A Community Interest Company could be set up to protect and develop Liverpool's bombed out church after it was revealed today that Mayor Joe Anderson plans to sell it off for just £1.
St Luke's Church, at the bottom of Leece Street, was described by opposition leader Richard Kemp as “the last visible reminder of the thousands of deaths that occurred amongst the civilian population in World War II”.
But it is in a state of deterioration, says cash-strapped Liverpool Council, and is too costly to maintain.
St Luke's has been used as a base for the arts collective Urban Strawberry Lunch, who opened it to the public in 2006. It regularly stages performances, exhibitions and film nights in the space, Yoko Ono has exhibited in there and bands such as the Kooks have played as part of Liverpool Sound City.
The story of the planned sell-off was leaked to local media with reports that the council is in very early talks with an "interested party", along with speculation that the Grade II listed building could be turned into an upmarket wedding venue by a developer.
But Ambrose Reynolds, one of the founders of Urban Strawberry Lunch, with artist Liz Carlisle, told Liverpool Confidential that this afternoon he had secured a first option on the site - dependant on coming up with a viable plan. The pair are now looking to set up a Community Interest Company that would raise money and secure the church's future as a community and performance space.
"The minute I heard the news I went straight down to the Municipal Buildings to speak to someone in the Mayor's Office. The receptionists buzzed me straight through when I told them what had happened and why I was there."
He met with one of Joe Anderson's advisors. "I said 'you want to sell it off for £1, I will give you £2 for it now'.
"It didn't happen, but it was a positive meeting," he said. "Urban Strawberry Lunch have got first dibs on the building. It is a consecrated church and because of a covenant drawn up by the Earl of Derby in 1811 when the foundation stone was laid, it has to remain a church.
Earlier, Lib Dem Leader Councillor Richard Kemp said: "This iconic building should not be sold to a developer but transferred to a non profit making body, who will care for it and honour its role of remembering bombings and famines.
Drumming up support: Ambrose Reynolds
“We must be very careful of entrusting much loved listed buildings to the care of private developers. Just look at the long-running saga of The Church of Scotland building in Rodney Street which after 30-plus years is still not complete.”
St Luke's, which lay empty and closed up for decades, was CPO'd by Liverpool Corporation, from the Church of England in the 1960s. It had planned to knock it down, along with Georgian terraces in Bold Place, to create an M62 link road which never materialised.
USL are well known for their work in "taking problems and turning them into solutions".
"When we first took over the church it was used as a home for addicts. When a building falls empty it becomes a vacuum for something bad so the council were desperate for someone to do something with it," says Ambrose.
"We were given training from drugs squad officers in dealing with addicts and removing needles, of which there were hundreds. We pumped out thousands of gallons of water from the crypt and created a pond with it. Young offenders groups came in and created a garden."
He says that visitor numbers are swelling year on year, with the church a magnet for tourists from all over the world.
"We are also fortunate that we have lots of well known and influential supporters. I am confident that we would be able to stage high profile fundraising gigs, if it came to it. I would be very keen to get people like Lord Derby on board in some capacity.
"Now we will be working flat out to get estimates on work that will make it safe and to stop it from deteriorating any further. Then we will have to explore avenues to see how we can make it happen."
