The Bluecoat- And The Destruction of Herbert Tyson-Smith's Studio.

I had an owner of a business in the Bluecoat in my shop yesterday trying to sell me an Arthur Dooley, which looked more like an Arthur Do-one.


He is closing down his shop at the entrance to the Bluecoat. “The new Dawn we were promised never really got started” he said. It’s a shame. His shop wasn’t brilliant but it’s sad to see any small shopkeeper go out of business. This was something I discussed in great detail with Winifred Robinson of Radio 4’s You and Yours programme while we were recording a piece for her programme. She asked if Liverpool was in danger of turning into a theme park. pic view from the Bluecoat garden and Tyson Smiths studio still laying vacant after it was dismantled and.....homoginised to suit the new plasticity.

Grosvenor-pool is now the new name for Liverpool. It seems that we now see the wholescale footfall change that now sees areas of the city empty. The wasy that paradise street was. Lets hope its not another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2008/apr/02/the.bluecoat   I came across this Guardian video that I recall being filmed. Alistair Upstart was in full swing playing up to the cameras….he was bussed in for Capital of Culture famedom, where is he now. After cocking the whole essence of what our grand old lady was, an architectural legacy a little worn around the edges a bit frail on its feet. Then with him at the helm it got a fake botox and a silicon implant or too and makes itself a skeleton of itself. Like some old scouse mutton dressed up as lamb. Now two years later the implants have sagged, the lips have creased, she is now a poor and feeble shadow of itself and proof that beauty is only skin deep. The thick skinned vandals who destroyed its character include David “Fuzzy Felt” Fleming who should have been on the board of Starbucks he has opened more coffee bars than they have in the last 5 years. The only problem being every time he opens a new one some of our culture is moved out to allow it.

Alistair talks about Yoko Ono’s wish tree that was reconstituted in the garden. I wish they would have left it alone these vandals have destroyed the character of a great old friend of mine. I would often sit in the garden.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-novatel-tragic-addition-to.html

There is a section on the video of a woman who opened up a handicraft shop making necklaces out of old buttons. I recall thinking at the time what would the aficionados of culture make of this as an emblem of 2008. Incidentally does anyone know who is European Capital of Culture this year, thought not? It was only us who got wound up about it. The full reality is the Capital of Culture that turned into Culture of Capital ruined the Bluecoat. The regeneration that seen the garden ruined, to what, by any stretch of the imagination, could only be labelled vandalism, also saw the grand old lady get a carbuncle behind it that shows exactly what we know about culture….stuff all because no cultured city led by cultured people, hello Warren, would commit such an act of vandalism that makes me angry every time I look down School lane. Arthur Dooley a man who I look back on and admire whilst not liking all of his art. Who campaigned to allow Liverpool artists to hang their work on the Bluecoat railings will be turning in his grave. It got hit in the war. It was rebuilt after the blitz and then the Reich marshal Nigel Lee and English Heretics under the stewardship of Simon Thurley http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/english-heritage-dumber-and-dummer.html  get hold of it and they have ripped the gubbings out of it so it is now a silicon plastic pad out of itself. I liked it better the way it was.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html
And to think Herbert Tyson-Smiths sculpture studio (intact) was destroyed to make way for this…………and two years later its still empty.