Central Liverpool: The Town Centre

	Bluecoat Chambers This lovely Queen Anne-style building was founded in 1708 by Mr Bryan Blundell and Rev. Robert Styth and completed in 1725 as 'a school for teaching poor children to read, write and cast accounts'. Originally called the Bluecoat Hospital, it is the oldest surviving building in the centre of the city and is the work of an unknown architect. Blundell was a leading Liverpool shipowner, reputedly the owner of the first ship to enter the town's first dock in 1715, and slave trade. Styth was the first joint Rector of Liverpool, based at St Nicholas Church on the waterfront. Both men were aware of the problems of orphan children in Liverpool, large numbers of whom were left destitute by the loss of their fathers at sea. The school moved to Wavertree in 1906 and was narrowly saved from demolition in 1907 by a donation from soap magnate William Hesketh Lever, funded by part of his winnings in a libel suit against the Daily Mail. The building has had various functions since, latterly an arts centre.
	The Carnarvon Castle The Carnarvon Castle on Tarleton Street, off Church Street, is a little gem of a pub tucked up Tarleton Street near the main shops and obviously popular with shoppers. It is about 200 years old and the inside is comfortable, small, old-fashioned and unspoilt. One of the best of the more modest style ale houses in the city centre.
*Lord Street in Recollections of Old Liverpool (1863), an anonymous author recalling the mid-18th century* Lord Street, previous to 1827, was very narrow; it was not so wide even as Dale Street. The houses and all the streets in Liverpool were just as we see in third-rate country towns, having bowed shop-windows, or square ones, projecting from the side of the house. I recollect Church Street and Ranelagh Street being paved in the centre only. [...] In Ranelagh Street the houses had high steps to the front doors. The porches of the old houses in Liverpool were remarkable for their handsome appearance and patterns. Many still remain but they are yearly decreasing in number. I recollect when the only shops in Church Street were a grocer's and a confectioner's at the corner of Church Alley. Bold Street was nearly all private houses, and there were very few shops in it, even some forty years ago. Seventy years since there was scarcely a house of any sort in it. I have been told that where the Atheneum now stands in Church Street, there was once a large pond on which the skaters used to cut a figure, and that a farm-house stood at the corner of Hanover Street. Some houses in Hanover Street will be noticed as being built out at angles with the street. This was to secure a good view of the river from the windows. At the corner of Bold Street some ninety years ago [c.1750]was a milkman's cottage and dairy.
	St. Luke's Church and Bold Street
	St. Luke's Church The work originally of John Foster the Elder, founded in 1802 and completed by his son to a new design in 1831, St Luke's is a prominent Liverpool landmark, dominating the view up Bold Street. The church was bombed during World War II (1941) and narrowly escaped demolition in the 1950s and 1960s but is now preserved as a memorial to the Liverpool blitz. It is known locally as the 'bombed-out church'.
	The Vines This baroque fantasy on Lime Street was built for brewer Robert Cain, one of a number of pubs in the city demonstrating his commitment to flamboyant architecture. Known locally as the Big House, it was constructed in 1907 to the designs of Walter W. Thomas, he of Philharmonic Dining Rooms fame, on the site of an earlier pub owned by one A.B. Vines. The clock was made by the same company that made Big Ben. The interior is similarly sumptuous, with an abundance of carved mahogany, plaster friezes and copper-work.
	The Adelphi Hotel This is the third Adelphi hotel on this site (the others dated from 1826 and 1876). It was built in 1911-14 by the Midland Railway Company but because of the outbreak of the First World War it was never completed according to plan. It was at that time regarded as the most luxurious hotel outside London. Situated close to Lime Street station, its grandeur reflects the importance of transatlantic travel to Liverpool in the early part of the 20th century.
	Renshaw Street Evening view up Renshaw Street to St. Luke's Church and the Anglican Cathedral. On the right is the only surviving pre-war section of the Lewis's department store building (1910-23), the rest having been lost during the Blitz of May 1941.
	Grand Central, Renshaw Street The building of 1905 now known as Grand Central was originally the Central Hall of the Liverpool Wesleyan Mission. A contemporary national movement by the Methodists aimed to create a distinct identity from the Church of England. It was certainly managed here and as the Pevsner guide puts it: 'The style promiscuously mingles classical, Byzantine, Gothic and Jacobean, and much of the terracotta has a swirly Art Nouveau character. It all looks thoroughly un-churchlike and might just as well have been a theatre or department store.' In fact concerts and social events (non-alcoholic of course) were held in addition to religious services.
	Epstein's Statue Jacob Epstein's bronze figure on the prow of a ship above the main entrance to the Lewis's department store building dates from 1954-6 and stands for the resurgence of Liverpool after the war. The panels beneath, also by Epstein (1955), show scenes from childhood - the new generation of Liverpudlians (myself included). In fact, the store was devastated in the blitz of May 1941, parts of the earlier building of 1910-23 remaining only at the eastern end on Renshaw Street. Epstein's statue is the origin of the phrase 'standing there like one of Lewis's' applied by scousers to anyone who has been 'stood up'. David Lewis (1823-1885) was born David Levy in London. In 1839, he moved to Liverpool to work for Benjamin Hyam & Co., a firm of tailors and outfitters. He rose rapidly to become the manager of the Liverpool branch and, in 1842, was charged with opening new branches in Scotland and Ireland and supervising existing branches. Lewis started his own business at 44 Ranelagh Street, Liverpool, in 1846, selling men's and boys? clothing mostly designed and made in his own workshop. His customers were mainly working class people who had not been able to afford tailoring until then. New ventures took off on the basis of strong business ethics and he moved into women's fashions and tobacco among other things. As well as opening additional premises in Liverpool, he also established stores in Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham. Lewis died at his home in Liverpool after a long illness but had lived to see the largest department store in the city established where the present building still stands.
	The Globe The Globe on Cases Street, off Ranelagh Street, is a fine unspoilt pub, dating from 1888. There had been a pub of the same name on the site from 1859, which had earlier been the premises of a spirit merchant. The fireplace in the rear room and some tiling and friezes belong to the original building. An unusual and initially unnerving feature is the floor, which slopes upwards considerably towards the rear.
	Lime Street What is perhaps Liverpool's most famous street was once known as Limekiln Lane, named after the industry operating on the site of the present station in the 18th century. The Steble Fountain in the foreground is backed by the Empire Theatre and the North Western Hotel. The monstrous tower block on the right has now mercifully been demolished.
*Lime Street in Recollections of Old Liverpool (1863), an anonymous author recalling the mid-18th century* Limekiln Lane, now Lime Street, was so called from the limekiln that stood on the site of the present Skelhorn Street. Here were open fields, which extended to the London Road, quite famous for the assembling of all sorts of rough characters, especially on summer evenings, and on Sundays. Cock-fighting, dog-fighting and pugilistic encounters used to be carried on daily, and scenes of the utmost confusion took place, until public murmurings compelled the authorities to keep order.
	Lime Street Station The present iron and glass structure is the third station building on the site. George Stevenson completed the world's first major public railway between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. However the final tunnel through to Lime Street was not completed until 1836. This station building was built in stages from 1867 to 1879. The span of the first shed at 200 ft (61 m) was at the time the largest in the world. The restoration and reglazing of the roof was completed in 2001 and according to the Pevsner Guide has revealed it as a thing of spectacular beauty. The demolition of the notorious tower block once just south of the station and subsequent landscaping of the area has properly opened up the prospect of the station frontage and St. George's Hall and produced a superlative open space. The one major blot on this impressive cityscape is the garish advertising installation opposite, surely the next thing that must go?
	The North Western Hotel Alfred Waterhouse's 1871 North Western Hotel (originally the station hotel, now student accommodation for John Moores University)
	The Mersey Tunnel (Queensway) Entrance The Original Mersey Tunnel was constructed between 1925 and 1934, an extraordinary feat of engineering and in its time the longest underwater road tunnel in the world at 2.1 miles (3.4 km). The Portland stone frontage in Liverpool's beloved Art Deco style features two winged bulls intended to be symbolic of 'swift and heavy traffic'. I leave regular users to come up with their own interpretation. 1.2 million tons of rock were excavated, which went as landfill to Storeton Quarry and Otterspool Promenade. The statues either side are of George V and Queen Mary, who conducted the official opening on 18th July 1934. Those of a nervous disposition might like to know that at one point there is only four feet of solid rock above the tunnel.
Liverpool's manufacturing industry in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) The manufactures of the town are principally such as are connected with the port and the shipping, the promotion of its commerce, and the supply of the inhabitants. There are two sugar refineries carried on upon a very large scale, some extensive glass-houses, breweries, tanneries, salt and copperas works, iron and brass foundries; foundries for cannon, anchors, chain-cables, and the several parts of machinery connected with steam-engines; manufactories for steam-engines, steamboilers, and machinery of all kinds, and for guns, small arms, nails, files, ropes, sails, and cordage; also numerous corn-mills, and mills for grinding mustard, colours, and dye-woods. The manufacture of soap exceeds that of any other place in England, and the manufacture of tobacco and snuff is very extensive; the number of watches made annually, on an average, amounts to 11,500, a number greater than that of any other town, except London.
	The Grapes Situated in Matthew Street in the Cavern Quarter, the Beatles centre of the universe with it's reconstructed Cavern Club and autumn bank holiday festival, the Grapes is a great little pub. It was a haunt of the Beatles in their early days and the evidence is there: a little known photo of the four of them drinking in the pub with wall paper in the background, a scrap of which is still preserved.
	The Grapes More Vermeer than Sergeant Pepper? This corner of the Grapes looks more like one of the Dutch master's interiors than a shrine to pop culture. The rest of the pub retains much of this original character, though, in common with many old pubs, the tiny rooms have been opened up.
	The White Star The White Star on Rainford Gardens, off Whitechapel, is a fine, unspoilt Victorian pub in the Cavern Quarter that is full of charm and character. Named after the shipping line, it has appropriate memorabilia inside, along with wood panelling and a huge Bass Brewery mirror.
*Whitechapel in Recollections of Old Liverpool (1863), an anonymous author recalling the mid-18th century* Whitechapel, when I was a lad, was a dreadful thoroughfare. I have seen it deep in water, and boats rowed about, conveying people from house to house, in times of flood. There used to be a channel with water running down the centre of the street, which was considerably lower than it is at present. It was no uncommon thing for the cellars of all the houses to be filled with water, and even now, I believe, some portion of the neighbourhood is not unfrequently rendered damp and uncomfortable.
	Chavasse Park The new Chavasse Park is an elevated open space in the Liverpool One development above a large underground car park. It opened in 2008 on the site of the original park, named in honour of the Chavasse family: Francis (2nd Bishop of Liverpool) and his sons Christopher Maude (World War I chaplain, Olympic athlete and Bishop of Rochester), and Noel Godfrey (World War I medic and twice winner of the Victoria Cross).
	One Park West 17 storey One Park West, completed in 2008, was designed by Argentinian architect Cesar Pelli of Petronas Towers (Kuala Lumpur) fame. It consists of apartments, offices, restaurants, cafés and parking, located at the edge of Chavasse Park. Not alone among Liverpool's new buildings, it has been a butt of controversy from the architectural press.
	Paradise Street Liverpool One is the new shopping, residential and leisure centre of Liverpool, completed in 2009 and developed by the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Group . It is situated on 42 acres (17 ha) of previously underutilised land and is intended to give Liverpool a dramatic lift in its ranking among British retail destinations and to boost the local economy. It is the largest city centre development in Europe since the post-war reconstruction. When work began in 2004, archaeological investigations were undertaken, as the site covered the ruins of buildings destroyed in World War II bombing and the Old Dock, the world's first wet dock. Part of the latter may be viewed through a glass window near the John Lewis store.