Showing posts sorted by relevance for query chavasse park. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query chavasse park. Sort by date 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. 





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.

Thursday, 18 June 2009

Chavasse Park a Monument to Greed

Rod Holmes came in my shop today.
I left him very wound up last time I spoke with him. The usual calm and collective Rodney who pulled the whole scheme together for the Duke of Grosvenor-pool and Westminster was annoyed with me. I had dared to state that the project was like a Trafford Park in the city without a roof on. He went for it “Well that’s just your opinion” he said he got very agitated at one time.
Florence Gersten and I were objectors to the absolutely horrendous Cesar Pelli tower on Chavasse Park in the buffer zone. He had been very worried, we having brought Unesco into Liverpool for a reactive monitoring mission had complained to the Chief Planning officer that they had started work without planning consent. Subsequently a planning committee approval was sought in no time at all. Lady Dorian Jones vacated the chair because she knew the applicant. She had recently publicly stated how she had such a wonderful time at the Duke of Westminster’s daughters wedding…. er hang on the chair of the planning committee who Warren Bradley the council leader stated publicly had mentored him, whose address came up as CH4 9DG, which is on the Dukes Estate ....how curious.
David” I don’t live in Liverpool” Irving the deputy chair passed it while the convicted Councillor Hurst tried to agitate me to put me off. They already had it passed in my opinion and now we have something resembling Widnes Tech on the Liverpool skyline. Rodney was back to his usual calm self today and I did not wind him. His wife had told him about my shop, not sure if he knew it was me who runs it, as he may not have come in.
I had listened to a Radio 4 programme today about the recession and the subsequent empty shops. The presenter was in Chester while the interviewees were claiming a lot of people had gone shopping to Liverpool 1 hitting the town hard. So the Duke of Westminster who has a vast estate, just outside Chester, has helped kill the town because he built Liverpool 1. How strange is that, is that like shooting yourself in the foot or what?
Image 1 The building completed. Image 2 under construction showing its placement in the WHS. Image 3 from the Albert Dock the biggest conglomeration of Grade I listed buildings in the country.
Rod is now chair of Mersey Partnerships. He was mopping beads of sweat last time I was speaking to him calling us the Heritage People “Well we tried to engage everybody”. He said and I stopped him and said “Mr Holmes why do you look at those who love their city as enemies".

He stopped and paused “ Sometimes Mr Holmes your enemies are your best friends in disguise, they are the ones that tell you the truth” I proclaimed.
I wish him well in his new job but we need to keep an eye on Peel Holdings who have far too much power.
http://www.peelwaters.co.uk/LpoolWaters.html
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/developer-threatens-liverpool-scheme-move/1084851.article
The flats at Chavasse Park that we and others objected to, have been reduced again to 90k because they have not sold. They will also give you 5k of furniture free that’s a minimum of 20% down in the year since they went on the market. The potential buyers reneged, so they have not sold. The reality is that if Grosvener and the council Spivs who pushed it through increasing its height from 12 Storeys on the master plan to 17 storeys had of listened they would not have had an empty block and an eyesore in the World Heritage Site, that we will have to live with forever, or until it falls down in 30 years. Sometimes people don’t listen.
Captain Chavasse will be turning in his grave with this as monument to his sacrifice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Godfrey_Chavasse


Friday, 14 August 2009

One Park West and the Carbuncle Cup.......The Fightback Begins


Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
The Cesar Pelli eyesore is now being called a wondrous place by Paul Du Noyer author and journalist......oh and he has just got a new book out to publicise. Having left the city for London, he has taken out a 6 month let in Widnes Tech on speed look-a-like, One Park "Gone" West. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/08/14/liverpool-s-one-park-west-residents-begin-the-fightback-92534-24440113/
I bumped into Paul, a client of mine outside the multi coloured Costa cafe in Lord Street three weeks ago and he told me he was here for three days and staying in Chavasse Park.
"Oh I have just nominated it for Building Designs Carbuncle Cup" I said, he wryly grinned in embarrassment. He seemed at the time to agree with me. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=430&storycode=3146320&channel=783&c=2
"Oh well its not the best from the outside but the views are good from inside. "Well it depends which way you look" I replied.
Then on Wednesday morning he was waiting for me outside my shop at 10 am with a Daily Post under his arm.
"How are you getting on down at Chavasse Park, there was some publicity in the paper yesterday, sorry about that" I said". I had previously e-mailed the BD article to the paper which they hacked.
"Oh yes he said well the worst thing is that the views are being ruined as they build the black granite blocks" in agreement with me.
"Paul they are only just starting, the worst one on Mann Island" I said with another client present.
"Yeah its looking bad" Not a mention of this opinion. So the fightback begins with the post editor Mark Thomas (who I have recently criticised, so this may be his idea for a fightback) at the Helm, and our intrepid reporter Alan Weston....God help us. The fightback is on facebook. Oh and there is a group hug by the residents next Wednesday at 12.3o.
This is the future of architectural opinion for Liverpool....a group hug by the EMO look-alikes from what is turning into Goth City, up top, on the multi storey car park, that is Chavasse lawn.
Paul, best stick to music you are an expert there. Don't forget its a world heritage site imagine if they built this in front of the Taj Mahal or the Pyramids. I am sorry if I was critical of your....second home and it may have upset you, but I think.
They promised us world class architecture a Cesar Pelli.......and instead give us a Cesar salad.
Its all a matter of taste really, just like music, Phil Redmond a professional scouser who doesn't live here told me right outside the place, "Well at least it will fall down in 50 years". "Thats no good to me" I replied "I wont be here I have to look at it now."
Paul, If this building was a song it would be "Agadoo" by Black Lace, only you cant switch the radio off and forget about it, this is here forever and wont go away and keeps grating my nerves and bugging me, but hey I must be wrong Paul Du Noyer likes it, apparently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv-3yIPSWc Push pineapple here for Agadoo

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

One Park West The Balloons Arrive for a Group Hug.

IS THIS A DESPERATE PR STUNT?

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/tree-huggers-sue-for-copyright.html
Paid for by Grosvenor they rolled them out at Park West Worst for this desperate PR stunt. A colleague of mine went on facebook to check out how its all going and the organiser of it is http://en-gb.facebook.com/jvolpfletcher. She works for a PR company called ThinkPublicity http://www.thinkpublicity.co.uk/ and guess what (if you can stand the annoying website) their clients are Trinity Mirrors Group, Grosvenor and they launched the One Park Worst opening evening. They say they launched LDP the Liverpool Daily Post Business Club.....they say at the launch for Liverpool.com and they are pleased to be associated with Trinity Mirror.
They also have as clients Negresco and a couple of other Guttman enterprises who seem to always go bust and recently went bang and caused outrage when the same owners opened up the same week further down the same road in Lark Lane.
WHAT A DESPERATE ACT BUT I LEAVE IT WITH ONE FINAL COMMENT LEFT OF FACEBOOK.
Nick Wensley (Liverpool) wrote at 12:07
I'm in work then too... Do they not understand our great home is supposed to look like a ship? Explaining that would make all the confusion and bad feeling evaporate i'm sure!
followed by another comment
This building is supposed to look like a ship ? The Titanic comes to mind. No bad feelings or confusion, it is truly awful and should sink without trace. Are there enough lifeboats ?

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, 7 July 2009

Liverpool One, by David Littlefield.

I was asked to review this book for Building Design magazine. Not surprising the author has taken it badly.
And that was the edited version.
HIS COMMENTS WERE LEFT ON THE BD WEBSITE.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=723&storycode=3143733
29 June, 2009
Reviewed by Wayne Colquhoun, chairman and spokesperson of the Liverpool Preservation Trust

Written in the euphoria of the opening of Liverpool One, a shopping centre that opened, ironically, just as we hit the worst retail recession for 80 years. All those moody shots of… shop fronts and escalators.
Liverpool One by David Littlefield.It says everything one would expect it to. It was funded and published by Grosvenor. It tells the story as they want it to be told.
But it fails to address questions like how much Grosvenor paid for the a third of Liverpool city centre. The people put out of business who lost their livelihoods don’t have a say, it just waxes lyrical, and it’s all from the developer’s point of view.
I am not sure who would buy such a book that at times is factually incorrect, especially the section about the Cesar Pelli monolith on Chavasse Park, in the World Heritage Site buffer zone, which was 12 storeys on the masterplan and increased to 17.
I had to navigate the city being dug up for years to get more choice for shirts, and now Grosvenor-pool has opened I still can’t find a decent one.
It praises the architects, the council, the duke, and the people who worked there. Anyone would think they had built Rome.
In reality it is not brilliant architecture. They knocked down The sixties Moat House and Steers House (two hated buildings) and built blocks in the same style, only 12 storeys higher. All the architectural critics have now had their say, but as the dust settles this is a book about a shopping centre, an open roofed Trafford Park in the City. Yippeee!

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Mike Storey. He Is Guilty Of Liverpools World Heritage Disaster.

I thought that Joe Anderson is good he has only been a leader of the council for a couple of weeks and he’s brought in the army to blow up the new museum and the black coffins that have destroyed the world heritage site.
I then bumped into Ed from the BBC who said the tank was part of the pageant of power he was reporting on and the closure of the Strand to show off all those super fast cars including a Lemans competitor. I spoke to him right in the shadow of One Park Worst, which he had reported for the BBC on the Carbuncle Cup nomination.
That was great he said we had a competition 'Name your Local Carbuncle' and we were swamped.
"Yes well there is next years Carbuncle Cup"  I said looking over to Mann Island. “We have lost it all” I said “Yes but the fight that you put up will go down in history” he said. Kind words. I looked at the tank a Challenger I think, thought about  it, No I thought they wouldnt leave any live rounds in....would they, one shot no more museum. Well lets get in to work I am already late.

 
I went for a walk around Grosvenor-pool in the sun later on and talk about pageant of power, or ex power, I bumped into the current Lord Mayor, Mike Storey who wouldnt even look me in the eye. He turned away. Does he read the blog. Maybe he has a conscience and he feels guilty to the world heritage destruction that he started while being, in my opinion Liverpool’s Council leader property developer’s spiv, well before he had to resign in disgrace. He stood on Chavasse Park, the Park that he wrestled from Bill Davies to give to Grosvenor while acting as agent for the development. One Park Gone West. Or was he second in command to Clever Trevor Jones? Well the carbuncling has been done now. What is going to be his legacy. How will the Daily Ghost and the Oldham Echo put him down in history, they knew all about where Trevor Jones lived. It was a Daily Ghost journalist who told me Clevor Trevors address on the Duke of Westminsters Estate.  They let him off with it alright. Turning a blind eye...and Why?

Thursday, 4 March 2010

Phil Redmond-A Professional Scouser.

Lets ask a question. Where does he live? Childwall? Croxteth, just by where Brookside was filmed…..no. Woolton or even Cressington Park? No one of these.

Tirley Garth, Utkington in the leafy Cheshire Green Belt just one hamlet up from Tarporly is where. They don’t have many scouse weddings in this part of the world. Now you don’t begrudge a man making something of himself but true to form the old saying; When a scouser makes it, they bugger off to London and when they half make it the move to the Wirral has a strange association here.
I last spoke to Dr Redmond shortly after the National Trust AGM that was held at the Oldham Echo Arena. I was helping with a historical tour to some of the delegates after the event. I bumped into Tristram Hunt the respected historian, BBC presenter and Times Journalist. He had not long done an article entitled Liverpool Capital of Vandalism http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3507204.ece for the Times. It was inspired and titled after a phrase I sent him Capital of Destruction, referring at that point to our Georgian past. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2008/01/29/living-on-the-eve-of-destruction-64375-20405391/

As I spoke to him opposite Mann Island I noticed the wavy hair of Dr Redmond and his wife with a small group walking towards me. I was showing Tristram the soon to disappear views as the Thee Black Slugs were just being started and explaining that a Dock which predated the Albert by 60 years was destroyed to make way for the museum being built that Phil was the Chairman of NML, at that time and his wife a trustee was a strange co-incidence. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2007/09/what_scouse_culture_means.html   One disgruntled trustee had just resigned from NML stating the Redmond’s constituted a conflict of interests. NML just ignore conflicts of interests as they ignore legal covenants. "Oh here is one of the people responsible" I said and Phil stopped grinning like a little cheeky scouser. I knew Phil as a client of mine I had sold him some bits for his mansion. “Wayne we have to move on with the times” he said.

This is not moving on these were my cherished views Liverpool Museums should be protecting us not ruining us” http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html

“Well what would you have put there?” he said “A park” I replied “Besides the finance for these three grotesques is paying for the museum its disgraceful” Alexis chipped in “Oh no its not” she said. “I have looked over all the minutes of trustees meetings I am well aware of how the finances are stacked”.
Phil in full glare of Tristram then said pointing to the whole development including the museum that he was steward of as Chairman of NML. “It all should have been built in Birkenhead” I nearly threw him in Salt house Dock. “You have been culture supremo watching all this happen and you have done nothing look at the mess as I pointed to One Park Worst, Widnes Tech on speed, opposite on Chavasse Park. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/liverpool-world-heritage-city.html  “They have destroyed our future this is bad. “You are right but the consolation is it will all fall down within 50 years”. There is no consolation to me I wont be around”

Tristram and his wife sensing an engagement said their goodbyes I thought he may have written about it, and I continued rattling with Phil as Alexis and their two architect friends looked on. “We should talk about this in more detail in the new year,” he said and I caught up my party. I never did tie up with him. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/museum-of-liverpool-are-trustees-out-of.html


I read Phil Redmond’s column in the Liverpool Daily Ghost last week. Its usually waffle and this particular one is not available on line. Perhaps because the editor is aware of its inaccuracies. Entitled, Why the twists in the tales make it great to be scouse. Well said Phil did you e-mail in this column from the Mansion in Cheshire.
He goes on to say how last weeks story broke about the £750,000 paid out by NML to a commercial property developer. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//2010/02/24/revealed-tax-payer-funded-national-museums-liverpool-paid-out-750k-for-spoiling-a-waterfront-view-100252-25901760/

He says Well, yes but the unfortunate situation is that if you want to build anywhere in a city, especially in a complex historical area like the Pier Head, you will encounter, well, complex and historical problems. This was one of them. He says he will come back to this and I await tomorrows column where he will I think try to kid the public.
He says “It basically boils down to £750,000 brought in £72 million and delivered a museum on time and on budget.”
This, as most of his column is made up, They have destroyed the World Heritage Site and now it transpires there was covenants to protect this happening. We were first told it would be open in 2008, then 2009, then 2010 and now 2011. The original design had a price of £42 million which is now nearer £80 million and it appears all the money is still not in place. Something I am not in the least surprised about with the utter chaos surrounding this whole project.

I await his writing tommorrow, he will probably be doing it now after he has finished off bullying Mark Thomas the editor into kidding the public. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/should-mark-thomas-be-relieved-of-his.html  who lives on the Wirral. There was not a mention into the wasted money in the Daily Ghost. I sent the editor Mark Thomas a AJ piece about they have come to an agreement relating to the 3XN, the museums architects sacking. Next day it was entitled, to placate the NML.Harmony breaks out at Liverpool Museum. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/25/harmony-breaks-out-in-liverpool-museums-spat-with-architect-92534-25910055/  This is a disgrace what a placation of the facts which needed a little more investigation. The day before It was great to see the papers holding them accountable. Shock horror the Echo at that. They should be accountable which is why I have written to Mr Redmond for a full account of the financial mess that is NML. Requesting some details that the press have not looked into. A letter has also gone off to the National Audit Office asking for a full inquiry. I await a cover upo by The Daily Ghost.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-daily-post-turning-into-morning.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/oldham-echo-mind-control-to-major-tom.html

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. 

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.

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

Liverpool World Heritage City, Carbuncles-R-Us

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

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


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

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


Milton Keynes-On-Sea on Princes Dock.


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

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.