St Andrews Church Rodney Street-Call This Regeneration.

How can a City watch a Grade II* listed building deteriate to such an effect that it is a shadow of itself. 
Even the English Heretics describe its condition as "very bad".

The Old Presbyterian Church on Rodney St.
John Moores wanted to use this as a library and resource centre after it was on fire.
 John Moores were promising to make it structurally safe and give it a fresh vibrant use. So the whole scheme was kyboshed, and the decay set in really hard.
Now at this precise moment there will be a load of shifty developers waiting for it to completely fall down

But now, as if to make matters worse, it has a shed on it.

Steve "Ronnie" Corbett at the waste full Liverpool Conservation (sic) Office wanted to store his garden tools and lawn mower on the top of it.
While Chris Griffiths the waste of space masquerading as the buildings at risk officer pots his geraniums up there of a weekend. It is a waste, an absolute waste.
This building was designed and built by John Foster Jr in 1823. The above picture what it looked like only a couple of decades ago. Its decline was swift.

Now this is the picture of St Andrews with Steve Corbetts potting shed on top.  Is this a joke?
There should be laws against doing this to a listed building anyhow.
So what of Malcolm Kennedy and the new buzz word, Regeneration. (code for we are all working for Peel Holdings)
Where is all the puff powder PR going. The smokescreen.
 Every day you read in the Daily Ghost more 'Plumping' about how well its all going, when in reality our some of our historic buildings are rotting. The Old Presbyterian Church on Rodney Street, now gets a shed, on its heavy ballustraded attic.


We lost the Welsh Chapel on Penny Lane corner recently
 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/welsh-presbyterian-chapel-demolished-by.html But what of St Andrews listed Grade II* why has it been allowed to get into this state. Not a recent mention in the local press.
Peter Elson once used to be heavily involved in heritage matters!
Who is to keep a tag on the decay of our history?
Its not all about nicely toned sepia prints.
There are vital issues to be raised and those at the local paper need to "Get on Board" instead of inventing fights with Southampton over the Cruise Liner Cock Up Jetty, that the local press have held no-one accountable for, even though the current leader, of the city council, was wrapped up in it all, as part of Liverpool Vision. Our history is our future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Andrew,_Liverpool


http://www.walkingbook.co.uk/liverpool/  Here is a few more sepia prints.


SHEDS DIRECT GIVE THEM A CALL 0151 233 5623 ask for Steve Corbett or Chris Griffiths.
Further LPT reading
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/sheds-direct-new-architectural-craze.html

Strawberry Fools Forever-What Is Beatles History Really Worth?

This weekend was the awful Mathew Street, piss up, I mean, Festival.
Where they now charge a fiver to get into, your own city centre.
Friends of mine come in to busk on Saturday and where threatened with a fine of a grand.
All they wanted to do was show off their musical talent for a little appreciation.
The Mathew Street Festival no longer belongs to the people of Liverpool.
They, the city council, have now taken over and are systematicaly destroying the essence of why it started.
 At least when it first started, the drunken clouts were confined to Mathew Street and now they are all over town. It is a sickening sight. I couldn't think of a worse and more crude way to spent a Bank Holiday than watching Amy Housewine (yes thats her stage name) and all the other tribute bands that now ply their trades, that were gathered together by the organisers, in a lazy fashion, with little or no real intelligent thought, for a sort of musical jamboree that showcases little of Liverpool. 

Meanwhile they are removing, if they have not yet done so, the gates from Strawberry Fields.

Well, We knocked The Cavern Club Down so why not take all the originality out of the city.

Is this the first step to their sale, or even worse being given to Liverpool Museums to make a full set along with Manchester Dock Gates that survived the Luftwaffe's onslaught.
Interestingly we have just commemorated 70 years of the blitz.
Some people just cant leave well alone.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/10/beatles-strawberry-fields-gates-removed

Is this Strawberry Fools Forever. Or is someone at the Sally army who own the site, where the gates stand, getting feeled up for a few quid?
 Who planted the seed in the field and why isn't our courageous Conservation Officer Steve (Ronnie) Corbett doing anything about it. Yes we know they were taken once, but they were returned they were so hot, they could never be sold. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_Forever



Is Eel Scales Herr Director of Miserytravel going to buy them and turn them into a Miserytravel bus stop, or cut them into four at a cost 4.2 million pounds and then tell us its great for toursim and he saved them.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-did-merseytravel-spend-42-million.html
Or is he trying to get his hands on the yellow submarine and cut that up.
Where is the yellow submarine that was once at the International Garden Festival anyway.

So last week the Old Sailors Home gates are returned http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/08/henry-pooley-gates-return-can-we-have.html and placed next to John Lewis in Grosvenor-Pool making a new use of the term "Gated Community".
So we lose one set of gates and gain one set.
Its always one step forward and one step back in this city. HELP!

The Lyceum Bold Street-A Whopper Job Well Done!

 I was astounded when I walked past the Lyceum at the bottom of Bold Street some weeks ago.
A giant Whopper a ten foot burger in a bun had been placed on the window of Burger King right next door.
Incensed I wrote the the conservation officer, Steve Corbett, who is a waste of time in all matters of heritage, and then decided to bypass him by going direct to Joe Anderson the council leader.
I told him that we cannot allow this sort of tacky advertising to go on and advised him that this flagrant breach of planning law was setting a rather bad example, well it was a bloody outrage really.

Anything that affects the setting of a listed building or is in a conservation area(unless its the Pier Head conservation area, then they do what they like) requires a planning consent. here is my original post from the 21st June
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/06/lyceum-bold-street-liverpool-how-can.html

Fair enough Uncle Joe has delivered and the city councils enforcement officers have told Burger King the 19 externally applied vinyls have to be removed.



I think this constitutes a success. 
A historical Neo Classical building by Thomas Harrison of Chester.
Our grand old lady can now rest without the harrowing juxtaposition of a Giant Whopper slapping her in the face.

Burger King have also been told that any applications for any similar advertisements on the same elevation would not be welcomed or indeed tolerated.

The City Council has also warned Burger King, that, if the advert was not removed formal prosecution would follow.

Another Hacking Scandal-Right In Front Of The Liverpool Conservation Officers Eyes.

It started some while ago, a complete lack of disregard for history.
Those concerned slowly become ignorant to the law, and the law lets them get away with it. Because they were the law.

A subculture unfolded, where no punishment is dished out, there may even be advice given directing people how to get way with it.
Those rioters did no damage compared to the Liverpool planners and their property developing councillors.

It started, with Trevor and Doreen Jones, so said Private Eye, who wacked down the last Ships Chandlers on the Strand, next to the Baltic Fleet public house. They downed it on the Saturday after a listing application was received by the council on the Friday.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/superlambanana-land.html
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/undeclared-interest-of-jones-vote.html  

Lady Doreen Jones was the then chair of the City Planning Committee. What a scandal.

Then it was 6 Sir Thomas Street, they, of Iliad, the developers, seemingly quite cosy with the city council, sent out a team of ignorant little hackers with jack-hammers to smash up the frontage, carved Liver Birds and all.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/heres-one-they-did-earlier.html
The task to smash off the façade……right under the window of the then council leader Warren “War Zones” Bradley, who said “I wondered what all the noise was”.
This happened while awaiting the visit of an English Heritage Inspector. It now looks like a pigs ear.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/01/layla-hotel-liverpool-destroying.html

Then the arrogant Maghull Developments smashed off the façade of Josephine Butler House when, guess what awaiting a listing visit from the English Heretics.
Hahnermann House had received a Grade II listing that we applied for, hours before a planning committee decision to develop the site with a horrendous extension.

Mike Hanlon would tell me later on “You did us a favour there, with Hahnermann House”.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/liverpool-preservation-trust-11-13.html
He did himself no favours in destroying JBH as all the fluffy duffys were out in force declaring it a national disaster. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/httpwww.html  While they dont give a hoop to anything out of Hope Street.
JBH is now credit crunched. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/03/03/100m-redevelopment-of-liverpool-s-hope-street-is-the-latest-victim-of-the-credit-crunch-92534-23047723/


Still, in the Baltic Triangle, see above picture the same old, same old is happening.
Despite them telling us the Baltic Triangle will become a Cultural Quarter. Not quite sure how you get a triangle into a quarter?
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-baltic-triangle-to-become.html  

Its a Culture of Facade Hacking more like. Some things never change.
 I drove down Bridgewater Street and there was a cherry picker and hackers at work, twatting off yet another facade, nothing changes. Its not listed. Steve Corbett says it has architectural merit though.....and thats about it.


Here's the sketch, smash the façade about on any given property, its a tried and tested method, and it looks a mess and then claim its an eyesore and then an otherwise decent building is downed and hey Presto!  a Jerry Build goes up for half the cost. Hacking scandals, Liverpool is full of them
There are already plans for next door. 3, 5 and 7 Bridgewater Street.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/04/57-9-bridgewater-street-up-for.html

The Conservation Officer is a waste of time, I even get the feeling he has to be aware of it all, as no-one in the job of Conservation, in my opinion, can be so thick, or so behind the times, well apart from John Hinchliffe the World Heritage Waste of Space that stands by and watches the WHS be decimated.
Not sure if the both of them are deaf and dumb because they never hear anything and never say anything. On the rare occasion they do stutter some rubbish its usually wrong and misguided. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/heaps-rice-mill-grade-ii-listed-and.html
Heaps Rice Mill will be down next.

While Malcolm Kennedy, the Council Cabinet Member for Regeneration (code for lets help Peel Holdings destroy the WHS) appointed by Frank McKenna, I mean Joe Anderson, tells us how wonderful it all is.

Regeneration or Degeneration, another hacking scandal, this time, half a mile from what we are told, is a booming Grosvenor-pool.

Call This Regeneration? Liverpool Lime Street A Disgrace.

 Regeneration, Regeneration, Regeneration.
We even have a Regeneration Officer (Code for lets help Peel Holdings) by the name of Malcolm Kennedy.
Those in charge of Regeneration seem to concentrate on all the easy jobs while the old stock falls down.
The Futurist, that's Ironic, is a mess, left to rot while being so close to the world heritage site it may as well be in it.
Last I heard it was being left to fall down by Neptune Developments who wanted to develop the site. On one end of this block we have the Grapes (this block is next to the Adelphi) and the other end the Vines, both listed buildings because of their architectural merit.

While we are being spoon fed about Liverpool's (false) new dawn those in charge of Regeneration watch while whole blocks lay in decay. Is it a tried and tested plan. Let it fall down, the city council wont use their powers to have the building kept in a good state of repair. Then the developers claim it is in such a bad condition that the only thing to do is knock our historic pieces of architecture down and then build a modern block of flats. Just to the side of this is the Grade II listed ABC Cinema that those Urban Splash people said they were going to restore ......and then didnt, is rotting away.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2010/03/22/urban-splash-reaffirms-commitment-to-liverpool-lime-street-and-southport-s-pleasureland-92534-26081951/  

As is Littlewoods on Edge Lane that we saved from demolition, only to see it lay empty. 
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/there-was-scheme-to-relocate-school-in.html

If only those in charge of Regeneration really were genuine and sincere in the job in hand and stopped dodgy developers in this city letting our historic architectural stock fall down by serving them repair notices.

The Henry Pooley Gates Return-Can We Have The Sailors Home Back Too?

I stumbled across the unveiling ceremony this morning for the Henry Pooley Gates which was part of the old Sailors Home that was demolished in a savage act of civic vandalism when the building was, in not too bad a state of repair.

They were just about to pull the curtain and it was fair turnout.

Now I am getting sick of people harking on about the past, yes I hear you thinking, what are you saying, but it is true that once the past has gone, what can you do about it?
Me and my valued colleagues at the LPT have fought for the future not the past.
But, I am sick of looking at old sepia tints and listening to people with a sad lamentation of what we once had...........while doing nothing about it.
http://www.liverpoolmonuments.co.uk/gates/pooley12.html
The Dockers Umbrella crowd don't seem relevant to me anymore, harking on about how we lost a little treasure, that in reality was an eyesore and was falling down and needed demolishing anyhow.
If you cherish your past you will have a good future, of that I am sure.
We fought for the future, and preserving what we had was to have been our goal, look at the World Heritage site destroyed and weep.
Those Heritage Wallers waffling on about our history while too lazy to do anything about it are of no use to themselves, they will, of course, be out in droves when the last surviving carriage of the Dockers overhead railway is put in the new museum.
We tried to save the Manchester Dock Gates from a act of vandalism by of all, the Liverpool Museums, who are supposed to protect our heritage. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/manchester-docks-obliterated.html
They are now promised, by the Museums Director to be restored and placed in the new Museum of Liverpool. Lets see, shall we, after the very museums, JCB, smashed them to bits.

So, on a personal note is it a good thing or a bad thing that the Pooley Gates now seem to look out of place next to John Lewis and appear as a monument to a past tragedy that should never have happened?
Should I be thinking is this a good thing that we have spent a fortune reinstating them while care homes close and those inner city's re-ignite?

This picture was taken 1oo yards from the newly reconstituted Pooley Gates last night, as there were more riot police turning out to protect our streets from those vandals who have no respect for property.

While their city council trashes their own areas such as the Welsh Streets, creating Warrens "War Zones".

Is this a new use for the term "Gated Community" where we become a heritage theme park while a hundred yards south the Heaps Rice Mill a listed building lays rotting, and the Police protect Grosvenor-pool and the Dukes Fiefdom.

50 yards the other way, past the awful looking Liver Street Car Park, that the last Unesco mission of 2006 described as truly bad, where the memory of the Mole of Edgehill, is insulted with a awful bit of Jerry building, by a drunken bricklayer, if that's what you could call him, as it is, an insult to drunken bricklayers.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/here-lies-mole-of-edgehill.html

But its alright the local press say so.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/alan-weston-of-liverpool-daily-post-is.html

While over in Duke Street the rot continues, while Malcolm Kennedy, Liverpools cabinet member for Regeneration (code for Peel Holdings) and Joe Anderson will be today taking the plaudits for the Pooley gates while doing nothing for the Wellington Rooms or St Andrews Church.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/boy-stood-on-burning-deck-picking-his.html

I cant make my mind up really, it seems on balance they are better being there, just, even if they serve as a monument to a horrendous past mistake and provoke thoughts of how Liverpool, as a city, is continuing in the same heritage tradition of showing disrespect for its past. 

Liverpool Looting Their Own Community?

And its looting by the very council officials that are now empowered to clean up the "War Zones" that they trashed in the first place with a lack of respect and disdain for the people in their own area. You wont find this in the local press who turn the disturbances into an advertorial for Grosvenor.


A Council boss who described government cuts as "severe" and "daunting" received more than £2,000 a day for 39 days' work - equivalent to an annual package of more than £400,000.


Ged Fitzgerald, then new chief executive of Liverpool City Council, received salary and pension contributions worth £80,936 between February 7 and March 31 this year, according to the local authority's accounts.

The accounts also show that the outgoing chief executive, Colin Hilton , received £113,175 in salary for just two months in April and May last year.

Hilton also received £30,000 as "compensation for loss of employment" and a bonus of £26,396.

Eric Pickles, the local government minister, last year called Liverpool council "out of touch" after it advertised for a new executive at £197,000 a year - £50,000 more than the prime minister earns.

When told of Fitzgerald and Hilton's pay this weekend, Pickles said: "Good Lord. They had said they would be paying less to their executives."

Shortly after joining the council in February, Fitzgerald spoke publicly of the "whirlwind" he faced as the tried to balance the local authority's books.
"I don't think anybody really knew the size and severity of the challenge that we had around our budget," he said. "I literally .... sat in my office of the best part of a monthly with a calculator where only the minus button was working. It was very, very challenging.,
"I have every sympathy for all the members of staff .... It took us a lot of working through to balance the budget, and £91m out of a usable amount of £400m was a really big, daunting challenge".

A spokesman for the council denied that Fitzgerald was earning a salary of £400,000 a year, but was unable to confirm the true amount.
Matthew Sinclair director of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: "These eye-watering pay packages at Liverpool city council are a disgrace at a time when there is so much pressure on the finances of the council and the families who ultimately pick up the bill.
Taxpayers should not be asked to accept austerity on the front line but still see a gilded age in full swing in the town hall."

Colin "Cover Up" Hilton who was hand picked by Mike Storey and Warren "War Zones" Bradley should be paying a fine for the mess he created as Chief Executive allowing a billion pounds European Objective One Funds being squandered. 
All three of them were responsible for the Cruise Liner 'Jetty' Cock Up and the trashing of the World Heritage Site...........And whilst not condoning the disturbances what has happened to these people for allowing the destruction of huge areas of Toxteth such as the Welsh Streets.