ONE thing everyone accepts is that Lime Street needs regeneration.  But in medical terms, regeneration means renewal of the existing body, not amputation, writes Merseyside Civic Society's Jonathan Brown.

So Neptune’s nightmare on Lime Street is especially disappointing from the local firm that 15 years ago gave Liverpool one of its finest assets, the superb regeneration of Speke’s art-deco airport complex.  

That stands as a case study of how to mix old and new architecture to restore economic success, an approach all too lacking on Lime Street.

As with Liverpool One, the Baltic Triangle and the Albert Dock, smart cities work with the best of what they’ve got, surgically restoring their essential structure, and grafting on new tissue.

But the crude scheme submitted for Lime Street by Neptune, Broadway Malyan and their London, Manchester and Edinburgh-based backers, Sigma Capital PLC, has failed to impress even its main sponsor, the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, who said the plan will need to be reviewed after noting the almost universally hostile public reaction to it. 

Before destruction for St. John’s Precinct, Lime Street was famous as the Piccadilly Circus or Time Square of Liverpool, lined with cinemas, theatres, hotels and neon signage. Poc courtesy of Streets Of LiverpoolBefore destruction for St. John’s Precinct, Lime Street was famous as the Piccadilly Circus or Time Square of Liverpool, lined with cinemas, theatres, hotels and neon signage. Poc courtesy of Streets Of Liverpool

Published opinion on the design ranges from ‘depressing’ to ‘destructive’, with Liverpool John Moores University Reader in Architecture, Dr Rob MacDonald, summing up best: "They are walking all over the dead of Liverpool and stomping all over our memories." 

Lime Street’s east side of tall Georgian commercial premises, framed by two palatial Victorian pubs and crowned by the magnificent Edwardian Futurist, central Liverpool’s first cinema, is a gateway with an architectural character and social history any sophisticated city would die for.  Such a fine frontage should be celebrated and restored, with bold new buildings linked behind and above, just as has happened so successfully in Paradise and Hanover Streets.

The essential problem is not the buildings but their shabby condition, and the poorly managed traffic on the stop-start four lane race-track road outside – classic issues of ‘planning blight’.  No short-term lease-holder will invest much while the freehold owner plans demolition.  And the road is not currently engineered as a street for people to go to, but as a highway for vehicles to pass through – Castle Street shows how this can easily be fixed by better balancing traffic speeds with pedestrian comfort.

The Neptune PlanThe Neptune Plan

The excuse that Lime Street needs demolition because it is scruffy is back to front.  In fact of course, Lime Street is only scruffy preciselybecause it is slated for demolition – it’s an otherwise perfect location in terms of access, profile and passing trade.

Who is responsible for this blight and slow decline? Ultimately, I’m afraid, it is the owners of these buildings and the street – and that means you and me.  

The freehold of Lime Street is held by Liverpool City Council on our behalf.  If we are content to see them pass control over to people with no feeling for the spirit and soul of our city, then that’s our loss.  

 

If, on the other hand you expect our assets to be better cared for by those we pay to look after them, then speak out. 

The Futurist has become the symbol of whether Liverpool’s wider regeneration is driven by the public or by profiteers.  Mayor Anderson told campaigners that if it could be saved, it would be.  Cllr  Nick Small and the surveyors all agree at least the façade can be retained – it’s a question of cost. 

If we accept their sums to maintain the front - £2m in a £35m scheme seems a modest price to pay to ensure that Liverpool’s future, as well as its past, is controlled by its people.

Councillor Nick Small: 'Our plans will have a wow factor'

Should the building or the façade of the Futurist be saved? 

 
"It would be great if we could save it. I have been working with the campaigners for about two years around this. 
 
"We could have saved the façade, the inside is probably too far gone to save and probably most people accept that.  So everyone is looking around the façade, but unfortunately although it is technically feasible to do I, I don’t think it stacks up financially.
 
"There are two aspects to this, I firstly it isn’t actually a listed building. We have got a scheme for Lime Street which is a good scheme and stacks up financially. If you change aspects of that that scheme and looked at the façade it would probably add around £2m to the scheme which would mean the scheme as a whole didn’t stack up and you would then have to look at public funding.
 
“The city has a heritage fund which could be put into buildings like that but I think there are other priorities, like the Wellington Rooms (The Irish Centre in Mount Pleasant) that I would sooner fund rather than the Futurist. For all of these reasons I don’t think it is possible to save the façade.
 

l"What we are looking at doing is to incorporate parts of the original building and incorporating parts of that within the design on Lime Street. What people are saying to me is we need to get it redeveloped.
 
"It is one of the first things people see when they come into Liverpool Lime Street, it is a gateway into and out of the city. People have rightly taken it to their hearts, but people are saying to me we need to get this brought back into use and up our game in Lime Street.
 
"When people see this in the context of what we are going to do with the ABC Cinema and what is going to happen in Mount Pleasant (where the council multi-storey is earmarked for demolition), it will have a wow factor and be something appropriate for the city.
 
"This is a jigsaw. If we were put Lime Street to one side and wait for a few years, it could potentially put at risk the Mount Pleasant and Copperas Hill schemes. 
 
"If we were to look at the big picture and look back at this in five or 10 years time I am confident people would say the council did the right thing. I’m sad we can’t save the Futurist. The next best option is to do what we propose in Lime Street and incorporate parts of the Futurist and cinema history."