Will Futurist's face be saved or lost?

IT'S back to the Futurist as Liverpool City Council join the debate generated by Liverpool Confidential’s exclusive report about the developers' vision for down-at-heel Lime Street.

Computer generated images, posted on the website of Liverpool builders Neptune, showed a new look Lime Street. Gone were the old Futurist and Scala cinemas - and a row of some of the oldest buildings in the city centre – to make way for a student barracks.

But perhaps not all is yet lost. A spokesman for Liverpool City Council says: “The regeneration plans for Lime Street are still a work in progress and published images are merely illustrative. The city council and the developers are, in fact, looking to integrate a section of the existing Futurist Cinema façade into the design of any future development.

"Last year there were positive discussions with Save the Futurist campaign and as the design is revised further conversations will take place ahead of any wider public consultation under the planning process."

He added: “Lime Street is a key regeneration project and, with the removal of the dereliction, is part of the wider improvement of this part of the city centre. It will create around 200 jobs and the refurbishment of the ABC cinema up to another 50 and we expect plans to be submitted very soon.”

The debate generated by Liverpool Confidential was welcomed by Lesley  Mullally who 18 months ago launched a campaign and petition: Save The Futurist.

The Neptune vision of Lime Street

The petition, so far signed by 1,700 people, has been ‘asleep’ to await the promise of more details about the Lime Street regeneration project.

But Lesley told Liverpool Confidential: “Last year I had a meeting with the council and Neptune to express my views about the frontage of the Futurist. It is such a beautiful building and I wish all of it could be saved.

“I was told by Neptune that they would like to save the façade is it was financially viable, and since then we have heard nothing.

“When I saw the latest images on Neptune’s website I was horrified. Not only had the cinema frontages disappeared but also the Victorian and Georgian buildings.

“Although the council is now saying the images are merely illustrative, why have they been produced at all if the intention is to keep the Futurist frontage?

“I hope Neptune will remove the images to show us that it isn’t already done and dusted."

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She added: “I never went to the Futurist when it was a cinema as I was only four when it closed. But I have always loved and adored the frontage. It is such a treasure and needs to be spared.

“Lime Street is part of Liverpool’s history and it deserves much better than what has been proposed so far.”

There was a time when Liverpool had an advisory panel of architects, planners and professionals to give major schemes a once-over. It was a way of encouraging quality architecture in the city by exposing schemes to peer review before they even got anywhere near the planning committee.

Sadly, LUDCAP as it was called, disappeared and now there is no such conversation between developers, the planning officers and the planning committee of politicians.