Is Liverpool city centre changing for the better?

The centre of Liverpool looks set to change dramatically over the next decade or so, making the city an increasingly contrasting medley of the old and the new.

Just look at the waterfront, where a patchwork of late-Victorian and early-20th century grandeur swaps midday shadows with sleek offices, sharp-angled cultural centres and monolithic apartment buildings.

Developments that impact iconic, distinctive or culturally significant aspects of the city naturally come under the heaviest levels of scrutiny and criticism, and rightfully so. But what are some of the biggest developments taking place right now, and will they alter the city’s aesthetic for the better?

The city within a city

One of the most transformative plans for Liverpool is undoubtedly the £200m project to completely overhaul, and ultimately modernize, its historic Chinatown.

The scheme received unanimous approval in December, paving the way for developers to create 850 homes, a new hotel, leisure facilities and a Chinese retail hub that, if the CGIs are anything to go by, could end up looking like a mini Liverpool One.

It’s clear from the scale of the plans, which have been described as a ‘city within a city’ and were even presented to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping during his visit to Manchester back in October, that Chinatown is going to be a completely different place once the work is complete.

Economically I think it will be good for the quarter, with modernised street areas giving better exposure to the businesses and bringing more prospective diners and shoppers to the district.

The Futurist furore

Perhaps one of the most hotly contested developments in the city centre is the planned £35m revamp of Lime Street.

In August 2015, the project took a significant step forward after the government decided not to call in the plans, despite some groups demanding an inquiry over the city council’s decision not to preserve the facade of one of the street’s most architecturally distinctive properties, the former Futurist cinema building.

I felt, and still feel to a degree, somewhat divided on the issue. Lime Street is a fairly scruffy part of the city, that much is undeniable. It’s a shame, since it’s obviously one of the first places people see when they step out of Lime Street station. So in that regard, it’s long overdue a makeover. I just wish the minds behind the scheme could have driven it forward while, at the same time, preserving the fantastic Futurist building.

Either way, the project will now move forward indefinitely after last month saw the High Court turn down a bid from SAVE Britain’s Heritage, a campaign group, to stop the scheme from progressing.

The Elliot Group pipeline

North Point Global is the firm delivering the Chinatown plans and Neptune Developments was picked to overhaul Lime Street, but there’s one firm that pops up on my radar again and again for city-based projects - Elliot Group.

The company, led by local entrepreneur Elliot Lawless, could well be one of Liverpool’s most prolific developers, with more than £325m of city projects either in the building or planning stages at the time of writing.

One of its most impactful projects is the £40m revamp of Wolstenholme Square, the shabby city centre space which, up until recently, served as the home of the famous Cream nightclub and the Kazimier, one of the city’s best loved bars and gig venues.

This particular scheme, as with Lime Street, drew some flak locally. A lot of people I spoke to wanted to know why Elliot Group couldn’t deliver its mixed-use scheme without mowing down two important nightlife hubs. In other words: aren’t there other unattractive parts of the city centre that could be knocked down or redeveloped?

The company addressed these concerns by accommodating a new home for Cream in its plans, while the minds behind the Kazimier have since said they intend to establish a whole new venture. If it’s even half as good as the Kazimier was for the city’s music scene, I’ll be happy.

In addition to the Wolstenholme Square transformation, Elliot Group is ploughing £15m into a residential-led, 109-home scheme in the city’s Georgian Quarter and £8m into giving new life to a building destroyed during the Toxteth riots in the early ’80s.

The company is also building Baltic Place, a six-storey apartment block that will deliver 52 homes between Chinatown and the Baltic Triangle area.

What do you think of the myriad projects springing up across Liverpool? Do developers and the city council’s planning committee need to do more to preserve the cultural aspects of the sites they choose for their plans? And would you rather see developers focus on revamping existing buildings instead of erecting new ones? Let us know in the comments.

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