Two Faced Liverpool Museums-Will Alsop Declares.

And Mike Storey has Twelve. The disgraced ex council leader has a face for everyone...when it suits him, or his mentors Trevor and Doreen Jones who passed all the plans for the three black coffins at Mann Island.
Moving on from my questions to Will Alsop. It is clear the Development Cabal have taken another hit here. Showing up the "cosy" relationship between the North Vested Interest Development Agency and Neptune Developments.
But we must not forget that Storey was on the NWDA committee, he was also the Council leader. He was also on the board of Liverpool Vision and was a trustee of Liverpool museums.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/wayne-colquhoun-asks-will-alsop.html


Today David Bartlett take the time to tell the news where it is.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=architect-will-alsop-criticises-liverpool-s-8216-mediocre-8217-waterfront-buildings%26method=full%26objectid=26753889%26siteid=100252-name_page.html

THE ARCHITECT behind the failed Fourth Grace scheme has launched a withering attack on the buildings that are being built in its place on Liverpool’s waterfront.


Will Alsop, whose company designed the Cloud, said the buildings the city has “ended up with ... lie in the general malaise of architectural mediocrity that we find so popular with the current architectural press”.
He added: “In the end, this is all history but I do believe that Liverpool deserves much better than it got, whether it was my building or not.”
Three glazed black blocks in the Mann Island development and the new Museum of Liverpool are currently nearing completion at the city’s Pier Head where the Cloud would have been built.
Mr Alsop also hit out at the National Museums Liverpool (NML) for the organisation’s role in the collapse of the Fourth Grace, saying it had its own agenda.
He also claimed the North West Development Agency (NWDA) had pulled the plug on the project to meet a shortfall in funds for the ECHO Arena and BT Convention Centre.
The architect also claimed the city council had used its planning department as a “stalling device.”
His comments, during an online architectural webchat, have resurrected the row that erupted after his Cloud building was sensationally scrapped in July 2004.
The decision to abandon the project was made after it emerged that projected costs had risen by almost £100m.
Last night the council, the NWDA, and Neptune Developments who are building the three blocks rejected Mr Alsop’s claims. NML declined to comment.
Steven Broomhead, NWDA chief executive, said it was untrue that the scheme had been stopped because of a funding shortfall on the arena and convention project.
He said: “The public sector partners involved in the Fourth Grace – Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, National Museums Liverpool and the NWDA – jointly concluded that the project had become unviable due to increasing costs and fundamental changes from the original scheme.
“The estimated cost had risen from £228m to £324m and there was a massive increase in the residential element of the project, which focused on ‘form’ not sustainable functions.
“All this was likely to have resulted in the scheme being called in, causing lengthy delays in making progress on the site.”
He said the partners had been determined to deliver a “world-class” scheme, adding: “The new Museum of Liverpool, extension to the canal link and complementary mixed-use development will deliver a major iconic visitor destination, as well as delivering significant economic benefits to Liverpool, Merseyside and the entire region.”

Steve Parry, chief executive of Neptune Developments, said Mann Island is a development of “exceptional quality” and had won many plaudits from the Commission for the Built Environment (CABE), English Heritage, and commentators like Stephen Bayley.
He said: “The appeal of the development to investment institutions, and commercial and residential occupiers is undoubtedly connected to the originality of a design.
“Will Alsop is renowned for his colourful and highly individual opinions.
“I think Will should actually come up and see the buildings before judging them.
“As he knows only too well, two dimensional images rarely do justice to visionary architecture.”
A council spokesman said its planning department had raised legitimate concerns regarding the Cloud’s design.
He said: “This was not a stalling device nor was it the reason the project did not happen.
“That was because Šthe estimated cost of the scheme spiralled to nearly £100m more than the original figure and that the scheme’s character changed fundamentally from what was originally envisaged.
“This included a proposed massive increase in the residential element of the scheme – doubling the original number of apartments to 700, and 200 apartments in the Canning Dock.”

The Cabal defend English Heritage...well http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/05/sir-neil-cossons.html who was also a trustee of Liverpool Museums. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-polices-heritage-police.html
And CABE http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/cabe-who-funds-them.html

Bryan Gray the Chairman of the NWDA was also a trustee of NML.

They are All Shysters together as far as I am concerned, they who destroyed Manchester Docks http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/manchester-docks-obliterated.html and who is Stephen Bayley anyhow to comment on a city he left decades ago.

Wayne Colquhoun Asks Will Alsop Questions About The Ill Fated Fourth Grace.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to ask Will Alsop some direct questions a few years after he was unceremoniously dumped from the Fourth Grace(sic) Scheme that he had put so much into, in fact he may have even staked his company on the schemes go-ahead. I did not wish to wind him up or get him annoyed but it seems, from his reply that the whole World Heritage Blight fiasco is still an open wound with him.

It was an open question and answer session organised by Building Design Magazine. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/  This if we remember is the influential architectural publication that awarded Liverpools Terminal Ferry Building the 2009 Carbuncle Cup award.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.aspx?storyCode=5001534

Wayne Colquhoun :
Your past comments about Liverpool when you were promoting the idea for a Fourth Grace said “Liverpool aint easy” could you elaborate
Monday June 28, 2010 3:37

William Alsop: I never floated ideas for the Fourth Grace, it was a competition which was limited to four architects of which I was one. I made a detailed presentation and was fortunate enough to win on the basis that the North West development agency would have to put in £70million of public money otherwise they should choose one of my competitors. They agreed to do this and subsequently ringfenced the £70million. I then continued on detailed work until the project was cancelled because they had to raid the £70million to meet a shortfall of funds on the King's Dock project. In my opinion Liverpool had used their planning department as a stalling device.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:41

Wayne Colquhoun : ] Indeed I think you were taken advantage of by the Liverpool city council in order to put the idea to develop the World Heritage Site, which should not have been touched. I did not like your scheme but the public in general are agreed that they would have prefered your Cloud.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:48


William Alsop: I agree up to a point. I think the site required a building, which was as brave as the three existing graces. I was in Liverpool a lot at the time in question where I got nothing other than support from the good people of Liverpool. I feel that the Liverpool museums who were stakeholders in the project always had their own agenda and were not helpful. Indeed, you could say perhaps even two faced. In the end, this is all history but I do believe that Liverpool deserves much better than it got whether it was my building or not. What they have ended up with lies in the general malaise of architectural mediocrity that we find so popular with the current architectural press. I am sorry you didn't like my proposal but in spite of this, I am sure you are a very nice man.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:53

Wayne Colquhoun : ] Thanks for your honesty.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:59


This is of course a brief exchange but it tells such a lot. He calls Liverpool Museums two faced. I think myself, they are five faced.
I could have told him that and with Mike Storey as council leader, later to resign in disgrace, and on the NWDA committee and a trustee of Liverpool Museums at the time anything else could have hardly have been expected.
I am understating when I say I didn’t like the idea, I hated it. It was from Cloud Cuckoo-land, but I know he was used by the Council Spivs to develop the idea to develop a world heritage site. Very Cosy the way Neptune Developments stayed there though.

I think the cloud was cuckoo land and would have been a Disgrace never mind a Fourth Grace(sic). But what we have ended up with, The Fifth Grace, by his help and throwing his weight behind the Fourth, is World Heritage Vandalism.

This is a building he designed called The Public, In West Bromich, that closed before it had opened.
 It has an uncanny resemblence to The Black Coffins at Mann Island that he proclaims are "A malaise of architectural mediocrity".






 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/jun/25/architecture

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2008/jun/18/public

Liverpool's Press and the Culcha Of Capital.

After the infantile flurry of 2008. Liverpool celebrating being nominated European Capital of Culcha. Some said the only the culture in Liverpool was in a yoghurt in a fridge in the Iceland in Old Swan. I disagree we have loads of Culcha.....for spin and deceit. 2008 was the year that the Manchester Docks, which had remained intact, that predated the Albert Dock by 60 years was bulldozed and buried beneath a new museum which is destined to be the new Wacky Warehouse on sea. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html

This was the year that the world heritage site was decimated by the white coffin museum and work started on the three black slugs on Mann Island. We won the Carbuncle Cup for a new Terminal Ferry Building. Some huge contracts were awarded without scrutiny by a local press, who were jumping up and down like Zebbedi on the Magic Gravy Train Roundabout, shouting how wonderful everything was………without scrutinizing. This was the year that the carbunclisation of some of our cherished landmarks took place while those at Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors idly stood by and watched. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-novatel-tragic-addition-to.html

How can you have a cultured city that is run by Spivs Cheats and Liars? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Storey  Today the informative and entertaining Seven Streets make the point we have been banging on about for years. http://www.sevenstreets.com/filter/no-cultural-policy-to-speak-of/  It backs it up with this.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a923227015~db=all~jumptype=rss

And now we have Uncle Joe Anderson running the show.
And today a Council Chief is suspended http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=liverpool-council-director-peter-cosgrove-suspended%26method=full%26objectid=26738862%26siteid=100252-name_page.html  for what everyone in Liverpool knew about.

Except the lazy bastards who are in hock to Liverpool’s PR companies at Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors who did nothing about it while their employees and friends and relations, moonlighted for glossy magazines, and wrote pathetic articles, such as where to get the best cocktail drink, in which new boutique hotel, and rubbish like that.
If Private Eye can keep an eye on the Culture free zone why cant the local press. See pic above. Now they write about a threat to the Lyceum http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/28/liverpool-architectural-gem-the-lyceum-is-up-for-sale-at-4-25m-guide-price-92534-26738907/ Which is a real threat. Built between 1800 and 1802 and designed by Thomas Harrison, the Lyceum housed the UK’s first subscription library. It had a newsroom and a coffee room and is reportedly where Liverpool gentlemen first heard news of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.

The building narrowly escaped the wrecking ball in the 1970s, when Liverpool City Council gave the go-ahead for it to be demolished.
Developers claimed they needed the site for an extension to Central Station.
But in 1979, a few short months after Margaret Thatcher had swept to power, the then secretary of state for the environment, Michael Heseltine, announced the Government was going to buy it and fund its restoration.
Heritage campaigner Florence Gersten, who was instrumental in the campaign to save the Lyceum in 1979, is pessimistic about what could now happened to the building.

She said: “If it stays in commercial hands, I’m afraid for its future. I don’t think that’s the right use for it.
“It’s not a huge building. What are they going to do with it that’s going to compensate that sort of money?
“It’s a building that the council should have taken responsibility for. But they didn’t – they supported people’s wish to demolish it.”
She was quoted by Piloti in Private Eye see pic

Did they, the local press write about it being carbunclised? no, just how wonderful it was from some their developer mates perspective.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-lyceum-of-bold-street-is-to-gets.html  No they, the local press, are all on the same old magic roundabout swilling in the same bucket. To think while editor Mark Thomas has been in his last post what we have lost. Lets start with the world heritage site.

Dale Street Blues-Stinky Ink Finally Leaves The Office.

You could say better late than never. Shock Horror, a bit of truth. David finally cleans his gigs and starts telling it like it is.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/peel-holdings-liverpeel-its-happening.html  Has someone let him out of the office? Has he been told he can tell the story the way it is for once? Is he rebelling against his employers the Daily Council at Oldham Hall Street. Well he told half the story on his blog, he didnt go round the corner to 6 Sir Thomas Street.
Bartlett admitted once that when he first came to Liverpool, despite skitting Luciana Berger for it, he didnt know who Bill Shankly was.  http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/what-is-the-future-for-liverpo.html The ever forgetful "Stinky Ink" Bartlett forgets last week he was telling all his fodder that Liverpool was to inspire Paris, Ha! http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/bienvenue-a-liverpool---french.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiverpoolDailyPost-DaleStreetBlues+%28Liverpool+Daily+Post+-+Dale+Street+Blues%29 This week its how crap the city is.

He seems to have taken our advice and gone to Specsavers http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/dave-bartlett-blues-he-should-have-gone.html

Maybe he is finally catching up http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/dale-street-another-one-bites-dust.html Maybe he should have taken Bernie Turnip with him http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/lets-take-sentimental-journey-with.html

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-heritage-at-risk-royal.html or paid attention to the Royal Insurance. All in all he has to take a long hard look, he has and stop bouncing around ignoring all the facts and he may get a bit more respect. In the words of a well known local commentator that Bartlett said was too critical of him after he had a go at him on his own blog. Ronnie replied.
Ronnie de Ramper said:

Sure, I can jump up and down like Zebedee. I can skip along with Pollyanna. I can even bleat in chorus with sheep if given good reason. But why would I want to suspend my critical faculties just because I was fed something by the Press? Travel that road and you'll believe the Shanghai Expo was a colossal triumph; that Liverpool is the creative centre of the universe; and every journalist simply tells it like it is. No need for razor blades. Use your wits instead.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/search?q=david+bartlett Or check out Correspondents blog. Mr Bartlett took his blog off his recomended section like a spoilt little child because he dared to critisize him.

We want more truth not propoganda for Peel Holdings the Council and the North Vested Interest Development Agency oh and his editor Frank McKenna http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/frank-mckenna-unofficial-editor-of.html

Frank McKenna Suckles At The Breast of Joe Anderson.

What a cosy relationship this has started out, to be, as Joe Anderson speaking at a Downtown Liverpool in Business Event apears to give the green light to anyone who wants to build any old glass shoebox. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/dlib-in-skip.html  Stating how easy it would be for its members to obtain access to a planning manager, within a week in fact.
Is Joe Anderson just a chubby version of Warren Bradley. And are the same mistakes about to be made. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/david-wade-smith-not-right-choice-as.html  In fact Joe Anderson has stood by idly and watched while the world heritage site was destroyed even taking an active part in it as a committee member on Liverpool Vision and numerous other quangos.
I am reliably informed that Nigel Lee is all over him like a rash, phoning him up and getting him on his side.
It looks like this is working. Despite mistakes for rushing development Uncle Joe says at the new Hilton Hotel on Chavasse Lawn. “This council is dogged by processes.”

He said businesses should expect to see a planning officer within one week of a pre-planning application, rather than six or seven weeks, and cited an example of an unnamed company bringing 120 jobs to the city as a result of streamlining. He said a sort of “star chamber” would be set up to oversee council expenditure, which was already £9m over budget in the first three months of the financial year.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/22/liverpool-city-council-leader-joe-anderson-reassures-business-leaders-92534-26697224/

Yes Uncle Joe the public should expect proper scrutiny not a corrupted system stacked in favour of any old shady developer.
Joe Anderson it has been said make Warren Bradley look like a scholar and I have to say here he shows how easy it is to manipulate him.
I am aware of massive donations by local businessmen to the labour party before the election. Frank is of course a old hand at manipulation and was to be seen in the background in Skelmersdale when Gordon Brown visited. Because Downtown, are editing the Trinity “Smoking” Mirror group http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/frank-mckenna-unofficial-editor-of.html  all this will not be told. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-frank-mckenna-really-editing.html I wrote to Uncle Joe requesting he considers the need for a heritage bureau that Warren Bradley insisted was not necessary. He said he would consider it.
But now it seems that it is more than obvious where his loyalties lie.
To those who are able to make him understand the need to ravish what we have left of the historic fabric without compromise while in his friend and Ally, Louise Ellman, the Dame of Derelictions constituency http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-baltic-triangle-more-than.html  is still in parts like a war zone 30 years after the riots.
 Joe Anderson after all was the councillor here in the centre and kept his gob shut when world heritage disaster unfolded itself. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/liverpools-world-heritage-site-memory.html



Meanwhile
NINE Liverpool day centres are to close as part of the biggest shake-up in social services the city has seen in the past 60 years. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/22/nine-liverpool-day-centres-to-close-in-social-care-revolution-92534-26697620/


Well done Uncle Joe.
New Labour.

Liverpool Library-To sell off 30,000 Books-Now Thats Liverpool Culcha, For Yerr!!

CENTRAL LIBRARY to become an internet cafe.


Well they have ruined the museum in William Brown Street part of the World Heritage Site, turning it into the Wacky Warehouse so why not destroy the Central Library and make it look like an Asda supermarket. It makes sense. Every little helps. It seems everything that this council, in my opinion, run by spivs, does, is a way of ruining the heritage of the city. Of homogonising it, turning it, into the same as everywhere else. Even its unique areas, its world heritage site. Its no good claiming that it is updating an existing structure, this does not look good, it looks very bad indeed. Not only have they got rid of all wagon loads of books from the library, selling off valuable first edittions to book dealers at knock down prices, they will now set about destroying the fabric of the structure, and the whole building. It will happen, with these proposals. Does no-one understand what heritage is in this city is, and how you merge old with new to create a sense of place and history.
 I wrote this as a post last October. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-central-library-violation.html Now it transpires the Liverpool Library is to ebay 30,000 titles patiently collected for over a century. Not content with giving the library to a private company The Fib-Dems have now set all the conditions to have a Internet Cafe, in what once was the world renowned Central Library. What a disgrace. Running the sell off will be the most uncultured set of characters no doubt, who dont understand the need to keep books. The google generation, yes we all use it, but there is no greater pleasure than finding a good book with fantastic illustratios.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-central-library-is-to-be.html I wrote further about the threats. The new Library in artists impression looks more like an Asda. Every little hurts.
So is Joe Anderson is now a chubby version of Warren Bradley? When will he save our culture.
Ben Scofield reports.
LIVERPOOL'S refurbished Central Library will have 30,000 fewer books than before its £50m re-fit.

The library was due to close this month for two years, during which it is going to be overhauled inside.
But, to free up space, Liverpool City Council are holding a fire sale for thousands of books, many of which are being sold for as little as £1. Any un-sold books are going to be given to a "social business", which will try to sell them online. Any it cannot sell will be given away to charity shops, schools and hospitals. The council said the 30,000 titles being ditched are rarely borrowed and are no longer significant.
It said it needs the space previously taken up by the volumes to display the library's special collections and the city's archives.
Liverpool Records Office will be expanded to provide for 20 more years’ worth of documents. The restored library is set to re-open in 2012. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/21/liverpool-central-library-to-sell-off-books-92534-26691563/

Liverpool to Inspire Paris- Sarkozy Says So. Or Is It Just more Bull.

No, David "Stinky Ink" Bartlett made the story up to fit in with filling empty pages at the Daily Ghost with crap stuff that is a laughing stock to journalism.  You have to question the education of those at Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors in Oldham Hall Street. In fact so pathetic is todays chip paper, today,that you have to say no wonder they are in such a bad state. The opposite to what he has, well if you could call it, written, applies.
UNESCO said that Liverpool should take inspiration from Paris in the way they have built all their modern buildings in the La Defense district away from the world heritage site.  Mark Waddington is just as thick http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/17/french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-looks-to-liverpool-to-inspire-regeneration-of-paris-92534-26669233/  Even though he was talking about regeneration in LaHavre, that I have visited 60 times, he twists it round to suit a pathetic editorial stance that only serves the people by decieving them.
New council leader Joe Anderson says: "If ever proof were needed that Liverpool is one of the great cities of the world, this report is it."You don't just have to take his word for it, ask the French.
Someone said Joe Anderson make Warren Bradley look educated.
First it was Prince Charles http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/warren-bradley-you-are-not-very-clever.html telling Warren Bradley how great it is.as if. An aquanitance gave stinky ink Bartlett a letter to the contrary from Charles's office, and he would not print any of it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/concourse-house-one-step-forward-and.html What about this carbuncle.
Oh and this one http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html
 Imagine if they built three black coffins over the Eifel Tower. This is what Stinky Ink Bartlett writes on his blog.
 http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/bienvenue-a-liverpool---french.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiverpoolDailyPost-DaleStreetBlues+%28Liverpool+Daily+Post+-+Dale+Street+Blues%29 Pathetic.

I think if the french President had understood what we have done to the world heritage site he would not have said a word.