Showing posts with label Chavasse Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chavasse Park. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 February 2017

Mushtaq Saleri Studio Three Chavasse Park Mushroom Farm Pavilion.

 Studio 3

They build sheds and they build them badly.
The only problem is that they are not supposed to be building sheds they are supposed to building new modern structures that will last.
Engaged by a Grosvenor contractor BDP to build a swanky showpiece structure as part of the Chavasse Park development that opened in 2008, they went for an origami style black building that reflects........well nothing really.....it doesn't match anything around the Park.
Chavasse Park is the bit of green they stole from the public to build cafes restaurants on what was a grassy park.
A bit basic but it was green lung in the city that was used by office workers to let off steam. 
It still is now to some extent but its a lot more stressful now.
Yes they paved Paradise (Street) and put up a parking lot. 
Then you have even more foolish people applauding bad design here is a revue by Sevenstreets.com (probably a paid for advertorial as that's what Sevenstreets do)
And on top of this parking lot Studio Three built a shrivelled up shed.
Just have a laugh at their foolish design.
They were put up for awards for this new snazzy bit of modernism.(sic)
 Praise was lauded onto the new young up and coming company that was about to take the world, or maybe Liverpool by storm. 
Inspired by a crumpled ciggy packet the set about building a bar with sloping sides and roof that must be very confusing when you come out after a half a pint of cider and think you have drunk about 12 pints.
Its all over the place. But the critics loved it. Critics usually know nothing of what they are criticising. This critic does.
This is a perfect example of what happens when the new architectural kids on the block are let loose with their lack of experience.
They build something that looks like it is falling over.
But worse the people responsible did not understand even the most basic of rules.
 That water needs to be taken away from a building.
Especially one that is made of wood, that also is in direct exposure to the sun.
This building saps up water like a sponge because all the angles direct the rain into little pockets that hold it in tight angled places.
Then the sun dries it out and it warps, exposing more of the underneath and then even more water penetrates and you get.......a mushroom farm.


Basic stuff that any simple person would understand.
But apparently not the whizz kids of Studio 3 didn't.
This sort of Jerry building is made even worse by the cost of it rumoured to be a million pounds.







When the wood is removed for repair, after seven years this was a wreck, you then can see that the frame is constantly under attack from the elements and though the mushroom farms look bad just imagine what its like where you cant see.
The joinery company RJC should hide their heads in shame instead they have put it on their website.
So great was it that Architects Ellis Williams snapped up the Studio and merged it with the firm. 
Hey there's nothing like thinking small. http://www.ewa.co.uk/project/chavasse-park-pavilion

The architect Mushtaq Saleri should be struck off for this. If he is in fact qualified. 
Surely he couldn't have been. Could he?
I find it hard to believe that anyone with more than a low grade eleven CSE qualification had the intellect to knock this up.
And to use softwood. 





Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Chavasse Lawn-The Park Where Grass Wont Grow But The Hilton Hotel Does.





 Like the words of the song,
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.
 Chavasse Lawn a park that is now 30ft up in the air and built of massive polystyrene blocks on top of a steel frame.
To make a parking lot.
No wonder the grass wont grow.
 Now Liverpool's WAG land The Hilton Hotel has put a planning application in to the city council....PASSED.... to build an extension on the side of the concrete hotel that was once Steers House the council offices.

 Most people will forget that when the then council leader Mike Storey and his mate David Henshaw gave the land to The Duke of Westminster for a peppercorn, he then sold it off to the Hilton for £20,000,000 thus getting a huge chunk of his money back in no time at all.


Mike Storey  deserves an MBE for that and should be made a Lord oh and David Henshaw should be knighted for his sterling work in helping the aristocracy get even richer.

One Park Gone West the monstrous carbuncle inspired by a greenhouse.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

Ex Lord Mayor Gary Miller came dressed as a balloon to defend its merits.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html




This was while the pathetic Oldham Echo PR'd the grand giveaway, and reported it in a way that would not attract so much attention as to raise suspicion that anything was wrong.
It would prove rather interesting if someone was to submit a FOI request and find out the full details of what we sold, or gave away to the richest man in the country.

Monday, 23 July 2012

Mann Island-Shortlisted For Carbuncle Cup Award

They got away with it last year by claiming it was not finished but this year it has been shortlisted for the Carbuncle Cup Award run by Building Design Magazine.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/carbuncle-cup-2012-the-shortlist/5040098.article
 BD says
Our list also boasts two wrist-slashingly awful housing schemes: the dismally proportioned, thinly detailed and grimly utilitarian Firepool Lock in Taunton and the Mann Island development in Liverpool, a scheme that completes the desecration of that city’s once great waterfront.



http://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/carbuncle-cup-nomination-%E2%80%94-mann-island-by-broadway-malyan/5038739.article
Last year the new Museum of Liverpool http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/museum-of-liverpool-runner-up-in-2011.html was runner up to Peel Holdings Media City.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/peel-holdings-win-carbuncle-cup-what.html
Dont forget the 2009 winner the godawful Termunal Ferry Carbuncle  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.htmlhttp://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/liverpools-pier-head-and-its-new.html and One Parked Here Without Our Say So the infamous One Park Worst on Mann Island came 4th. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html
Liverpool is now on the World Heritage In Danger List and we are constantly  told about how the city is Regenerated.
You couldnt make this up.

A reminder of the "Before and After" and the crime against architecture and the principles of World Heritage that has taken place




Friday, 8 July 2011


Mann Island Nominated For Building Designs Carbuncle Cup Award.



Its that time of the year again when Liverpool's Binge Builders wake up with a hangover and cringe.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk//buildings/carbuncle-cup/


 click here



Matt Brook the poor excuse for an Architect. He of World Heritage disaster at Mann Island will have to accept the prize there can be no other more worthy winner for the 2011 Carbuncle Cup award than the atrocious Three Black Coffins built by Broadway Malyan for Neptune Developments.

They promised us Iconic and give us Ichronic, an anachronism of bad design plonked bang slappo in the world heritage site despoiling the best views of Liverpool, cherished views, they turn Liverpool's World Heritage Site into World Heritage S*ite.

There is no other way to describe it.

It is like giving a pretty girl a black eye and then knocking her teeth out and then saying now you cant smile anymore.

The Terminal Ferry Building was well accepted as a worthy winner in 2009. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/ptolemy-dean-talks-about-liverpools.html


Is it just my opinion, I think not.

http://badbritisharchitecture.blogspot.com/2009/07/pier-head-ferry-terminal-liverpool-by.html


http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/mann-island-nominated-for-building.html






http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html

This is what we said last year


Monday, 7 March 2011

Same Old Liverpool-Same Old Second Rate Reporting.

It is alarming when you read an article fom Olivier Shah working for the Times, although she gives us a mention, it is obvious she has never been to Liverpool and has done her research by Google.
You may have to click on the article to read it which is paywalled so I have taken a picture of it.

Monday, 6 December 2010

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

Thursday, 2 December 2010

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.

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.

Friday, 26 November 2010

Why Does Merseytravel Own Ringo's House in Madryn Street?

Paul McCartney at a gig at the reproduction of The Cavern in 2007 said "We are glad to be here at the Cavern.......I cant believe they knocked the original one down".
Yes this is the city that knocked down the Cavern Club just before it called itself Beatles city, and then built a repro, not even in its place.
 It is the 11th hour and 55 minutes for Ringo's birthplace. He may not be the most liked person in the city after saying he did not regret leaving Liverpool in a smurky manner on the Jonothan Woss show.
Ringo was bad at the opening ceremony of European Capital of Culture organised by Jane Casey of Big in Japan or was that, Big in A Can.
How original to hoist a metal container over St Georges Hall, the same container that seen off all the Liverpool dockers, and have Dave Stewart from Newcastle join Ringo. How Rongo was that? It was tacky. It was the poor little children carrying lanterns inside plastic stacking crates still with the £2.99 Rapid Hardware stickers on that I felt sorry for.
And Baron Redmondstien, we created a monster, shouting "Errr love me do, will yeh" and then buggering off home to Tarporly.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/phil-redmonds-house-is-featured-in.html
Yes it was that grim. And you couldn't say anything there was a hush that meant you had to go along with it all.
2008, The disguise that hid the World Heritage decimation and the gift to Grosvenor of a third of the city centre. Its head honcho Rod Holmes who works for the Mersey Partnership..........one day a week, who does not live here, has now proclaimed
"Even without the Ringo house we still have enough Original Beatles sites".
 This is the bloke who has just erected the godawful 'Give Peas a Chance' piece of junk in Grosvenor-pool on Chavasse Lawn.
 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html
Holmes said to me he rushed Chavasse Park. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/rod-holmes-came-in-my-shop-today.html
A monument to greed and now bad taste in sculpture as well as architecture. http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/11/grosvenor-pool-garment-led-renaissance.html
"We are hardly ignoring the value of Beatles Tourism" he says in the LDP business week magazine. There is obviously someone still at the paper with a heritage conscience to write this contoversial stuff, even if it is supressed by "Physco" Bill Gleeson the business editor.
Rod Holmes will probably complain and that will be that covered up by the cowards at the editorial level.
It has now come to light that Merseytravel owns the house in Madryn Street.
What is Neil Scales doing meddling in local politics? This is a man who knows nothing of our heritage.
Is he going to break it into five so you can walk through it like he did with U-534, The Vandal. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/u-534-cut-up-into-five-pieces-by-neil.html read this it came out.
Or will he commission the dreaded Tom Murphy to put a Ken Dodd up in the new estate, if anything ever gets built, as a legacy of 2008?
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html

So as New Heartlands the council rip the heart out of an area and then say we are going to rebuild it...Clever, really clever.
Neil Scales is out of control and should not have interfered here.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/joe-anderson-to-save-liverpools.html
There is still time to save Ringo's house. Joe Anderson should intevene instead of making excuses.
He said he will scrap home demolitions http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/liverpools-joe-anderson-we-will-scrap.html So why cant he scrap this one.

Friday, 5 November 2010

Tom Murphy-Dumping Bad Sculpture On The Streets Of Liverpool.

 More street clutter from David Charters, of the Daily Ghost's, best mate. An advertorial in fact.
To have people commenting on art who don't understand it is a shame.
To have people on committees who don't own a piece of art or have never grasped the whole motion or concept of public sculpture is a disgrace.
You know who you are Fred Obrien & Co and those of you who commissioned, without a place to dump it, the heroic Captain Chavasse now ruined in bronze and suffering from a botox because Tom Murphy has no life modelling experience. Or appears not to have.
Murphy has let down so many of our heroes and characters in soul-less depictions, ripping off the public in the process. Here, Billy Fury, halfway to misery.
In spitting distance to the Johnnie Walker sculpture at the Pier Head who looks like he has had a bottle or two too many.  Alright hes not a looker but to do that to him is extreme. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_John_Walker Billy Fury's official fan club, The Sound of Fury donated the statue. Thanks for that. The only fury I can hear the sound of is people saying "why did someone make his arms go down to his knees, did he sing the Funky Gibbon".
The new plaque looks more like the lead singer from A Flock of Seagulls, are they sure they have got the right statue. Now, I understand people mean well but we had the John Lennon turkey in John Lennon Airport, (above us CO2 emmisions). Interesting its Alastair Machrays favourite sculpture...well there you go.
Give peas a chance. 
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html
How many more crap statues can the city take.
So Tom brought us the Ken Dodd with a kebab alongside the Bessie Braddock that looks like a sack with a head on it. Even Kenn Dodd said "Well at least its somewhere for the pidgeons to sit."
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html Read this.

Stop dumping shit on us at artificially high prices. I challenge Murphy whatever subject he wants I will sculpt  a better depiction than he can dream of making. Although he does have one talent, that of making Bronze look like cast iron, its supposed to be the other way around of course.
 David Charters should never have been allowed to market this man, masquerading as an artist, pulling the wool over already blind eyes. There was a time when we commissioned some good stuff in Liverpool. Those days are long gone.




One sculpture that I used to like was the Boy with the Horse at the bottom of Bold Street opposite the Lyceum. It was said to have cost £150,000 and I used to love the way the public interacted with it. Though one day I saw a mother drag her child away in horror who was polishing a part of it that it should have been. It has now been turned into a....wheelie bin. Who robbed it? why was it moved? why didn't anyone at the Daily Ghost, er David Charters even notice?
So Liverpool European Capital of Bad Sculpture where we dump our good art to replace it with, Tom Murphy Turkey's....clever, the people who run our city, so cultured for sure.

Thursday, 21 October 2010

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.

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

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. 

Monday, 11 October 2010

Peace Monument Unveiled For John Lennons 70th Birthday-Give Bad Sculpture A Chance.

Any Old Iron- Liverpool European Capital of Bad Beatles Statues. It has to be said.
The tradition was upheld with the unveiling of another naff piece of junk this Saturday.
The unveiling was done by Julien and Cynthia, who understandably had a difficult day holding back the emotions. John Lennon is and was an amazing person and an inspiration, who was able to think out of the box, not to be drawn in by what was being told to him, not believing people selling you rubbish, never accepting the status quo.  Educated in the university of life he must be turning in his grave with the naff tributes to him that now litter the streets of Liverpool. The Four Lads who made me cry on the Hard Days Night Hotel, George Harrison looks like Gandolf from Lord of the Rings. Rod Holmes the head man of Grosvenor was there, I saw him on Sky, it went all round the world. Uncle Joe Anderson was there saying how great it was, what does he know of style over spin, what does he know of good public art. The builder of Chavasse Lawn, Grosvenor, the pseudo park 40 feet in the air, that has now been dug up and relaid where water is streaming down the steps because of its inferior design and its jerry-built lack of quality love this sculpture and how it gets them attention. Grosvenor would not put a tribute to Captain Chavasse V.C and Bar, instead they have gone for the obvious, give them what they want, naffness.
Captain Chavasse would maybe approve in one way, with te sentiment, Give Peace a Chance as he was killed in action in a First World War that killed millions, but there is no substitute for inferior workmanship and bad design. When it comes to public monuments and Tom Murphy did a botoxed version of the great man Captain Chavasse, that now doesn't have a home, on the off chance he could knock it in to Grosvenor, with the help of his personal PR man, David Charters of the Daily Ghost, his bessie mate, who wouldnt know a decent statue if one fell on him. There is something the people who make the decisions on Liverpool's public art have no or little understanding of......quality.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/rod-holmes-came-in-my-shop-today.html   

It is a scandal that we have the worst Beatles monuments in the world while Madryn Street Ringos birthplace, is being bulldozed. This is a city that knocked down the Cavern Club, just before calling itself Beatles City and turns its World Heritage Site into Milton Keynes-On-Sea. One thing is good they didn't let Tom Murphy the pudding maker of the John Lennon Turkey at the John Lennon Airport do this one. Why not just call us Lennonpool and be done with it? Thanks to Correspondent in regularly pointing out the fact that we don't just have the Beatles. pic Chavasse Park being repaired after 1 year http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/10/statement-from-lennonpool-city-council.html Stop Press at Oldham Hall Street..............At the Shanghai Expo, The Scaffold are reforming (Mike McCartney should be on one) http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/mike-mccartney-professional-scouser-and.html  on October the 16th to impress those big investors that we are still all Lilly the Pink in Lennonpool.  http://profchucklebuttychronic.blogspot.com/2010/07/another-330k-for-liverpool-day-at.html
Catherine Jones the Daily Dimwits intrepid, err, journalist covering the monumental Lennon Give Bad Sculpture A Chance event covered the Ken Dodd one also.
The last big unveiling was of a Tom Murphy was Ken Dodd with a kebab in his hand at Lime Street Station and Bessie Braddocks, a sack with a head on it.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html Tom Murphy, Liverpools finest, yes that is how bad things have become. Neil Scales of Merseytravel who cut up the U-534 commissioned it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/u-534-cut-up-into-five-pieces-by-neil.html
David Backyard the architect of Cavern Walks said to me his one regret was commissioning the Beatles Statue inside it. Just who put the one of Elvis in Mathew Street. I like Arthur Dooleys the Four Lads Who Shook The World  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/arthur-dooley-remember-him.html and instead of saving his studio and honouring him the city leaders follow the crowd and give them what they want......Bad Beatles Sculpture......Any Old Iron.

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Round Up All the Usual Suspects, To Turn A Blind Eye To World Heritage Disaster in Liverpool.

Last nights BBC programme where Jonathan Foyle explores northern Georgian and Victorian neo-classical civic buildings.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tnw4p/Peoples_Palaces_The_Golden_Age_of_Civic_Architecture_NeoClassical/

I used to feel so proud whilst watching this sort of programme, even while we were in a economic mess. Now they just annoy me.
Round up all the usual suspects to have their say. The milksop Joseph Sharples, a bag of nerves who has the intelligence after updating Pevsners guide but does nothing with it. Or does he? I walked away from him last time I saw him on the Strand and he told me he admired the Cesar Pelli Carbuncle, One Park Worst!!!!!!!!!!!
Then they trundle off to the Bluecoat using the shot so the camera cannot see the carbuncle behind it.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-novatel-tragic-addition-to.html
Interviewing Lawrence Westgaph, a heritage fighter, who says what he thinks, about slavery. He's also a fighter of other sorts having just escaped manacles himself.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html

I find it hard to start off a programme about Civic pride in Grosvenor-pool but there you go.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html
This is the place they buried the first purpose built dock under a multi story car park. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.
Oh excuse me for being pedantic.

He then turned his attention to Thomas Harrisons Lyceum that Florence Gersten had the foresight to save from demolition that is now threatened with a carbuncle behind it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-lyceum-of-bold-street-is-to-gets.html
At St Georges Hall, You can forgive Steve Binns because he cant see the mess that has been created of late.

They did not visit the Pier Head to see the mess there in the world heritage site.

This was a not very well updated version of the Gavin Stamp programmes some 5 or 6 years ago.
Good old BBC.

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Garden Grabbing to be Outlawed-Too Late For Liverpool. We Have None Left.

Councils are to be given powers to stop Garden Grabbing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8728633.stm
Garden-grabbing is an emotive term used by campaigners who oppose the building of blocks of flats on land that was formerly gardens. Neighbours who have had their view spoilt by these flats object to the Government’s definition of gardens as brownfield land, which leaves them vulnerable to property developers.

That view has to be balanced against the fact of Britain’s housing shortage: the Government’s target is 200,000 new homes each year, yet only 160,000 were completed in 2006. That lack of supply artificially inflates house prices and wrenches the first rung of the property ladder away from the reach of the majority of young people. The issue hit the headlines last week, when the Conservative MP Greg Clark introduced a Private Member’s Bill calling for the removal of gardens from the definition of brownfield sites. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article1966188.ece Portions of gardens are also being sold off by homeowners who prefer cash to mowing lawns. One couple, Zoë and Norman Carter, bought a plot of land that was originally part of someone else’s back garden in the north Cornwall village of St Breward, and have just built a new home on it. The neighbours objected. “Obviously people don’t like change,” says Norman Carter. “But we tried to combat this by using local builders and suppliers, which helped with some of the resistance.” Most of his neighbours have now come round, though he admits that a couple are still unhappy.

James Greenwood, of Stacks, the buying agents who acted for the Carters, says that garden-grabbing is on the increase: “Traditionally, it was associated with the South East but now it is a widening phenomenon. Rock in Cornwall is a prime example. There is huge demand for property here and developers are buying up any small piece of land they can lay their hands on. But a warning to potential developers: you will not be popular with the locals. Villagers will never be happy about more properties being crammed into their area.”
Those tempted to defy the neighbours and sell off the bottom of their garden should act soon: Mr Clark’s Bill is due to be heard in Parliament on October 19.

But what of Liverpool where the council gives public gardens away to developers. Warren "War Zone" Bradley was good at that, giving the whole Garden Festival site away. That was left to decay to facilitate a give away price. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/is-warren-bradley-really-that-thick.html Within the  site and paid for by public money after the Toxteth riots there was the Velodrome (see Picture).
The much needed building was dismantled right under the noses of council leaders. Warrens watch as a fire bobby was Toxteth is a mess still 30 years after the riots. Within Loiuse Ellmans constituancy.

Then there is One Park Gone West on what was Chavasse Park , now Chavasse Lawn, which is now a car park 40 feet in the air.
 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html The council allowed the building of a giant carbuncle on the site to satisfy the ex council leader Sir Clever Trevor Jones friend the Duke of Westminster. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html Voted No 4 in BDs Carbuncle Cup competition.
Unfortunatly the laws will be wasted on Liverpool Planners this we have no gardens left.

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

A History of the World-Two Rival Cities

Broadcaster and writer Stuart Maconie takes a wry look at the rivalry between the two great northern cities of Liverpool and Manchester through historical objects .They've both been at the heart of developments which have shaped the world, and their economies have been interdependent. Yet everyone knows Mancs and Scousers hate each other - but why?


Stuart discovers that the roots of the rivalry are buried centuries back. The cities didn't lock horns when they were puny youngsters. They waited till they'd built themselves up into giants, then had a showdown which literally tore a divide across the North West, and left festering resentment which persists to this day. Broadcast on:BBC One, 7:30pm Monday 17th May 2010 Duration: 30 minutes Available until: 7:59pm Monday 24th May 2010 Categories:Factual, History


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sj1fd/A_History_of_the_World_A_Tale_of_Two_Rival_Cities/

More mischief making by the BBC spreading rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester.
http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/03/take-on-two-cities.html Correspondent had made a mention to it when it was reported in the Times.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article7075464.ece

The programme talks about Liverpools, well the first Dock in the world, now Chavasse Park. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html The Dock is buried under Grosvenor-pool........realy clever that turning the worlds first wet dock into a car-park.
They paved Paradise......and put up a parking lot. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-balloons-arrive-for-group.html
It continues with the building of the Manchester Ship Canal to bypass Liverpools port. Exactly what Peel Holdings are doing again.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpeel.html

I cant help thinking that if Manchester had of owned a world heritage site they would not have carbuncled it.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

The Daily Peel-Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors.

Now how did I know that the Daily Ghost…..a shadow of its former self under the leadership, well if that’s what you could call it of Mark Thomas would be right behind it? Mark as understudy to Alistair Machray editor at the Oldham Echo. He may be under orders or was it out of loyalty to his sponsors of the trip to Shanghai that he edited this one in, we will never know. This appears to be an opinion others share. http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/treacherous-waters.html  See Correspondents excellent take on the matter. Cue Neil Hodgson the very same journo who promoted One Park Worst on Chavasse Park (that came fourth in the National Carbuncle Cup awards) in the Daily Ghost on behalf of Grosvenor by telling the public in his report in the Echo that the development was to be 12 stories with a picture in the article showing 17. This is the level of putrid reporting that we have to endure. This is what makes in an unfair and unlevell playing field to argue conservation points on the grounds of respecting our heritage.

99% of people support the scheme to transform the abandoned docks into Dubai-On-Sea he says…..out of 284 questionnaires filled in. That makes err…lets say 280 people and that is hailed a success. Shame on you all with your invested interests, its disgraceful what you put out kidding the public. You should be ashamed.
See a comment left on the noticeboard in the rooms showing the plans on Friday last. Peels Lyndsey Ainsworth listened to my complaints about the historic bridge they were to demolish.
“We are not going to demolish it he said in his Manchester accent we are going to repair it”

“Well I read in the paper that it was to be demolished”
“Well you have got it wrong”
“A Peel surveyor said it was shot”
“Look you don’t believe what you read in the local papers do you”
“Well I believe what I read in the Salford Star they have the measure of you”
“No you shouldn’t believe anything you read in the local papers”


Here is the article………..by guess who Neil Hodgson…..the developers friend.
Bridge replacement could shut Dock Road until 2011
Apr 2 2009 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo

Bridge replacement could shut dock road until 2011
A SECTION of Liverpool’s dock road could be shut until November 2010 after the iron bascule bridge at Stanley Dock was condemned.
Docks owner Peel Holdings shut the key route between Paisley Street and Blackstone Street for a year last May to repair the badly corroded bridge, which dates back to the 1930s.
The closure hit motorists who used Regent Road as an alternative rush hour route to the parallel Great Homer Street and Derby Road.
Peel planned to complete the work in time to re-open the route – which lies within the Stanley Dock conservation area and Liverpool’s World Heritage site – next month.
But Peel Holdings development surveyor Ian Pollitt revealed that it became apparent the upper structure, which works the swing bridge, was too badly damaged to be repaired and needed to be removed.
So now the company is to submit a planning application to Liverpool council to demolish and remove the bridge and replace it with a new bridge, which Mr Pollitt said will be built elsewhere and then transported to the dock road site.
He said: “Because it is in a conservation area we have to go through a full planning application.”
A council spokesman confirmed that Peel have applied for an 18-month extension to the road closure, starting from next month when the road should have re-opened.
But Mr Pollitt said the company hopes to re-open the link much quicker: He said: “I would like to think we could take it (the bridge) out in three months and then look at installing a new fixed bridge by March next year, but we would like to think it would be sooner than that.”
However, he admitted that the timetable to install the new bridge and re-open the link could be affected by Peel’s existing plans to develop its £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme in the same Stanley Dock area.
“There could be a tram link over the bridge, so we have to take this into account.”
He said the cost of demolishing, removing and replacing the bridge will be “substantial” but Peel has already budgeted for it.
And he revealed that once the new fixed crossing is in place Peel hopes to hand the bridge over to the city.
A council spokesman said the extended closure was unavoidable: “It is not safe to allow traffic to go over it.”
A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/04/02/bridge-replacement-could-shut-dock-road-until-2011-100252-23295226/

So we are not to believe anything that we read in the local papers then, but now keen to contribute Ainsworth says
Peel is still working on submitting its outline planning application for the scheme, but development director Lindsey Ashworth said they hoped to begin preparatory work on the site by the middle of the year when they propose to repair the Bascule Bridge over the Leeds- Liverpool canal link – which was earmarked for demolition – and re-open Regent Road, which has been closed for almost two years. He said: “A series of works are also proposed to seek to repair a number of historic buildings and structures on the site, particularly towards the north of the site.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/03/public-consultation-produces-huge-backing-for-5-5bn-liverpool-waters-scheme-92534-25750119/

So who are we to believe…………certainly not Neil Hodgson?

Monday, 9 November 2009

The Banalization of Liverpool



The Banalization of Liverpool

By Paul Robinson

In all facets of the city (and I imagine in all cities of the country) banality is demonstrated, conformity is rampant, there is no new milieu, just the reclassification of old principles. People are still scared to leave plates in the bedroom for fear of what other people might say. In the surge toward cosmopolitanism, we forgot to watch our backs as tedium crept up and snatched our wallets.

                                    ***
The new build sought only to conglomerate existing structures, not to threaten. The new tenements, espousing inner city living, are bland reconfigurations of brick and mortar, indemnifying the unity of the moneyed. No architectural rebellion, no challenge to the skyline or the eyeline has been implemented. No Liverpool revolution, only dash renovation to make room for transportation of citizens in and out of the city. The city must be rejected, it's edifices denounced.
                                                                                    ***
There has been no significant artistic movement for over half a century. The Merseybeat legacy has jammed new pathways in music and poetry: in music we look to continental Europe and America for inspiration, bringing back mere imitation; in poetry we pack no unified punch, no “wah! wah!” or hand jive, no imprisonment, none willing to commit poetic crime. Creativity frequently requires penury: contentment strangles creativity, reducing artistic purpose to a diversion, pastime or hobby. Investment is not a requisite for creativity. Where is the avant-garde Liverpool breathing artistic fire? A vision we must will to transpire, otherwise the monotony of reality will lock us up and throw away the key. The artist must reject the city.
                                                                                    ***
Originality is confined to subterranean hideouts, radicalism is a shop, protest is the new spectacle, no adventure or defiance stands-up in the crowd, no artistic infection that can revolutionise our town. Flash clubs and bars act as fashion parades, places for courtship serenades, the weekend providing destructive escape from the working days gone, and those to come, that mash us into the ground.
                                                                                    ***
Klimt cannot reclaim the city for “artists, lovers and poets”, nor continental tender, nor transmutation, be it lamb or banana, nor movement or scene be reared on gossamer dress, yet the throng will tread in ignorance sublime, ploughing through reactivate buildings assembled from hurried cement.
                                                                                    ***
A new expression must be seeded, a new artistic ideology needed, the old guard thrown aside, the sewers and the backyards opened to see what can be found. No care should be given to national trend, we should cut our own path through the earth, wear what we want, think what we want, create the profound, a new subterranean art that eschews pound, terrifies the classes and reclaims a Liverpool lost to contaminated investment.
                                                                                    ***
Let starved cars choke the roads, pedestrian streets be deserted, let litter festoon retail doorways, window displays wither until dead: the emphasis must be shifted. Let Liverpool create it's own masterpiece, let the domestic screams of Grafton street be condensed into artful streams of consciousness, let the river drown the town hall and absolve the Capital enshrouding our culture. Within a few years Liverpool can become a hub of progressive chaotic excellence saturated with artists, poets, musicians and lovers, reclaimed from the dull misery that we have been intravenously fed. The city must be rejected.


Paul Robinson Poetry http://www.paulrobinsonpoetry.co.uk/

Thursday, 22 October 2009

Liverpool Hilton.


Not the worst culprit next to its big ugly sister, One Park Worst on Chavasse Park which came 4th in this years Building Design, the architects weekly, Carbuncle Cup Competition. It is never the less than average addition albeit much lower than the neighbour across the lawn.
Liverpool never won the 2009 Sterling Prize and with average architecture like this it is hardly suprising. See how it now conflicts with the Grade I listed Albert Dock (pic during construction). Did no-one at BDP architects who promote themselves as our saviours think of this.The new Novatel opens just down the road that has destroyed the view of the Bluecoat, Did no-one at BDP think of that, http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html The Bluecoat is Liverpools oldest city cenrte building and was grant aided to 20 million for the privlidge of being homoginised.
This is a view taken from Radio City Tower showing the small green space which is 40 ft in the air. Next to the Hilton is an average Bus Station although described by Beatrice Fraenkal as one of her favourites, it is not that functional, it has no-where to lay-over the buses as the old Paradise Street did. The local press are now being buttered up todays headline is a strange one.


Liverpool’s history is threaded through new Hilton hotel. Strange, really strange. Do they mean that they knocked down the hated 1960s Steers House and built something resembling Steers House only 10 storeys higher. Thats not history. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/22/liverpool-s-history-is-threaded-through-new-hilton-hotel-92534-24987236/
Or does it just mean that the local paps are now to be buttered up by the Hiltons PR company just like what happened with the launch of the Malmaison, in return for feeding us with a rich gooey substance, called, Making it up as you go along?  I see no history there, why invent some for the owners. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/videos-pictures/pictures-of-liverpool/pictures-of-liverpool-news/2009/10/21/first-pictures-of-the-hilton-hotel-liverpool-one-92534-24986400/
Is it just me or does this building resemble Bennetts Associates Edinburgh Rock http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=453&storycode=3151010&channel=783&c=2
which it is said draws on its tradition.

CODA
It was reported that the land that the new Hilton stands was sold by Grosvenor for 20 million pounds while Liverpool City Council had a deficit of...........20 million.

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Liverpool One-They have Stolen Our Streets.

And that's not my words but that apears to be the view of the architect of the recent redevelopment of the Bluecoat.
BDP’s masterplan for Liverpool One may have impressed the architects who drew up the Stirling shortlist, but Hans van der Heijden, architect of the Bluecoat arts centre next door, says its chief aim was to foster a feeling of disconnection with the rest of the city. “Liverpool One does not have a wall. Its wall is invisible, but yet it is clearly marked by the stylistic discontinuity of its architecture,” he tells Anna Minton in her new book Ground Control. Minton’s experience is little better. “I could have been anywhere in Britain or America with a high-end shopping centre… although I had been told the design of the complex faithfully followed the original street pattern, I couldn’t see any street signs.”
So we are made to feel grateful that they have been given a third of the city centre and then they nominate themselves for a Stirling Prize. http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/5209267.article Yes it is nominated by RIBA architects and with 26 different architect working on Grosvenor-pool they have effectivly nominated themselves.
Yesterdays Daily Ghost (the Oldham Echo now arrives at 7.30 a.m its only a matter of time) had a full two pages by Vicky Anderson whose partner is involved in the architectural profession, maybe he was working on the Bluecoat desecration? But hey! we never heard a bad word about it in the press. Only how good it was from people who dont understand the way the erosion of our cultural identity and its historical architecture can be so comprehensive. So when an Architect who destroyed the Bluecoat with a crass renovation led by English Heretics, leaving it a limp and lifeless space, with a ruined garden, talks about Liverpool One being bad, well we know for sure, we have got a Trafford Park in the city without a roof on. And the backslappers at RIBA want to tell us how great it is......well not for me thanks. They have destroyed the world heritage site with the carbuncle on Chavasse Park that is One Park Worst. They can never be forgiven for dumping that on us. Grosvenor-pool. A city squatting within a city.
They have stolen our streets and given us a new St Johns Market, Yes thats about it.