Should Merseytravel Be Investigated By The Police?

That is a question we were asked the other day.

It now transpires that Herr Director Neil Scales sanctioned the purchase of a load of tat and bric a brac that had some vague relationship to the Beatles for 2 million quid of your money. See todays Weekly Ghost.
This was public cash.

Marc Waddington, now unshackled from the ambitious David Bartlett, who has been promoted, has done some good work lately.

Bartlett was very fortunate to take over Larry Neild’s phone who had been at the Echo for years.

We spoke to Bartlett who is now Andy Kelly’s assistant, on numerous occasions, sent him emails and questions to how Miserytravel’s finances were being run.
What did he do…..well not very much really.

Now Marc Waddington reveals how a further investigation into the running off the Miserytravel Gravy Train is to take place after more revealing allegations.

This is public money that has been used as frippery by the Directors of Miserytravel and it has gone on for decades.

Andy Kelly was a reporter when the Tram fiasco took place where Scales and Co wasted millions on steel tram lines that were never used. http://www.liverpoolcultureblog.co.uk/2009/07/merseytram-off-the-rails-for-good/

Neil Scales was the Moron who cut up U534 in a savage act of barbaric vandalism that renders it virtually worthless. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/why-did-merseytravel-spend-42-million.html

Costing us many millions

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/neil-scales-and-merseytravel-spend.html

Right in front of the noses of the local press. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/u-534-cut-up-into-five-pieces-by-neil.html

In fact the local press almost welcomed it. They flirted with Scales publishing what his PR company told them. They took advertisments from Merseytravel.
We believe, the disgraceful October Communications now Aurora Media were PR for Mersetravel at one stage.
Who Larry Nield went on to work for effectivly becoming PR for Scales & Co.

Isn't it strange the way it all goes around in Circles. October PR for Neptune Developments.....who build the Black Coffins on Mann Island.
They were commisioned by Liverpool Vision and David Wade-Smith who was Director of Liverpool Chamber of Commersce and cost the taxpayer 6.5 million in a tragic team up with Merseytravel.
 Neil Scales then becomes Liverpol Chamber Commerce Director.
Merseytravel move into the black coffins costing the taxpayer a fortune.......No wonder Private Eye call Liverpool Murkeyside.

Now Scales has buggered off to Australia….how convenient is that.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/neil-scales-buggers-off-to-australia.html

Where is he to anser question about his decisions.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/david-wade-smith-costs-taxpayer.html

Scales was mates with David Wade-Smith, one of Joe Andersons trusted advisors.

And why did Anderson not argue out the Miserytravel question when Councillor Dowd was under investigation?

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/merseytravel-mark-dowd-and-his-expense.html


His legal team tried to gag us. Maybe Louise Outram head of Legal services at Miserytravel should answer a few questions too?

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/merseytravel-try-to-gag-us-we-will-not.html

Miserytravel wasted a fortune on South Parkway Station.
 The London trains cant stop there because after a 25million refurbishment the platform was not long enough http://www.liverpoolcultureblog.co.uk/2009/07/merseytram-off-the-rails-for-good/

The clowns even wanted to buy Ringo’s House http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/9-madryn-street-ringos-house-why-knock.html


In 2008 when they were paying 2 million for a load of Lennon bric a bra they were also commissioning art…well that’s not what most people would call it.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html
 Ken Dodd with a kebab at Lime Street station as public sculpture.

You have to be a comedian to live here.

FERRY TERMINAL
So there is an investigation into how 2 million was wasted but the real question is how did Miserytravel spent 11 million quid on a Terminal Ferry Building that won the Carbuncle Cup award as the worst designed building of 2009.

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


http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/liverpools-pier-head-and-its-new.html


Those who were present at the Planning committee meeting when plans were passed, may recall how Doreen Jones, the Doyenne of World Heritage disaster, passed the plans, saying she had been blackmailed into doing so.
 What did that mean?
 Larry Neild reported the committee meeting for the Echo.

More investigations need to be done on this World Heritage White Elephant that the Lennon tat was placed in.
Why did we need a Beatles Museum in a Ferry Terminal.

 But will the local press continue their reporting and do some investigating, or just let it lie on the bottom shelf until someone else does the work for them.

SHOULD THE POLICE INVESTIGATE?

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

Liverpools World Heritage Education-Nil By Mouth.

It must have hurt the editor of the Daily Post to have to print the front page against the full blight of its editorial stance and their  "plumping" for its business readers, of who I am advised there are.....well, more than a few less, than last year.

The city was told by Unesco at its 2008 and 2009 World Heritage committee meetings that, amongst other things, they must educate the public, as to the principles of its inclusion in the Unesco World Heritage Site list.

This it was felt would stop rogue councillors spiving for developers and stop the mess that was already in full flight.

Stop the binge build mentality that now sees us waking up to reality, with an almighty hangover.

A tacky application to the heritage lottery was made by John Hinchliffe our World heritage officer, for funding, yes him, with the backbone of a jellyfish, where world heritage is concerned.

I question why he is there, if not to facilitate the spivs and speculators who have got their mits on whats left of our historic fabric. There is a world heritage steering group, steering what?

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1252

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1722

http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1922    Here are those decisions for your information.


We now have our historic buildings looking like aliens in the new urban settings.
Next to the likes of the three black coffins and its sister ship the new museum of Liverpool the Rome MAXXI lookalike, we have Three Graces, overpowered.
 
How many people can boast that they know where the world heritage site is?  
Unesco said a a education programme as to world heritage priciples was required.
Lottery funding was refused and that was that then, no education at all. 

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/dear-john-mr-hinchliffe-you-are-trying.html

It seems that apart from being jockey-ed along, the local press don't know where the world heritage site is either, or don't care, although I liked Marc Waddingtons direct approach and his honesty when I met him recently.

But who wrote the opinion in yesterdays paper?

 It has to be someone with a gripe against me, my contribution offering Amsterdam as an alternative inspiration to Shanghai for Liverpool Waters, was cut. That would not have suited his friends I think.

140 words, by me, ended up as 14.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-daily-post/2011/06/15/city-cannot-be-allowed-to-stand-still-92534-28879098/

In its place, was, as expected a plump for Peel Holdings.

I am reliably informed that Mark Thomas as editor went "Out to lunch" with Peel Holdings the week before last..............see the things you don't know can harm you.......it all makes sense now. 

Mark Thomas has, as one of his favorite buildings, the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle, so we want no lectures from you Sir, where architecture is concerned. Here is what they said.

 City cannot be allowed to stand still

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-daily-post/2011/06/15/city-cannot-be-allowed-to-stand-still-92534-28879098/

NO MATTER what new additions have emerged on the Liverpool waterfront in recent times, there can still be little doubt that it is a site of extraordinary, spellbinding grandeur.
Nature itself is mostly responsible for the view, as the River Mersey ebbs and flows with unceasing splendour, at the heart of our city’s history – but the enthralling architecture of the Three Graces has done even more to make the waterfront one of the inspirational vistas to be found anywhere in Britain . . . or, indeed, the wider world beyond.
Yet the World Heritage Committee, meeting under the auspices of Unesco for ten days from Sunday, has placed an item on its agenda concerning “the state of conservation of the World Heritage property Liverpool”.
Speakers may well question the appearance of Neptune’s three glazed black wedges, at Mann Island, or raise the spectre of the huge Liverpool Waters development, which will transform derelict dockland to the north of the Pier Head site.
They may say that new developments spoil the panorama from this point or that point, or realign the perspective from a particular, favourite angle.
But can Liverpool truly afford to wrap itself up in cotton wool for generations to come? Our future lies in fostering jobs and investment to cater for the Liverpudlians of the future. People come from far and wide to savour our heritage, so it is undoubtedly important, but it is misguided to put at risk exciting, innovative job-creating developments for the sake of fossilising our waterfront for all time.
The loud and vociferous heritage lobby on Merseyside have become adept at raising the alarm over every perceived threat to the area – but they speak out of all proportion to the size of their membership. They surely do not speak for the vibrant business community, whose importance in safeguarding the future prosperity of our city cannot be underestimated.
Instead, they hanker for a heritage which is important, yes, but must be allowed to evolve in the best interests of Liverpool.
If the waterfront and everything around it stagnates because of over-exaggerated claims about new developments, investors will stay away – and our economy will stagnate along with it. That must not be allowed to happen. 


In today's reporting reality we dont have to be fed by the local papers though and here is Correspondents take on the matter. http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/06/decision-time-for-unesco-port-of.html 
I know which one I prefer.

Neil Scales of Miserytravel-Where Is Our Mersey Ferry Landing Stage?

 I was down on the waterfront a couple of weeks ago playing with The Penny Lane Jazz Band. In all the excitement of playing a set of numbers for departing passengers I almost never caught the occasion of a Mersey Ferry stopping at the now redundant Cruise Liner Jetty. But I recall thinking why is that stopping there and not near the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle that N eel Scales, Herr Disector General of U534 commissioned with £12,000,000 of your money......strange I thought.

I then bumped into Rod Holmes in Princes Dock, who is always a nervous wreck when I see him. I told him we had just done a gig and he said he had just come from a Mersey Partnership party at the Albert Dock, how much did that cost us, I thought. 
"Did you notice the three Black Coffins on Mann Island" I asked
"Yes he replied as did numerous people who all seemed to say, Why did they obscure the views of the Three Graces".
Well at least he is honest and complimentary to the work we have done even though at several times I went head to head with him on planning matters. It is nice to know that an adversary can be pleasant and respectful to you knowing how hard you pushed them.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/rod-holmes-came-in-my-shop-today.html
"You have left us a Carbuncle yourself" I said "At One Park Worst" he had already agreed to that one.

John Daley asked me to do a talk for the WEA about One Park Gone West but I was having a kidney stone done..........painfull, you don't want one of those.
So I agreed the week after to join them at the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle. David a respected colleague of mine joined us. The group were a nice old bunch and John let me fill them in about the council corruption that has taken place that now creates a pigs ear at the Pier Head.
I put a strong argument forward.
It is always nice to support the Workers Education Authority as its where I learnt to etch copper plates and hone my life drawing skills that I now find invaluable.
Then, while talking I noticed out of the window there was nothing there, the morons at Miserytravel had built a £12,000,000 Terminal Ferry Carbuncle that was voted the worst building of 2009 by Building Design, the architects weekly.................and they forgot to put a landing stage in for the Ferries. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html
Remember when it sank into the Mersey a decade ago and they have not replaced it yet.


What sort of plonker is organising this, Fred Carno could do a better job.


Considering the Isle of Man Ferries are also using the Cruise Liner Cock up facility, some-ones head should roll.......and its a very big head indeed N eel.   


As if confirmation that the MPTE is in a mess here is todays news reporting on a near fatal accident when a train derailed.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/05/24/merseyrail-ordered-to-pay-out-100-000-over-runaway-train-92534-28750348/ MERSEYRAIL was ordered to pay out more than £100,000 after a runway train careered onto the tracks.

The firm appeared at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday after the empty train derailed near Kirkdale, in June, 2009 – but only after missing a working commuter train by five seconds.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html


More work on safety and less on Bad Sculpture please, Herr Disector.
Lets hope less attention to empire building in future. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-did-merseytravel-spend-42-million.html
And less on image building for Herr Disector
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/merseytravel-try-to-gag-us-we-will-not.html
No wonder they want to gag us because the more you look into Miserytravel, the more you find they are out of control.
I think we will ask the audit commission a few questions about them.

Wayne

Museum of Liverpool-Acknowledged As A Sad Rip Off of Rome's Maxxi?

This is the first time Zaha Hadid Architects has been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize, having been shortlisted for the prize on three previous occasions (Nord Park Cable Railway, Austria, 2008; Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2006; BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany, 2005).

You may look at the picture on the left..... look familiar......yes its the exact same window on the Museum of Liverpool in the World Heritage site. We were told that we were getting something Iconic and what it happens, we get is a Rome MAXXI Zaha Hadid rip off which was acknowledged by several correspondents, writing, when Liverpool won the 2009 Carbuncle Cup award for the Terminal Ferry Building.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/museum-of-liverpool-is-nominated-for.html 
This year the Rome MAXXI rip off was nominated and accepted to the long list for the same BD Carbuncle Cup award but as its been delayed..... again till 2011.......it was not accepted to the shortlist for that reason.
I do get fed up being talked down to by the architectural profession and then the 'speak' is generally packaged by a reporter who knows nothing of architecture, who wouldnt even know how to put a shelf up.
http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/RIBANews/Press/2010/MAXXIMuseuminRomebyZahaHadidArchitectswinstheRIBAStirlingPrize2010.aspx

But Liverpool was honoured by RIBA for a public realm award.
For the canal link that goes right past the Liverpool Daily Ghost Editor, Mark Thomas favourite building, the Terminal Ferry Building at the Pier Head. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-pier-head-and-its-new.html
 Its not good down there, a mess infact, they turned a green vista able to withstand the strains of concert events and New Year celebrations into some sort of anachronism that was never designed to have this function. The original architects must be turning in their graves. Now you can see what a mess they, at CABE http://www.cabe.org.uk/design-review/mann-island-2 have advised upon.
Incidently it was previously reported that  ARCHITECT Matt Brook has been elected to represent the region on the profession’s governing body.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2009/07/02/architect-s-riba-role-to-promote-design-excellence-92534-24053919/
It was said Mr Brook, who opened Broadway Malyan’s Liverpool office in 2007, will serve as a North West representative on the Royal Institute of British Architects’ National Council.

So, Matt Brookes the architect of disaster who is in charge of building the Three Black Coffins at the Pier Head is a area delegate for RIBA who give out an award.  http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/RIBANews/News/2010/ThePierHeadandCanalLinkwinsthe2010RIBACABEPublicSpaceAward.aspx

Clever people these architects.

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

Giz' A Film. Jonathan is not Foyled.

Thursday last, Dr Jonathan and his Foyle Lucy Creamer scale the Liver Buildings and tell of its history, and guess what, not a ounce of the lies spread by Liverpool Vision to justify them destroying the Pier Head in the name of Regeneration. The controversy at the time was because it was a cement building and that was so new at the time even though concrete had been around for centuries, Aubrey Thomas the architect was going against the grain, even though Ruskin was advocating steel framed architecture in his beautiful writing, within, The seminal Seven Lamps of Architecture.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/ty5jl/

"You get an amazing view from up here he says of the Parish Church, hemmed in now by modern buildings. Hey what do you think of 60s and 70s architecture, he says to Lucy, as they turn to the Post and Echo Building, (The UglySandcastle) owned by Downing who also owns the Port of Liverpool Building. That great zigarat and the one with the big box on top, I don't think many people in Liverpool would call it Liverpool's loveliest building. That is a version of this building, (Liver Building) You can see the way its made steel frame made with reinforced concrete and then they hung flat concrete bits of cladding, the grandaddy of that is this it shows its DNA, look at it, they have grown up....... and look at its offspring".
They have produced a monster" Lucy says
"You said it" Foyle says. "You said it"
That was as controversial as he got, not mentioning the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle or the three black coffins or the new sun lounger museum.

Then last night was the amazing Morning In The Streets http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/d30nz/
The Liverpool I remember from my Childhood, cold and gloomy, bombed out by the Luftwaffe..........not many scouse accents here though.
If you were looking for rough arsed scousers, Boys from the Blackstuff was up next. The year I came out of my apprentiship there were no jobs to give out. The Spiv-Dems were just being formed Derek Hatton was still in short pants, not yet tailored by John E Monk and Liverpools T Dan Smith was gathering a head of steam in the new Liverpool Spiv-Dem hierarchy. The same bombsights remained, still they continued the damage knocking down the Sailors Home.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/tz49l/

You must watch Of Time And The City Terence Davies much acclaimed meandor through his childhood, and my, memories. The way he laments the changes in the city he left are fine, and mirror so much the losses we have made in the name of the Spiv-Dem regeneration con.

You know what, we had so much we had a rich architectural tapistry, a little worn around the edges, with which we could weave some new modern buildings that reflect our past, our history is our future. This film shows how miserably they with a lack of vision failed. The Luftwaffe started it and Spiv-DemsTrevor Jones, Mike Storey and Warren "War Zones" Bradley finished it off,

Museum of Liverpool- Is Nominated for Building Design Carbuncle Cup 2010 .

Well that must be an award in itself nominations 2 years running within yards of each other. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/uk/nominate-your-carbuncle/5002065.article  Last year Liverpool had the embarrassment of the title of National Carbuncle cup winner for the Terminal Ferry Building plonked on the Pier Head. It was declared by Amanda Ballieu the editor of Building Design in her final summing up said “The winner is the building that shows how bad architecture and bad planning can combine to produce something truly awful — a building so ugly it can turn human flesh to stone or at the very least make grown men cry”.

 http://www.bdonline.co.uk/readers-free-classifieds/liverpool-ferry-terminal-wins-carbuncle-cup-2009/3147432.article  

The judges went on “It is such an amazing site, directly in front of the Three Graces, but the architects seem barely to have noticed. It is like letting a bad second-year student build next to St Peter’s,” said the judges despairingly.
“This is bad patronage by an ignorant council which thinks having jazzy architecture is putting the city on the map again.”
Completed this summer by Hamilton Architects (not to be confused with Hamiltons) the £9.5 million building incorporates ferry operations, a Beatles museum and a rooftop restaurant. It is cantilevered on two sides and clad in limestone to complement the new Liverpool Museum next door.

“The architect evidently once looked at a Zaha building in a magazine,” said the judges. “It is essentially a horrible sectional idea that has been extruded like a stick of rock. The long elevations couldn’t be more tedious, the Dr Caligari end facades no more grotesque. When you go there you think: oh no, I can’t believe they’ve done that.”

The awful One Park West on Chavasse Lawn came fourth just missing out on the top three.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=new-mersey-ferry-terminal-unveiled%26method=full%26objectid=18012714%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=ferry-terminal-delayed-after-call-for-rethink%26method=full%26objectid=18308623%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

Larry Neild wrote before he went to work for October Communications.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/larry-neild/tm_headline=uninspired-design&method=full&objectid=18810407&siteid=50061-name_page.html

This year it is the new Museum of Liverpool, and it stands a good chance of winning too. The Terrible Ferry Terminal building in the words of the architects was designed to compliment the new museum !!! Yes and they managed it only, not being educated in the requisite skills to design in a world heritage site, Hamiltons, the Belfast based architects didn’t realise they were following the lines of a bigger carbuncle than theirs. Here is a letter in the BD

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/comment/letters/carbuncle-too?/3153941.article

At first glance, the new National Museum in Rome looks just like the ferry terminal in Liverpool which won this year’s Carbuncle Cup (Features August 28)

It is only when one reads Ellis Woodman’s excellent review of the building as “displaying a cynical disregard for its purpose” that it is clearly by your old favourite Zaha Hadid. Once again, one might have expected better from a total outlay of €150 million.

Still, I do like the little orange hydrant in front of the entrance.

Susan Ballinger, Sheffielhttp://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_method=full%26objectid=18910245%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

Manchester Docks was buried

So what fate await Liverpools beacon of regeneration the new museum of Liverpool can it be picked as the winner of BDs Carbuncle Cup Award 2010……You bet it can.

The picture above alongside the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle is the Rome MAXXI (which they copied an elevation for Liverpool museum) which by contrast is nominated for the Sterling Prize 2010 which is dominated this year by museums, well apart from Liverpools. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/roman-horror-day-at-zaha-hadids-maxxi/3153497.article

Liverpools World Heritage Site-A Total Eclipse of the Heart.

I noticed today that Correspondent  http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/ had picked up on piece that came from a website called Seven Streets http://www.sevenstreets.com/ and in particular a article called A total Eclipse of the Heart, meaning the world heritage site. They say;

 Imagine this. You were the custodian of a city viewpoint that adorned a thousand calendars, had snappers from Toronto to Tokyo ooh-ing and ah-ing behind their Fuji Finepix, and sharing their holiday photos with friends across the globe. That, through a thousand Flikr updates, our city went viral.

http://www.sevenstreets.com/features/total-eclipse-of-the-heart-mann-island/ I hope they dont mind me borrowing the pic I wish I could have photoshoped it that well.

They go on; And then try to figure out what thought process (if any) it would need to arrive at the decision to black it out.

Not only that, but to obscure this with a graceless, leaden hulk that wouldn’t get past first base on a RIBA Correspondence Course.

There is, among architects, a raging debate about context. Zaha Hadid says it’s bollocks – that buildings don’t have a duty to ‘blend in’ but to ‘respond’ to their immediate urban condition. We tend to agree. But even she wouldn’t be arrogant enough to block out the competition. But, then, she is a world class architect. Not a school boy who got lucky with a design competition. Liverpool is a complex city. This is not a complex debate. Mann Island is not a complex building. It’s a jagged little pill. And we’re all going to have to swallow it. At least, until it the next one comes along.

Still, Steven Gerrard loves it. He’s snapped up two luxury apartments. Good to know that, for some, that view will remain – if only from their bedroom window.

Ironic, isn’t it, that even through the fires of Blitz, the ‘Geermans’ didn’t obliterate the Three Graces. It was our friendly fire what did for ‘em.

So, in response to the outrage, Sevenstreets postulates what damage this implanted cell would create, should other city councils be quite so myopic. Reminds us of that scene at the end of 2010, a Space Odyssey… appropriately enough.

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

They have not mentioned the Carbuncle Cup winning Terminal Ferry Carbuncle, but well done to those of the Seven Streets for speaking the truth. We should add the site to our blog roll.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-pier-head-and-its-new.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/mann-island-you-know-youve-arrived.html

Heritage Fruitcakes from Bonkers-Ville #4

I have been told off by some of my colleagues for wasting valuable time this week in not highlighting some of Liverpool’s problems it looks like the SS Manxman is to be scrapped. It looks like they are planning to renew the temporary landing stage at the Pier Head after nearly 10 years despite spending 12 million on a Terminal Ferry Carbuncle. But it has been an insight into the mindset of the heritage do-gooders who cant do anything because they spend so much time arguing with themselves. Count me out of this crew. I write because I have nothing to lose, because I have lost all of that nothing. Just look at those pictures of what is unfolding at the Pier Head and any fool can see we are in a shambolic mess. This is why I write not to satisfy myself. Where were they when the battles were being fought, stalking someone else probably? It was BD magazine last week http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=437&storycode=3161475 when a few fruitcakes decided to round on us and waste my time. I shouldn’t have done it I know. One of them kept asking to join. I have to conclude the reason why we don’t have an open membership is to keep heritage fruitcakes from Bonkers-Ville, who don’t even live in Liverpool out of our hair. So we can highlight the problems in our city. You have to earn the right to be taken seriously by my colleagues. But bloody hell a bunch of Zimmer framed pensioners trying to bully us by stalking us asking to join. Oh please. I dropped my biscuit in my tea once I was that terrified. I ususlly deal with these sort of nutters before my first teabreak but I was a bit late that day. The last people in the world we want anywhere near us is the likes of these.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/04/heritage-fruitcakes-from-bonkers-ville.html  
I confer and am guided by people who I respect I don’t need to name them they don’t need the acknowledgement they are confident in themselves. One of my colleagues who I have not seen for a while as we have only spoke on the phone and conference on the Internet recently came in the shop Tuesday last. I was shocked because he was only a little bloke in reality, and my respect for him is so large that I had been thinking he was a 6ft 4-inch giant of a man. These are the people whose advice I take not a group of Zimmer-ed nutters from no-where-ville. These are the people who I admire those who fight on when the going gets tough. That stand up for their principles and more importantly don’t collaborate. Those that fought against world heritage vandalism being played out in front of your eyes without ego. You know we have lost but its better to have fought and lost than not have fought at all.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/04/heritage-fruitcakes-from-bonkers-ville_19.html
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/04/heritage-fruitcakes-from-bonkers-ville_20.html

Normal Service Will Be Resumed Soon.

Museum of Liverpool-Radio 4 Take an Interest.

I recorded an  interview for Radio 4 that was broadcast last Friday on the You and Yours programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/ I met with Winifred Robinson to give her our views about the New Museum slap bang in the World Heritage Site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/listenagain/friday_previous.shtml She gave a fair account of the contentious idea to slap bang us with world heritage decimation.She brings the current museum director David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming to account. Winifred is from Liverpool and at one time asks about Liverpool turning into a theme park. The programme was well thought out and thought provoking asking why we actually need a museum which in my opinion is Flemings Folly. Fleming talks about it being unique. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/museum-of-liverpool-sad-rip-off-of.html   She did not go into the surrounding world heritage decimation with the Three Grotesques on the Mann Island part of the world heritage site or the Carbuncle Cup winner the new Terminal Ferry Carbuncle http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html   but well done Winifred.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/museum-of-liverpool-flemings-folly.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/ptolemy-dean-talks-about-liverpools.html

MANN ISLAND-You Know You've Arrived.

Yes you know you have arrived alright........The World Heritage Site is destroyed, so a handful of "Cosy" Developers can make a packet. While the idiots at Unesco waffle about Overall Universal Value and other technical stuff the very thing that gave us who we were, our Iconic Three Graces are obliterated. The truth of the matter is that the UK Government through the DCMS  fund Unesco to 10% of their budget. They say they are empowered by The Government Office North West which have offices at Cunard Building overlooking the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle, and this Quango in turn is run by the North "Vested Interest" Development Agency (NWDA) who gave the land worth 80 million away for 3.5 million. Yes you know you,ve arrived at Mann Island alright. You have been shafted.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/01/north-west-development-agency-shysters.html

Liverpools Pier Head Another Carbuncle Planned. This Time its Next to The Liver Buildings.

Have a look at the picture on the right and guess where it is for. Milton Keynes I hear you say or some new town from the 60s. No you would be wrong. This is plot 7 Princes Parade and in effect it is next to the Liver Buildings. The artists impression is from where the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle is now. We are turning into the Carbuncle Capital. This building has already had planning permission passed. The architects said it was Mondrian esque I told the committee Mondrian died in 19966 and its already 40 years out of date. http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=cries-of--sacrilege--as-first-five-star-hotel-is-approved%26method=full%26objectid=18254253%26siteid=50061-name_page.html 06F/1371. I was there arguing when Liverpools "Dame of Disaster" tried to stop me speaking, she who has now buggered off to live on the Duke of Westministers Estate just outside Chester. She rubber stamped it. I recieved a planning letter on the 24th December 09 Planning application no 09F/2610 this was strangely described as to extend extant planning permission for said site. I knew the site, but how many others would see the importance of it where is plot 7 Princes Parade, it could be anywhere. I was just packing up for the Xmas and telephoned a collegue in disgust of the dodgy tactics employed by the planners. Chris Ridland was dealing with it, how come everything he deals with on behalf of Riechmarshal Lee seems to be dealt with in a suspect manner. The applications objections had to be in by 11 January. Most people will not be back to work till the 5th January...how very convenient I thought. Then we had the worst weather for 30 years and the whole of the country came to a standstill. If you want a contentios application dealt with its Xmas here in Liverpool. They know the score. The planners are confident that no-one will be paying attention. I made some further inquiries and complained this is Ridlands reply:

I can confirm that planning application (09F/2610) is applying to extend extant planning permission (06F/1371), which was due to expire on the 18th December 2009. This latest planning application (09F/2610) was received by the Local Planning Authority on the 17th December 2009.

I trust this is of assistance.
Regards,
Chris Ridland
Planning
So the planning app is about to run out and the day before it is resubmitted the day before, and within a week the applications are sent out in a speedily put together excersise. But the way it is handled in truth is a manner more akin to a third world country than a world heritage site city. I informed Unesco who are doing their usual silly dance around the English Heretics advisers.

In a city run by spivs we cant expect anything else. You can object http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/ If you dont the spivs will get away with it.

Ben Scofield at the Daily Ghost makes an effort today telling us that the developers dont have any cash and have not filed any accounts and the Directors risk getting struck off, see link below. He writes
A LANDMARK waterfront complex is in jeopardy after its developers failed to secure finance for the scheme more than two years after buying the plot.

Lead Asset Strategies (Liverpool), the company that owns the Princes Parade site, could also be struck off the Companies House Register in a matter of weeks. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/01/27/landmark-liverpool-waterfront-development-in-jeopardy-after-developers-fail-to-get-finance-92534-25693570/  

Only in Liverpool could a crap building be plonked in a WHS in front of the Liver Buildings our symbol of the city. They have destroyed the views of Three Graces from the Strand, From the Sea and now for all the visiting Cruise Liners that are earmarked to stop at the Cruise Liner Jetty(another cock up) they are about to add to the mess at Princes Dock, it really does resemble, Milton Keynes-On-Sea.

Some History

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17159104%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26headline=five-star-vision-of-city-s-top-notch-dockside-hotel-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=opening-to-all-a-bird-s-eye-city-view%26method=full%26objectid=18086130%26page=1%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17112292%26method=full%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

Liverpools Pier Head, And its New Landmark Caravan Terminal.

Hamiltons the Irish architects (sic) who carbuncled us have been explaining how they arrived at the design for the new Terminal Ferry Carbuncle.

They have released this picture that one of them took on holiday as the inspiration, they go on to explain how they arrived at the shape of the new Caravan Terminal. Er, Ferry Terminal. "This bloke was driving past on a bike with his bedroom attached, and I thought it would be something new to take the caravan design and take it to a different level, make it bigger for a maritime setting, it just happened we didn't think about it too much" One of the Hamiltons crew said. We worked the idea up and Liverpool accepted the designs for its world heritage site.

People love it the editor of the Daily Post praised it as his favourite building and we have had a commendation from the World Heritage Officer John Hinchliffe who said he loves it. We also thought it would match the new museum and think it fits in lovely with the same angular design".

Meanwhile passengers on the recent departure of the Cruise ship, The Black Prince, which left Liverpool last week from the glamorous Langton Dock were amazed it floated back to the Pier Head to catch the tide.

A huge number had lined up on the deck and caused a queue to look over the side. What was all the fuss and some were overheard saying "Is that it it has to be". A massive group joined in, and a big fuss unfurled itself. What was all the fuss one Liverpudlian pushed in to see.

They were lining up to see the new Liverpool landmark the winner of the Carbuncle Cup that they had heard so much about. The Terminal Ferry Carbuncle as Amanda the editor of BD magazine said "Slap bang in the middle of Liverpool's World Heritage Site.

But, the council have said our heritage is safe and its backed up by Larry Bartlett at the Daily Ghost so it must be alright then. Well they would wouldn't they senior councillors lining up to defend the mess. "Its better than what was there" one sad one said who happened to be Warren Bradley. Errrr no, its not. Like a bunch of red faced scousers caught on the rob in TK Maxx with a pair of Keck's up their jumpers. "Er 'ow did that get there it wasn't us someone planted it". They have stolen our skyline and are trying to brace it out. It is not working Warren. Doreen Jones the "Dame of Disaster" said she was blackmailed, which is garbage, she who mentored little Warren into his ill informed position, passed it as planning committee chairman and then blames Warren Bradley, Oh come on. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=430&storycode=3147432&channel=783&c=2

It was paid for with European Objective One Money.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/07/liverpool-would-have-died-with-european-funding-92534-24872199/

Liverpool had 928 million pounds in objective one slush money and at least £10,000,000 of it went on a Terminal Ferry Carbuncle.

Museum of Liverpool Contractors Galliford Try Fined for Bid Rigging.

Office of Fair Trading fines construction sector £129m for bid-rigging.

Numerous firms that were working and pricing jobs in Liverpool.

Many of those jobs were from the Objective One European slosh fund.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/construction_and_property/article6843798.ece

Ever wondered how much a project costed and thought you could build 5 of them for that price?

Ever thought how it cost 20 million for a concrete Cruise Liner tie up? Or thought, what, 10 million pounds for a ticket desk for a terminal Ferry Carbuncle? Or thought, How much, to build a museum shouldn't that be about half the cost?. I know I have......many times.

I wrote to Colin "Cover Up" Hilton complaining of the amount it was costing to build, what is after all a ticket desk and guess what he was not interested. Considering Mike Storey and Warren Bradley picked him for the job, thats hardly suprising.

So, just how Many Public Projects in the Liverpool binge build years have been overpriced, if any, could we have been fleeced by the cartel of builders bidding for the work? Well it seems there are quite a few questions that need asking. The OFT have fined a load of builders for the illegal practice.

The Contractors of the Carbuncle Museum in the Pier Head have been singled out for Frigging in the Rigging with public financed contracts.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mediacentre/displayrelease.aspx?id=598

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/parties-and-fines.pdf
Try Accord Limited (Try Accord) and Galliford Try
Construction Limited (Galliford Construction)
together with their ultimate parent company
Galliford Try plc (Galliford Try)
£8,333,329
Try Accord and Galliford
Try:
£7,812,563
Galliford Construction and
Galliford Try:
£520,768

See their Liverpool Contracts from their website:

http://www.gallifordtry.co.uk/search

Isn't that a Disgrace. Shouldnt an inquiry be carried out?

Ever wondered why the Oldham Echo and the Daily Ghost, Does not do any work to explore these sort of topics. Are they just lazy, overworked or just oblivious to anything that is going on around them?

Or do they just wait for a call off the Council or the Museums, or Peel Holdings and then print PR plod day in day out.

Trinity "Smoking " Mirrors.

Liverpool Cruise Liner Cock Up-Blame Southampton

This is the lawful abandonment of an original structure used in our Mercantile and Maritime history, exactly next to the new Council Cruise Liner Cock Up Terminal that isn't a Terminal its a jetty because you cant embark there. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/council-cruise-liner-cock-up.html

After 20 million pounds of European money was spent on the new Naval jetty it is still landlocked within land that Peel Holdings own. And they own the only customs facility, who made this one up.

The City Council are now trying to blame Southampton and Larry Bartlett who wasn't even born to witness most of the political shenanigans surrounding the cock up, is letting it run. How amazing it was only a few months ago that the Oldham Echo was waving flags and shouting the hurrahs to its opening. Telling us how wonderful it was, and how we are now, an international power again.

And now the penny has dropped, and its in the wrong place, and its all Southampton's fault for not letting us use the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle that cost 12 million of European slosh money....... for what is effectively a four storey desk to buy tickets for a ferry.

Its every time here one step forward and one back. A Lack of joined up thinking.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/18/southampton-will-try-to-block-cruise-line-upgrade-at-liverpool-s-pier-head-92534-24720840/

Meanwhile Chris Graying has said the NWDA who dish out European funding are "barking." http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/18/conservative-shadow-minister-chris-grayling-hits-out-at-north-west-development-agency-nwda-92534-24720812/ This is something we have all known in Liverpool, and now the chairman of the NWDA is a ex executive of Peel Holdings who own the only customs facility in Langton dock. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liver-peel-conflicts-of-interest-begin.html

What a Cock up, but hey lets do the council a PR job and lets blame Southampton.

A City Transformed-They Speak With Forked Tongue

This is the middle pages of City The magazine for Liverpool. It goes out free to 220,000 homes and if you read it everything is, wonderfully, gloriously, rose tintedly, spectacularly brilliantly, ace. Or so they tell us. They don't mention once the 90 million shortfall on the budget. Basically its part of the council propaganda machine that we pay for through our rates to tell us how well the Spivs running the place are doing. The sort of propaganda that Goebbels would have been proud of in the Second world war, Yes Ve are stuffing the gubbings out of Liverpool, destroying its Pier Head, its heritage, its character, it vill never recover, it is great for our people.

What takes the hamburger is the picture of Quote (sorry about the pic, click on to enlarge)

"The Iconic Liver Building Stands proud-as all around it a new 21st century Liverpool takes shape.

And the picture is taken from the roof of the new Terminal Ferry Building, that won the Building Design National Carbuncle Cup for crimes against architecture.

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

Liverpool Wins The Carbuncle Cup.

Liverpool Ferry Terminal wins Carbuncle Cup 2009

28 August 2009
By Amanda Baillieu
Despite strong competition from a record number of entries, this year’s winning building by Belfast-based Hamilton Architects is a shining example of bad architecture and bad planning
This year architecture’s only prize for sheer downright ugliness has seen a record number of entries: buildings so drab, hostile, or puffed up with their own self-importance they made you queasy, angry and depressed.
Many of you wailed at opportunities lost, egos gone unchecked, or sheer downright laziness, while others wanted the prize to go not simply to the architect but to the clients and the local authority that waved these hideous schemes through planning. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=430&storycode=3147432&channel=783&c=2
The winner is the building that shows how bad architecture and bad planning can combine to produce something truly awful — a building so ugly it can turn human flesh to stone or at the very least make grown men cry.

These arguments only got going when it came to deciding an order for the final three: Make’s Amenity building for Nottingham University, Belfast-based Hamilton Architects’ Ferry Terminal in Liverpool and Queen Margaret University campus, Lothian by Dyer Associates.
In the end the three judges, BD’s buildings editor Ellis Woodman, BD columnist and critic Owen Hatherley and architect Sean Griffiths of Fat were split between the Nottingham and Liverpool buildings.
Both buildings are appalling, they said, but after much deliberation they decided that, given the damage inflicted by the ferry terminal on what is a Unesco world heritage site, it was the more worthy recipient.
“It is such an amazing site, directly in front of the Three Graces, but the architects seem barely to have noticed. It is like letting a bad second-year student build next to St Peter’s,” said the judges despairingly.
“This is bad patronage by an ignorant council which thinks having jazzy architecture is putting the city on the map again.”
Completed this summer by Hamilton Architects (not to be confused with Hamiltons) the £9.5 million building incorporates ferry operations, a Beatles museum and a rooftop restaurant. It is cantilevered on two sides and clad in limestone to complement the new Liverpool Museum next door.
“The architect evidently once looked at a Zaha building in a magazine,” said the judges. “It is essentially a horrible sectional idea that has been extruded like a stick of rock. The long elevations couldn’t be more tedious, the Dr Caligari end facades no more grotesque. When you go there you think: oh no, I can’t believe they’ve done that.

Were back on centre stage after all the investment in the city over the past decade we were told the new dawn had arrived and we were there to compete with the rest of the world proudly proclaiming our new found status as European Capital of Culture, Mercantile and Maritime World Heritage Site. Well that's what they told us only the pathetic twassers running the place did not have the talent or the education to compete on a footing that fitted the charitable status bestowed upon us to pull us out of the doldrums to make us a city worthy of the people who live here.It is such an amazing site, directly in front of the Three Graces, but the architects seem barely to have noticed. It is like letting a bad second-year student build next to St Peter’s,” said the judges despairingly.

We now have another accolade as if to prove it 2009 winner of the Building Design Magazine Carbuncle Cup. Yes that new Terminally ill designed Ferry Terminal in the middle of the world heritage site that the Dame of Disaster Doreen Jones passed.

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

The Architects Journal have had a debate also http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/beauty-or-beast-new-liverpool-pier-head-ferry-terminal/5204487.article which was the most commented article for a while.
John Hinchliffe the invisible World Heritage Officer said it was his favourite building.....there is no chance really with people like this looking after world heritage.

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpools-mighty-minger.html
Nemisis is familiar with the building and has a architectural knowledge that I respect.

Mark Thomas Daily Post editor said it was fantastic http://www.ldpeditor.merseyblogs.co.uk/2009/07/penguins_superlambananas_-_and.html but it has been reported in todays paper .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/

Warren Bradley even has the cheek to defend it he is such a blag. Bringing out the old "There was controversy when they built the Liver Building" crap that he readily bandies about to anyone uneducated enough to listen and there are some who have believed him. There is no evidence for this at all.

We said it was a dog and a minger and now the fellows who understand architecture and design confirm our worst fears that we have a carbuncle for all to see bang slap in the middle of the world heritage site to show the world that we cocked it up that the missed opportunity that has left us with an eyesore.http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpools-ferry-terminal-bad-british.html

I was there at the planning meeting arguing against this. When the criminal Councillor Steve Hurst tried to stop me talking and giving advice to the planning committee on just how bad this carbuncle was to be when erected. Maybe if the planning office and its rubber stamping planning committee poodles, playing politics with our world heritage site listened, we wouldnt be in such a mess.

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 European Capital of…Bad Sculpture

What about the legacy of 2008. My opinion is that it is the worst load of rubbish sculpture anywhere in Europe. The latest ones of Kenn Dodd and Fanny Craddock top it all.
Neil Scales the head of Misery travel, who cut the U534 U-Boat into five, and some say should be sectioned himself for a outragous and barbarous act, should be sacked for using public money to dump this trash on us. It was he who commissioned the god awful Ferry Terminal that turned Gerry Marsden to Seasick Steve and then come up with the idea for another Beatles museum because they had nothing to go in it.
Some people should not be let loose with more than 50 quid.
IS TOM MURPHY THE WORST SCULPTOR (sic) OF ALL TIME.

I think Murphy himself should be cast......headfirst into the nearest lake for this one.
Now all those people arriving from London at Lime Street staiton can see for themselves what the Plebs up north do with 200 grand. They waste it on a pair of garbage statues that any kid could have made a better job with, using plasticine and a lolly ice stick. Murphy is best friends with David Charters of the Daily Post so he has had far too much good press. Some sculptors make steel look like bronze, Murphy makes Bronze look like pig iron.
Please someone tell me these are not bronze and I have made a mistake and they are made of plastic padding and cost 100 quid and I will forgive him. I have sold a few sculptures in my time but these have the same copper finish on the prizes they give out in the Mecca bingo down Park lane...with names like y'know "Kid leaning on Lampost" and that sort of stuff.

Someone left a comment on a LPT post..."Do you have to knock everything". Well you try living here mate watching these embarrassing nightmares unfold and see how long it is before you get annoyed.

Doddy said at the opening "Discumknockerous missus"
I agree.

He had the same problem as I did in identifying the material "Its all made of Iron so now we know where Sefton Park gates went" he said.
Going on to sum up the whole joke "Well one of the nicer things is it gives the pigeons a bit of focus they will be better once the hair goes white"
One of his famous quotes is "Everyone in Liverpool is a comedian, you have to be a comedian to live here". I don't know how he managed to keep a straight face.



It was bad enough enduring the comments from educated idiots about the John Lennnon Turkey Spud did at John Lennon Airport which looks like.... errr Ken Dodd with its head like a burst couch. Hang on did he get them mixed up I remember snarling it looks more like Ken Dodd than Jack Lemmon.
Now we have the nightmares on Lime Street.

Murphy cant even sculpt a fat tweed overcoat with a hat on it. Hey and whats that in Bessies hand..oh its a egg. Yes she is famous for getting the lion mark put on eggs ...oh what poetry, what artistic license..the man is a genius I wish I had thought of that.
I would like to take that iron tickling stick that looks like a Kebab in the hand of Ken Dodd and shove it somewhere, very hard so Murphy can never sculpt again.
I do not know how Professor Chucklebutty kept a straight face at least Fanny has whipped up her last Omelette's and cant see the mess that she is to be remembered by.
My opinion is Ken should take legal action he has been made to look like he had shot headfirst over the handlebars of his bike when he was a kid.


I cant stop laughing they are hilarious. Only the one person laughing louder than me is Spud Murphy .....laughing all the way to the bank with 200 grand of my public money now that reall would be Fanny. Only he has made a laughing stock out of all of those who let him get away with this shoddy workmanship that he should be ashamed of himself for making.
LIVERPOOL THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF BAD PUBLIC SCULPTURE. Hang your head in shame Mr Scales for your public art programme.
It is best if you leave what you dont know about alone.