Street Hotel and the 60 Hope Street Restaurant Group; and Blackburne House; Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool.
Their combined total turnover, jobs created in Liverpool and visitor numbers – over 930,000 annually - have significant impact on the cultural distinctiveness of the Liverpool city region and its wider economic and social regeneration.
Eryl Parry, Liverpool Cathedral’s Director of Enterprise, said: “Successful partnership working between the organisations and businesses on Hope Street is well established. Formalising it within a Community Investment Company demonstrates our commitment to continuing to work together, and with other partners in the city to ensure that Hope Street and the surrounding areacontinues to be promoted and invested in to the benefit of businesses and local people, and as a visitor destination that complements other key destinations in the city such as the Waterfront, Liverpool One and William Brown Street.”
