The Mole of Edgehill-They Are Digging Him Up Again.

Is someone trying to get their own back on the Mole of Edgehill for digging their ancestors garden up.
First they proclaim a memorial for him, albeit a tacky and shoddy one and now they dig that up. http://www.sevenstreets.com/city-living/feature-city-living/paradise-street-williamso/



Is there a new Mole of Grosvenor-pool?
Not content with the original disturbance of a graveyard site, it seems they are back again for more digging. Maybe they should have done the job with more careful planning.
Grosvenor think they dont need planning permission, being arrogant enough to erect without a planning application on Chavasse Lawn.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/here-lies-mole-of-edgehill.html

And they should think about building with less shoddy workmanship.
For a lot of people this area is now the first port of call, right into John Lewis car park and out again which you can just about see in the background.

Wouldnt you think with all the profits Grosvenor are making they would do a proper job.....first time around
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/alan-weston-of-liverpool-daily-post-is.html

One Park West Residents Complain Of An Eyesore-The Barefaced Cheek Of It.

 The cheek of that, we have to look at the monstrous One Park Worst that came 4th in the Carbuncle Cup award for 2009. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

 Here is what Mark "Padding it out" Waddington has to say.

OWNERS of luxury flats in Liverpool One’s One Park West development claim the tone of their “glamorous” area is being lowered by “vulgar, tatty” amusements outside their windows six months of the year.

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=residents-of-8216-glamorous-8217-liverpool-one-flats-hit-out-at-8216-vulgar-8217-winter-festival-site%26method=full%26objectid=27754016%26siteid=100252-name_page.html#ixzz16xc7JIsd

To call this development glamorous....where does he live.

Inspired by a greenhouse the Widnes tech on speed inspired design(sic) has brought the most ugly looking vulgarity to Liverpool's World Heritage Site.

Padding goes on

Some of those who bought the plush properties – worth up to £500,000 – have objected to permission being granted for food and drink stalls, the 60-metre North Star fun ride, an ice rink, toboggan run, and band stands in Chavasse Park in the run up to Christmas.


The reality is that the place has been plumped out by the tragic event of the crane collapsing on a apartment in the Baltic Triangle. So most of them overlooked an eyesore anyhow. What about the three black coffins on Mann Island surely they have noticed the mess at the Pier Head.

The firm behind One Park West was keen to stress it was only a minority of residents who complained, but accepted it was “difficult to please everyone”.

Well the fair is bad, but isn't this like the kettle calling the pot black. One Park Worst.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

Is this another publicity stunt.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-balloons-arrive-for-group.html

The reality is the same is to be said of Church Street. Who organises this tat?

And is it Paul Du Noyer complaining? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-and-carbuncle-cupthe.html


Did they complain when they dumped the tacky 'Give Peas a Chance' Statue on Chavasse Lawn?
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html

What does the Hilton Hotel chain think?http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-hilton-opens.html
 
 
I think they have got what they deserve myself now they know what its like for us who have to look at them.

Tony McDonough And Yet Another Grosvenor Advertorial

What is the purpose of Liverpool’s local press? Is it to create profiles for grey suited lemons?
There was a time when interesting people were interviewed by journalists with an understanding of what the public want to read about.
Not anymore its boring bland greys who just pump it, and get pumped up, by business correspondents who never attempt to add up their own figures, check their stories, just believe what any tacky property developer or council Spiv tell them. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/city-has-been-run-by-spivs-and-gamblers.html

That may seem a bit hard, no, it’s not hard enough.
Grabbing any news item they are now reporting (sic) it has come to writing about a new deli that opens, its that bad. This combined with the lack of scrutiny to any new scheme, unaware of the cultural effects or the economic, just jobbing off their responsibility to the public, claiming they are understaffed. It is like the blind leading the blind, literally. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/is-bill-gleeson-peel-holdings-spiv.html

The Daily Post business team has had too many free lunches from too many Spivs in my opinion.

You would think that the sun shines in Liverpool, Mark Thomas lives on the Wirral so does Alistair MacRray. http://www.ldpeditor.merseyblogs.co.uk/2010/09/sorry_seems_to_be_the_hardest.html If it effects them maybe there is a story.
 Have any of them been to Toxteth to look at the dejection? Have they bothered to look around when on a Liverpool or Everton F.C freebie at Anfield? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/louise-ellman-mp-dame-of-dereliction.html
No, they couldn’t have done they are too busy acting as “PLUMPERS” for Grosvenor and the likes.

The Daily Post with a declining readership decides to put all its eggs in one basket and become a business plumper, just as we hit a recession. Do they know it’s a recession in the Oldham Hall Street offices? No. Because it is the blind leading the blind, led by property dealers and council spivs. They have become Peel Poodles, unable to see the regions takeover by a private company.
Having to balance news items, they say, my arse, it is ignorance, an ignorance and an ability to shirk the responsibilities that the public expect.
How were things in Shanghai Mr Thomas, who paid for that trip, An Expo costing several million, an expo were we, the public subsidised Peel Holdings who paid in the region of £200,000 to be there, promoting Manchester and its ship canal while building Port Salford and heavily lobbying for the new Mersey crossing so industry doesn’t have to be in Liverpool. We paid the other £2,000,000 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-daily-post-and-echo-mouthpiece-for.html Port Salford barging jobs out of the city to Salford, I advised the Daily Post and Echo of this fact, they claimed they didn’t even know.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpeel.html

It’s a sham. It only serves to create ignorance in the minds of the public while the true business reality is hard.  http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/10/21/city-developer-beetham-s-1bn-blackfriars-scheme-put-into-administration-by-royal-bank-of-scotland-92534-27516180/  Remember all the plumping for Beetham.

So we see another Grosvenortorial about how wonderful all the carbuncle flats on Chavasse lawn are, and how £25,000,000 of sales have been done there, when the reality is, you should have checked your figures Mr McDonut, call yourself a business editor, your wages are paid by the people who buy the chips that are in the paper, not Grosvenor.

Lets work it out for you shall we. At £94,000 a flat on average, with four grand of free furniture thrown in, they would have to sell over 200 apartments out of 250 odd. This combined with the fact that most of them are rented out to the people who were in Cornhill when the Crane collapsed on the block and they had to be rehoused. It is at best bad maths.

Well the devil make fool’s of idle men.
 http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/working-day/2010/03/17/liverpool-daily-post-working-day-grosvenor-project-director-guy-butler-92534-26047288/

Try another take by Correspondent.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/putting-con-into-confidence.html


While other more worthy news is buried by a system that stifles public perception.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/trinity-smoking-mirror-burying-dynamite.html

This article has been sabotaged at the highest levels in the paper after David Bartlett, The Prisoner, wrote it up. I apologise to David for assuming he never wrote it up but he has to ask himself questions about the credibility of his employers Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors on Oldham Hall Street who “muff” the truth.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-wars-liverpool-gets-full-naval.html

Though he did get it so wrong with picking a fight with Southampton.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/cruise-from-liverpool.html

As did the shabby reporters who didn’t question the fact we were getting a Naval jetty and “PLUMPED” it up for the Spiv-Dem council, telling us how a momentous occasion had unfolded. It just goes on and on and on.
 It needs to stop.

Come back Jane Wolthamstone all is forgiven, yes its that bad.

Grosvenor-pools New Water Feature-Or Just Shoddy Workmanship

 Not even 2 years after opening the shoddy work shows. Chavasse Lawn had the worlds press for the unveiling of the abominable "Give Peas a Chance statue", but the reality is the jerry builders who built it have made a mess. Not quite up to the job, inferior materials, and it was not a difficult task in the first place, to knock a few shops up. Maybe they were trying too hard, trying to get too much out of it, greed. To build on Steers Dock reported as the worlds first was always to be controversial but to build a car park on it was damn right disgusting. To raise it 40 foot in the air and cover it with polystyrene was damn right tacky, to cover it with grass that wont grow is a con. It could never last it was poorly thought out and badly constructed. Where is the water going to go...........out through the nearest exit, is where. Now every time it rains the new steps overlooking John Lewis spew out water and they have to be closed. Its a big job to correct this.

They cant get the grass to grow because its waterlogged and a constant, con, I mean job is to pretend it is growing. This combined with the silly idea factory that is the Grosvenor-pool team to do silly things like turn it into beach then it rains every day seems stupid at best.

So it was all 'tarted up' for the worlds media to be sold a dog of a statue Saturday last. Is it just me that sees it like it is, aparantly not.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html Take a look at the Seven Streets site.  http://www.sevenstreets.com/blog/give-peace-memorial-a-chance/ and their take on the Giant Pea statuee on Chavasse lawn. Considering the now famous One Park Gone West apartments that came 4th in BD the architects weekly Carbuncle Cup Award in 2009.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-balloons-arrive-for-group.html His Fiefness the Slim White Duke isn't doing very well really. He got the land for sod all, the first brick built dock, and he cant even respect it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

So in order to carry out all the gimmicks, like a beach with a big wheel ect, they drive 40 ton wagons over it. The public footpath, or is it public, is closed more than its open. 

Built on the site of the Old Customs House how things have changed. The Council keep spinning it out, listening to the Flintstonesque speech Joe Anderson did on Sky, Saturday last about the Pea statue, you have to say it does not look good in the long term. So the result is,

Liverpool One, Shoddy Workmanship Four. 

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-customs-die-hard.html 

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/10/grotesque-addition-to-grosvenor-pool.html

Here Lies the Mole of Edgehill.

What is the difference in the two images above?

One is a picture of a Vase designed by Geoffry Baxter for Whiefriars in the 60s...called a Drunken Bricklayer

And the other is a wall surrounding a memorial site for a graveyard built a couple of weeks ago by a Drunken Bricklayer

Not all agree those chaps over at Sevenstreets like it.

http://www.sevenstreets.com/city-living/feature-city-living/paradise-street-williamso/

They say So completely has Liverpool ONE reshaped our city’s geography that it’s hard to believe Paradise Street doesn’t end at the Sony Centre. But, underneath the newly chiseled granite, the old city streets still stubbornly remain. And, such is our desire to reinvent ourselves every generation or so, precious little of our history ever rests in peace.

In fact, it’s not just the old streets you’re walking above. In one spot, you’re actually standing on the resting place of giants…
going on they say.........SevenStreets has heard a rumour that the original gates of the Sailor’s Home (the only remaining fragments from this fabled, long-lost Liverpool landmark) are to be returned to the city – from their current home in Smethwick, Birmingham. The gates feature the first ever cast Liver Birds.

So, tread carefully. For, just a couple of feet below this beautifully serene spot, with its driftwood, lavender and maritime plants, lies a man who’s been known to tunnel himself out of the trickiest of underground situations…
I think its a shame that such a shameful piece of Jerry-building has happened, its like Grosvenor has given up because there is no money in it. So here lies the Mole of Edgehill..........not a fitting tribute really.

Lewis's is to close 300 jobs to go-The Regeneration Con Continues.

Today it is announced that 300 staff are to lose their jobs as Lewis's in Renshaw Street is to close. The pathetic Catherine Jones working for the Oldham Echo reviewed the new book that records its sorry state and gets put right by people leaving comments for not doing her research http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/02/20/reminder-of-forgotten-glamour-in-liverpool-store-lewis-s-1950s-time-capsule-100252-25873874/ It was blitzed during the war.
I knew there was something going on when it was listed. This will be around the time that all the plans were laid before Henry Owen-John, the regional development director of English Heretics. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/05/henry-owen-john-english-heretic.html  
David Bartlett today reports.
LIVERPOOL’S famous Lewis’s store is to close.

The firm must move out by June due to the massive redevelopment of its the Ranelagh Street building..
Around 300 “devastated” staff members are set to lose their jobs.
David Thompson, who owns the store, said there was no guarantee it would reopen once the building work was finished in around two years time.
Developers Merepark have ambitious plans to create a £160m Central Village around the store which will include new hotels, leisure space, retail outlets and restaurant space.
“It is with great regret that we have to announce the closure of Lewis’s store, as our lease with Merepark expires in June,” said Mr Thompson.
“It has now become apparent from Merepark that once the scheduled works commence it would be impossible for us to continue trading from within this building, however we will continue talking to the landlord about possible space within any new development but at this stage no new lease has been agreed.”
He said all orders would be honoured as the store starts the process of selling off £5m of stock.
A full scale closing down programme will start tomorrow and it will only be a matter of weeks before the store, founded by David Lewis 154 years go closes its doors for the last time.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=liverpool-s-lewis-s-store-to-close%26method=full%26objectid=25887797%26siteid=100252-name_page.html

This is because of a central village scheme which Warren Bradley...why is he always apearing to be on the side of the developers. We all know he was put into the spot by Clever Trevor Jones (who in my opinion was a spiv)  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html and Mike Storey, but how can Bradley really be so short sighted or disinterested in Liverpool shopworkers jobs.
Last week in the local papers a spat broke out over the Central village scheme http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/19/clash-over-affordable-housing-in-liverpool-city-centre-schemes-92534-25868341/  
PLANS to build two skyscrapers behind Liverpool’s Central station came under fire last night for not containing enough affordable housing.

Liverpool Council’s Labour group is opposing the £100m Central Village project, claiming it could “price ordinary people out of the market”.
But Liberal Democrat council leader Cllr Warren Bradley said the city could not afford to risk driving developers away from investing by imposing limits on new schemes.
 But Liverpool’s current housing strategy declares the “development of significant low-cost market housing or affordable home ownership in the city centre should not be encouraged”.

Last night, the Liberal Democrats said a balance should be struck across the city.
Cllr Bradley said: “It is easy to talk about social and affordable housing, but to me it is about long-termism.
“Every development which comes into the city has to be judged on its own merits.”
Councillor Bradley is not very clever in my opinion.

Rapid Hardware was the longest shop front in the country and as such is now the longest empty shop front in the country. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/20/liverpool-one-developer-grosvenor-buys-old-rapid-hardware-site-100252-24490295/ What is the point in doing up one part of the city to let another face decay.   http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/grosvenor-pool-new-name-for-liverpool.html I have watched Peter pay Paul all my life. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/03/13/180m-liverpool-central-village-scheme-set-to-start-in-autumn-64375-20617750/  

New Housing Estate for the Town Centre.

In the spirit of Christmas a new housing estate has sprung up in Lord Street. Or is it a Continental market full of scousers selling stinky cheese?. Right in front of all the shops in this part of town who pay their rates. Grosvenor obviously did not want them blocking access to all those money spinning multi-national companies that have just been given amazing rent free terms to abandon other parts of town for the new swanky part.

Whats the Time-Liverpool World Heritage Vandalism O'clock

I used to be so proud of our waterfront. I used to say to people "Do you know what the biggest clock face in the country is". "Big Ben" they would reply "No the Liver Buildings". Not any more. The reason that a clock was put on the South elevation was so you could see it, so you would be able to tell the time. So that the mighty image of a cultural icon, the Liver Bird could be seen they put two of them on the top of the Building. Hey but in a city using culture as a gimmick where the editors of the local press promote penguins http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/07/07/first-photos-of-the-colony-of-go-penguins-which-will-visit-liverpool-this-winter-92534-24090174/ what would you expect. In order to promote culture you have to be a little more educated in the arts and architecture than some who are running the city appear to be. Click on the pictures of the unfolding saga of the Three Black Slugs emerging on Mann Island that funds the new museum that destroyed Manchester Docks, http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/manchester-docks-obliterated.html   and you will agree, unless you have perpetrated the damage that it is world heritage vandalism. The third and final monster has suprised even me. I thought it was going to be bad, but not quite that bad.Carbuncles-R-Us. Perhaps with the recent pressure the local press has had Larry Bartlett wheels out Peter Brown http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/11/05/make-renshaw-street-area-special-liverpool-urged-92534-25095646/ of the MCS in conjunction with Guy Butler from Grosvenor-pool telling us how Renshaw Street needs saving http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/grosvenor-pool-new-name-for-liverpool.html now that all the footfall is moved and Grosvenor are pulling the strings making sure there is no competion. Dr Peter Brown from the largely redundant Merseyside Civic Society leads the charge. But wasnt it he who said Liverpool was all the better for having the three grotesques at Mann Island.

Peter Brown, chairman of Merseyside Civic Society, personally feels that the Mann Island scheme is a good one, although other society members disagree.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2009/06/24/jury-still-out-on-mann-island-blocks-92534-23960446/   

“I’ve been quite happy with the way it’s been handled and the final outcome. It would have been better if there was a masterplan, but in its absence this is the best scheme.
“My view is that it complements both the new museum and the Pier Head Three Graces.
“The new Mann Island blocks are square and black, so it’s a stark contrast with the white of the sloping new Museum of Liverpool and the classicism of the Three Graces.
“I think it’s a mistake to keep a ‘fire free’ zone between Albert Dock and the Pier Head. There is a need for financial stimulation in that area and to show entrepreneurial skills.
“The scheme offered the prospect for this and the architects worked it out well. They also managed to exceed their brief and more views of the Three Graces were retained than was proposed. I appreciate that the principal view from the south is obstructed, but none of these buildings were planned as a group, nor was it expected that these views would not be built across.
“We need a modern statement to showcase the aspirations of this city.
“It’s all consistent with what was proposed.”

Did Matt Brookes the architect of Broadway Malyan building the Three Black Slugs study at the University that he teaches, Civic Design......Unsuccessfully?

Liverpool Novotel, A Tragic Addition to Liverpools Bluecoat; The Oldest Building in Liverpool City Centre.

But hang on the Daily Ghost today, say its a Eureka moment. They would wouldnt they. They dont think about a heritage point of view as to what they are reporting. Are they edited by Frank McKenna at Downtown Liverpool in Business, (DLIB) or is that just me being cynical.
Rememeber this image of our old friend, because no more are we able to see our beautiful Bluecoat as it was built in its Georgian finery. I warned of this years ago. Everything the local papers wrote was on a positive score leaving the void for the wreckers to fill without adequate debate. It used to be an interesting place a bit rough around the collar but full of character.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html One of the Daily Ghost reorters partners had a hand in its awful restoration or should we say vandalism. Roger Philips of Radio Merseyside said "We have never had so many callers as about the destruction of the Bluecoat Garden. Radio Merseyside are next door fronted on Hanover Street. David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming is a board member. Everything this man goes near gets dumbed down to a characterless cafe. He should have been a director of Starbucks instead of Liverpool Museums he has opened more cafes than they, this year. Cafes are not culture Doctor Fleming.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html
Just wait till the leaves completely fall off the trees, this is last years picture, and the full horror show unfolds...it now has a Novatel hotel as a chimney. This is really bad planning. The Novotel, owned by a foriegn chain, the money wont even stay in the country, they dont care. Grosvenor did this to us. A third of the city centre was given to them and they have stolen our street names our history in the process.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2009/11/04/novotel-hotel-chain-unveils-eureka-in-liverpool-a-new-concept-in-business-meeting-facilities-92534-25086148/
This what they, the Daily Ghost have been fed and in turn are feeding to you. They call it a Eureka moment. It has to be a joke.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/03/14/liverpool-debut-for-novotel-64375-18751692/  Larry Neild on Grosvenor-pool


http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/09/30/car-ploughs-into-liverpool-s-new-novotel-hotel-100252-24813768/

http://www.liverpoolpsda.co.uk/Press/PressCuttings/03-2007/BB.htm Does it look like the press and Grosvenor have been working in tandem here?

Its probaly not the hotels fault but Neil Hodgson should write an article about the changing face of Liverpools Heritage this is not a Eureka moment its a tragic event.

The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck. Picking His Brain and Wondering, Why?

The boy stood on the burning deck, picking his nose….. No hang on that’s not right. My schoolboy recollections of one the famous and most recognised lines in literature are a little different than the original. “Whence all but he had fled” thats it.. The name of the poem and the story behind it is often forgotten. The poem is Casablanca written by Felicia Hemans, it was first published in 1826.

Giocante was the boy who inspired the poem. His father was Captain Luc-Julian-Joseph de Casablanca. His ship L’Orient was the flagship of Napoleons fleet at the Battle of the Nile.
In Aboukir Bay off Egypt Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson attacked the French ships and the three decks 120 gun L’Orient was set ablaze.

The poem recalls how Giocante refused to leave his post until he gained his fathers permission even though his father is already dead.
The fire is to ignite the ships store of gunpowder and a massive explosion throws parts of the ship all over the Bay.

The poem was published in a periodical called The Monthly Magazine.
They did not discover the carcass of the wreckage till 1983 scattered over more than half a square mile.
Giocante was thought to be all but 12, that was five years older than the vessel he stood upon.

The mast of L’Orient was used as the timber to make the coffin for Nelson who died seven years later at the Battle of Trafalgar.
We commemorate Trafalgar in the Docks of the same name which were filled in by Grosvenor with all the millions of tons of rubble dug out, which is now the car park below Chavasse Lawn, (How did they get away with that).

Liverpool Mercantile and Maritime World Heritage City it seems a bit surreal.
What is even more surreal is that Felicia Hemans house in the world heritage site on Lower Duke Street is standing there falling down along with many, many more of our original Georgian stock. Hanging on a forlorn hope while we continue to build high tensile shopping malls.
What a way to recall our Maritime History by disregarding it. The Duke Street area is still in a precarious state of repair (both pictures are taken fom the same spot) and a lot of hope for the future is now credit crunched along with a lot of our maritime history.

CODA
http://www.saveliverpooldocks.co.uk/
Have a look at the excellent and well thought out site above Save Liverpool Docks.

Liverpool World Heritage City, Carbuncles-R-Us

The award, or shall we say disgrace of having the Carbuncle Cup award for Liverpool's Terminally ill Ferry Building has left a few with red faces, and others such as the council leader who recently said Prince Charles told him, yes told him, that he thought Liverpool's regeneration was brilliant. It was Prince Charles who first termed the phrase Carbuncle into common currency to describe a architecturally disgraceful new construction.
I think Warren Bradley is making it up when he says Cllr Bradley also revealed that he had recently spoken to Prince Charles about the changes to the city’s urban environment, saying: “Prince Charles thinks we’ve done a wonderful job.http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/06/26/leading-politicians-face-liverpool-s-young-professionals-92534-23985324/

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=430&storycode=3147432&channel=783&c=2But what of the other recent Carbuncles. The Unity Building that started all the blights on Liverpool's Iconic Skyline.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6105720/Britains-ugliest-building.html?state=target#postacomment&postingId=6120693 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8226211.stm


One Park Worst on Chavasse Park came 5th in the same Carbuncle Cup competition despite a desperate rear guard action by Grosvenor.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/28/architecture-critics-name-liverpool-ferry-terminal-uk-s-worst-new-building-92534-24551826/http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/27/liverpool-pier-head-ferry-terminal-voted-britain-s-ugliest-building-100252-24548157/

Milton Keynes-On-Sea on Princes Dock.

The Carbuncles that Liverpool's planners and the Spivs running the place thought they could get away with are now here to haunt us forever. Here is a Car-Park in the shadows of the Liver Buildings. Why do this with your best asset.

Grosvenor-pool the new name for Liverpool.

Are Grosvenor now running the City Centre.
It is now stated that Grosvenor have bought the old Rapid Hardware and Rapid have now moved to the old John Lewis store as part of a deal. Rapid used to be claiming the biggest shopfront in the city, this will now be broken up. (Incidentally Larry Neild used to be Rapids publicist I was informed with a direct route into the local papers).
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/20/liverpool-one-developer-grosvenor-buys-old-rapid-hardware-site-100252-24490295/
I see no evidence presented with this article as to price or land registry details of completion so there is a chance that the kid who wrote it just packaged a bundle up for a Grosvenor PR company or the council. Alistair Houghton wrote; Grosvenor’s projects director Guy Butler said Grosvenor had no firm plans for the site itself but was talking to two interested parties about their "exciting plans" for it. What did they buy it for then???????????
Time will tell what they are talking about. But will they let another big retail centre happen?
WILL IT BE A TESCO? Was there to be a new Central Village planned in this area? So what has happened to that?
What is happening here is with the centre of power changing and a new footfall being found in the city centre, It seems Grosvenor are now able to dictate to the council outside of Grosvenor-pool by owning the land around their existing gifted domain. Are they now taking over the city.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/03/13/180m-liverpool-central-village-scheme-set-to-start-in-autumn-64375-20617750/ Time will tell.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/11/08/lewis-s-store-at-heart-of-30m-liverpool-development-64375-20078760/
Liverpool has seen so many small independent retailers and business's go to the wall.
First we had the city centre dug up for years to facilitate Grosvenor who opened up their new retail empire at the start of the biggest recession since the 30s and it now seems they are able to dictate any new developments that threaten them. What happened to all those fledgling businesses in the old Quiggins.
If you read the local papers with its current attitude everything is rosy but below the surface so many mistakes have been made turning our city into something that resembles any other with its homogenisation of the retail. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/24/public-supports-liverpool-city-centre-s-new-retail-revolution-92534-24514174/ It is easy to level weighted questions at the public and make headlines. We all know we needed a few shops but what is the need to keep on day after day publicising all the big businesses while small businesses go bust on a daily basis. They dont have PR budgets. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/02/22/use-us-or-lose-us-plea-by-lewis-s-bosses-64375-20509063/ It needs something a little more clever than the kids at the local papers who are caught up in the whole retail therapeutic experience and have entered a 'culture' at the local papers where shops are king and shopping is the answer to all our dreams and desires. It really is not.
I run a small business and it has been tough recently, there are others who cant sit out the next few months like Grosvenor, with their huge resources.
But what about the future look of our city. One journalist down at the Oldham Echo recently asked another. "Do you know anything about Architecture and World Heritage"
"No but I will find someone who does"
So she phoned the pathetic world heritage officer John Hinchliffe and wrote an article that was so far unbalanced as to amount to be covering over the mistaken decisions to destroy the Site, that it was an anachronism of the truth..
IN ORDER TO BE REPORTING CULURE IT WOULD HELP TO BE CULTURED. YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT. IF YOU HAVE TO PHONE A FRIEND IN THE LOCAL PR FIRM..........IT IS NO GOOD PRETENDING. Our future is being put on a PR platter in front of our very eyes and is being lapped up by the public, but hey we can always go shopping.

One Park West The Balloons Arrive for a Group Hug.

IS THIS A DESPERATE PR STUNT?

Todays Architects Journal carries a headline
Beauty or Beast: Cesar Pelli's One Park West Liverpool
18 August, 2009 By Richard Waite

The huggers want to show that, despite the recent nomination for an architectural wooden spoon and for generally ‘getting it in the neck’, there are people who still care for the 326-apartment, boat-shaped block. So who’s right?
BEAUTY
Speaking about the scheme, Pelli said he wanted to ‘to create a modern, striking building, a memorable place to live, with exceptional view of a wonderful waterfront and park’. Meanwhile Guy Butler, senior development manager at project backer Grosvenor, described the prowed block as a ‘building design which has really stuck its head above the parapet and has, without a doubt, vastly improved an area of our city centre which was formerly wasteland.’
BEAST
David Dunster from the Liverpool School of Architecture said it boasts ‘one of the nastiest looking pieces of standard office glazing since Britain was bombed by the Luftwaffe; and cheap.’ He added: ‘The prow can only be a ghastly reference to Liverpool’s maritime past and conclusive evidence that all architects should be banned from the use of metaphor, simile or metonymy in the next 100 years at least.’

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/beauty-or-beast-cesar-pellis-one-park-west-liverpool/5206890.article


Also Building design run a story too http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3147077&origin=BDdaily

So the PR company seem to be earning their fees and most of the crowd seem to be made up by them and Grosvenor staff. They even tried to get the BBC reporter to wear a badge. "I cant do that he said I work for the BBC.
Then they brought one of the blokes who said he worked with Cesar Pelli.....with a megaphone to direct the 50 people. They had been hoping for 150. I think they did well to get that many people as the six who were not getting paid to be there.

Councillor Miller with his new found friends, schoolkids bussed in for the occasion to make up the numbers. His letter in yesterdays Daily Ghost.
A negative few
DESIGNED by Cesar Pelli and stabbed in the back by a small group of internet surfers on a website, One Park West is bold, modern, thought-provoking and in the right place and definitely at the right time.
Liverpool One is up for the Stirling Prize by the same website, yet one of its iconic buildings is being lambasted by the negative and disgruntled few.
The Pier Head Ferry Terminal has also been drawn into the same nonsense. I personally love its positioning, style and seamless linking of old and new, including its proximity to the Three Graces, the new canal link and the fabulous new museum.
Liverpool is an amazing world- class city and we should all congratulate Merseytravel for their bold new Ferry Terminal and Grosvenor for transforming the city centre. They helped create almost 5,000 new jobs, while bringing iconic retail outlets, a fabulous new Hilton Hotel, a stunning new Chavasse Park and, of course, a great place to set up home in the bold design, that is One Park West.
Cllr Gary Millar, Executive Member for Enterprise and Tourism, Liverpool City Council
Not quite sure who stabbed the building in the back Mr Miller who asked me did I want a badge, I declined.

Well it has been said that the standard of this piece of, well if you could call it architecture is more suitable for the preferences of a 10 year old.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/tree-huggers-sue-for-copyright.html
Paid for by Grosvenor they rolled them out at Park West Worst for this desperate PR stunt. A colleague of mine went on facebook to check out how its all going and the organiser of it is http://en-gb.facebook.com/jvolpfletcher. She works for a PR company called ThinkPublicity http://www.thinkpublicity.co.uk/ and guess what (if you can stand the annoying website) their clients are Trinity Mirrors Group, Grosvenor and they launched the One Park Worst opening evening. They say they launched LDP the Liverpool Daily Post Business Club.....they say at the launch for Liverpool.com and they are pleased to be associated with Trinity Mirror.

They also have as clients Negresco and a couple of other Guttman enterprises who seem to always go bust and recently went bang and caused outrage when the same owners opened up the same week further down the same road in Lark Lane.

http://www.liverpoolconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNwEiKaqjJWAqNwB6IaqiNwA

WHAT A DESPERATE ACT BUT I LEAVE IT WITH ONE FINAL COMMENT LEFT OF FACEBOOK.

Nick Wensley (Liverpool) wrote at 12:07
I'm in work then too... Do they not understand our great home is supposed to look like a ship? Explaining that would make all the confusion and bad feeling evaporate i'm sure!

followed by another comment

This building is supposed to look like a ship ? The Titanic comes to mind. No bad feelings or confusion, it is truly awful and should sink without trace. Are there enough lifeboats ?

Building Design's 2009 Carbuncle Cup Nominations. Two Entries for Liverpool

BD magazine, the Architects Weekly have had a lot of nominations for this years Carbuncle Cup. Liverpool is in the unfortunate situation of having two nominations for this years Carbuncle.
LPT nominated the horrendous One Park "Gone" West as a crime against architecture the building they, promised us would be Ichonic and it turns out Ichronic. Grosvenor promised us a building by a world class architect, a Cesar Pelli.......and they give us a Cesar Salad. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search?q=chavasse+park

The architect, if that's what you would wish to call him did not even visit the city. He couldn't have done as he would have had to think how it would look from the Albert Dock, the biggest group of Grade I listed buildings in the country and a World Heritage Site. What a mess. Click on the link below to see this years nominations.


http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3146320

Less than half a mile away is the Terminal Ferry Building nominated by David Swift. It has to be a close run thing between these two monsters. If you would have told me you could build a worse building then the old Bernie's Inn, The Shanghai Palace, I would have declared it couldn't be done. Well they did it. What an achievement...only its the wrong achievment for sure. The World Heritage Site has been despoiled, in such a way that it is akin to giving a pretty girl a black eye. The Ferry Terminal is a perfect match to the new museum, which could well be next years nomination for the carbuncle cup, if they ever finish it. Oh hang on there is some big competition with the Three Grotesques at Mann Island. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search?q=ferry+terminal So Warren Bradley tells us that Prince Charles told him that he supports Liverpool's regeneration...well can you believe that. It seems the architectural profession don't quite agree.http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/beauty-or-beast-new-liverpool-pier-head-ferry-terminal/5204487.article

Liverpool One, by David Littlefield.

I was asked to review this book for Building Design magazine. Not surprising the author has taken it badly.
And that was the edited version.
HIS COMMENTS WERE LEFT ON THE BD WEBSITE.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=723&storycode=3143733
29 June, 2009
Reviewed by Wayne Colquhoun, chairman and spokesperson of the Liverpool Preservation Trust
Written in the euphoria of the opening of Liverpool One, a shopping centre that opened, ironically, just as we hit the worst retail recession for 80 years. All those moody shots of… shop fronts and escalators.
Liverpool One by David Littlefield.It says everything one would expect it to. It was funded and published by Grosvenor. It tells the story as they want it to be told.
But it fails to address questions like how much Grosvenor paid for the a third of Liverpool city centre. The people put out of business who lost their livelihoods don’t have a say, it just waxes lyrical, and it’s all from the developer’s point of view.
I am not sure who would buy such a book that at times is factually incorrect, especially the section about the Cesar Pelli monolith on Chavasse Park, in the World Heritage Site buffer zone, which was 12 storeys on the masterplan and increased to 17.
I had to navigate the city being dug up for years to get more choice for shirts, and now Grosvenor-pool has opened I still can’t find a decent one.
It praises the architects, the council, the duke, and the people who worked there. Anyone would think they had built Rome.
In reality it is not brilliant architecture. They knocked down The sixties Moat House and Steers House (two hated buildings) and built blocks in the same style, only 12 storeys higher. All the architectural critics have now had their say, but as the dust settles this is a book about a shopping centre, an open roofed Trafford Park in the City. Yippeee!

COMMENTS BY David Littlefield 3 July, 2009
As the author of the book, it's clearly not up to me to say whether it's any good or not. But (equally clearly) Mr Colquhoun doesn't like the Liverpool One development, which is entirely predictable, bearing in mind his role at the local preservation trust. However, his view of the book is jaundiced by his view of the development itself. Rather than waxing lyrical, the book contains some material that makes uncomfortable reading for Grosvenor, as the project didn't go entirely according to plan. Grosvenor has been honest about things which most private firms would not make public. Also, Grosvenor did not publish the book - Wiley did, and they are certainly not in the business of publishing the sort of puffery Mr Colquhoun suggests it is. As for the question of how much Grosvenor paid the city council for the site - the answer is in the book (it's a percentage of rental income). As for the Duke, he gets 2 or 3 brief mentions in a book of 40,000 words. Mr Colquhoun hasn't reviewed this book - he's used it as an opportunity to criticise the project itself. I would hope that most readers would find a far greater degree of objectivity in this book than he suggests.

He has been paid for it (by Grosvenor or the publishers) so he's alright I suppose. I just cant understand why anyone would want a book about a shopping centre.......and not a very good one at that. I have to say that I love modern design and all this critisizm about not being able to judge modernism is really silly. Bad or boring architecture is the same no matter what style or era it is. The secret is being able to see that and not be persuaded by a load of press pack tosh. Talking of which here is the Daily Ghost review.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2009/06/15/liverpool-one-becomes-the-subject-of-a-new-book-charting-its-rise-to-glory-92534-23879020/

WHAT ANNOYS ME IS THAT HE, BEING PAID BY GROSVENOR HAS PROPEGATED UNTRUTHS ABOUT THE CESAR PELLI BUILDING ON CHAVASSE PARK. Yes he says it is not universaly liked (a understatement). BUT HE WRONGLY CLAIMS THAT THE BUILDING WAS REDUCED FROM 20 TO 17. THIS IS RUBBISH. The building was 12 Storeys on the master plan and the greedy Grosvenor wacked the height up to 20 so they got 17. I know this because I was there at the planning meeting. This has now backfired on them. At the present moment in time 56 out of 346 flats are occupied. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/rod-holmes-came-in-my-shop-today.html

I was about to limber up to tackle the need to understand how we opened a retail therapy palace at the start of the worst recession for 80 years but I think a nice byline is the take on the subject by Correspondent who says it well.
http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/merseyside-recession-free-zone.html

Chavasse Park a Monument to Greed

Rod Holmes came in my shop today.
I left him very wound up last time I spoke with him. The usual calm and collective Rodney who pulled the whole scheme together for the Duke of Grosvenor-pool and Westminster was annoyed with me. I had dared to state that the project was like a Trafford Park in the city without a roof on. He went for it “Well that’s just your opinion” he said he got very agitated at one time.
Florence Gersten and I were objectors to the absolutely horrendous Cesar Pelli tower on Chavasse Park in the buffer zone. He had been very worried, we having brought Unesco into Liverpool for a reactive monitoring mission had complained to the Chief Planning officer that they had started work without planning consent. Subsequently a planning committee approval was sought in no time at all. Lady Dorian Jones vacated the chair because she knew the applicant. She had recently publicly stated how she had such a wonderful time at the Duke of Westminster’s daughters wedding…. er hang on the chair of the planning committee who Warren Bradley the council leader stated publicly had mentored him, whose address came up as CH4 9DG, which is on the Dukes Estate ....how curious.

David” I don’t live in Liverpool” Irving the deputy chair passed it while the convicted Councillor Hurst tried to agitate me to put me off. They already had it passed in my opinion and now we have something resembling Widnes Tech on the Liverpool skyline. Rodney was back to his usual calm self today and I did not wind him. His wife had told him about my shop, not sure if he knew it was me who runs it, as he may not have come in.
I had listened to a Radio 4 programme today about the recession and the subsequent empty shops. The presenter was in Chester while the interviewees were claiming a lot of people had gone shopping to Liverpool 1 hitting the town hard. So the Duke of Westminster who has a vast estate, just outside Chester, has helped kill the town because he built Liverpool 1. How strange is that, is that like shooting yourself in the foot or what?

Image 1 The building completed. Image 2 under construction showing its placement in the WHS. Image 3 from the Albert Dock the biggest conglomeration of Grade I listed buildings in the country.

Rod is now chair of Mersey Partnerships. He was mopping beads of sweat last time I was speaking to him calling us the Heritage People “Well we tried to engage everybody”. He said and I stopped him and said “Mr Holmes why do you look at those who love their city as enemies".

He stopped and paused “ Sometimes Mr Holmes your enemies are your best friends in disguise, they are the ones that tell you the truth” I proclaimed.

I wish him well in his new job but we need to keep an eye on Peel Holdings who have far too much power.
http://www.peelwaters.co.uk/LpoolWaters.html

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/developer-threatens-liverpool-scheme-move/1084851.article
The flats at Chavasse Park that we and others objected to, have been reduced again to 90k because they have not sold. They will also give you 5k of furniture free that’s a minimum of 20% down in the year since they went on the market. The potential buyers reneged, so they have not sold. The reality is that if Grosvener and the council Spivs who pushed it through increasing its height from 12 Storeys on the master plan to 17 storeys had of listened they would not have had an empty block and an eyesore in the World Heritage Site, that we will have to live with forever, or until it falls down in 30 years. Sometimes people don’t listen.

Captain Chavasse will be turning in his grave with this as monument to his sacrifice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Godfrey_Chavasse

CABE-Who funds them?

Just who polices the Heritage police.

I thought it strange that CABE would have an office in Liverpool and thought to find who funded it.

http://www.designliverpool.org.uk/

Yes round up all the usual suspects.

How can you have a local design review panel funded by this City Council promoting the ideas by Liverpool Vision and funded by the NWDA.

UNESCO state clearly in their analogues on Liverpool that they have taken the advice of CABE and the English Heretics, yet recently when I met the obnoxious Paul Finch he was gobbing off about the need to send Unesco packing from Liverpool. "Its none of thier business" he said at a AJ conference in the Crown Plaza. I had a quiet word with him and told him in no uncertain terms that his opinion was unwarranted as he does not live here and therefore what has it got to do with him with his autocratic big mouth.

This conference chaired by Finch was a platform for Grosvenor, Broadway Maylan building the "Three Ugly Sisters" at Mann Island. Henry Owen John. The Riechmarchal Lee gave a guttural talk http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search?q=nigel+Lee cracking jokes like a sad case with no-one laughing.

So just who is running the design of Liverpool.............if anyone at all.

The above building replaced Steers House and is in the world heritage site buffer zone

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article5621460.ece regarding Mr Binneys Rose Tinted spectacles and his guided tour of Grosvenor-pool it is worth noting that not all agree with his diagnosis of Liverpool city council giving the go-ahead to building over Steers dock the first purpose built dock in the world. But it is apparent that he likes it so he is entitled to his opinion http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article5574905.ece

Even if this is the site of the Custom House which is now Chavasse lawn and houses one of the worst buildings I have ever seen.

They promised us a Cesar Pelli and we get a Cesar Salad