Liverpool Knowledge Quarter Urban Design Framework & Public Realm Implementation Plan Knowledge Quarter

Liverpool Knowledge Quarter Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Anglican Cathedral Blackburne House Mount Vernon Contents

Introduction 1

PART 1: The Area 4 PART 4: The Climax Plan 52 10 Little Lever Street 1:1 Historic Pattern 6 4:1 Vision 54 1:2 Topography 12 4:2 Opportunities & Constraints 56 M1 1HR 1:3 Urban Form 14 4:3 Rebuilding Connections 60 1:4 Built Heritage 16 4:4 Knowledge Network 64 t. 0161 200 5500 1:5 Building and Townscape Quality 18 4:5 Climax Plan 66 f. 0161 237 3994 1:6 Building Heights 20 Civic Forum & LJMU City Campus 67 e. [email protected] 1:7 Townscape 22 Lime Street Station Approach 67 1:8 Character Areas 24 New Islington 68 1:9 The Regeneration Context 28 The Hospital 68 Liverpool University 69 PART 2: Activity 30 The Anglican Cathedral & Hope Street 70 2:1 Activity Generators 32 71 2:2 Animation and Uses 34 2:3 Movement 36 PART 5: Implementation Plan 72 31 Blackfriars Road 2:4 Walking Routes 38 5:1 Taking forward the Climax Plan 74 2:5 Parking & Public Transport 40 5:2 Parking 76 Manchester 5:3 Starting with the Public Realm 78 M3 7AQ PART 3: Public Realm 42 5:4 Road Improvement Projects 82 3:1 Public Realm 44 5:5 Place Improvement Projects 84 5:6 Road Crossing Improvement Projects 86 with: Christopher Gibaud 3:2 Quality of the Public Realm 46 [email protected] 3:3 Open Spaces 48 3:4 Street Hierarchy 50 May 2008

Aerial photography: credit to Webb Aviation; all other photographs by URBED unless stated otherwise Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Islington

Royal Hospital

Copperas Hill Mount Vernon Crown Street

Archbishop Blanch School Royal Mail Sorting Office

Pier Head Mount Pleasant

Myrtle / Grove Street corridors

River Mersey Albert Dock

Strategic concept for Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Introduction

In which we describe the context for our work arising out of the Knowledge Quarter Prospectus which highlighted Redbrick University Anglican Cathedral The Royal Hospital complex the importance of the area to Liverpool’s economy and the extent to which this is t could be said that the success of Liverpool’s Two sectors in which the city never fell behind that Prospectus by looking at the environment undermined by the physical environment city centre regeneration strategy over the its competitors have helped give momentum to of the Knowledge Quarter and how it can be of the area. Ipast decade has been to ‘catch up’ in areas this regeneration. The city has always retained transformed over the coming decades. where the city had fallen well behind comparative a leading reputation in the associated fields of metropolitan cores. In retail, Liverpool’s declining Higher Education and Medicine, its Universities, The Knowledge Quarter generates some 15% position has been reversed and is set for School of Tropical Medicine and Teaching Hospital of Liverpool’s Gross Value Added and 7% of all transformation in 2008 as the Grosvenor L1 acknowledged as institutions of international full-time employment but covers just 1% of development opens for business. The renewed calibre. Likewise, Liverpool’s profile as a cultural, its land area (source: Prospectus, Regeneris commercial office infrastructure and associated creative and tourist focus has remained high; the report, 2007). Students, tourists, academic rental values are barely recognisable from the cathedrals, museums, galleries, music venues staff, business and research funding are drawn heavily dated offer ten years ago. Dramatic and theatres attracting visitors from near and far. from global networks. Together, the Knowledge growth in hotel space, conferencing and leisure Quarter and Hope Street Quarter represent a will be crowned with the completion of the King’s Perhaps because Liverpool’s learning and cultural unique combination of assets. Learning and Waterfront Arena and Convention Centre, a institutions perform so well, their physical leisure co-exist alongside high value-added spectacular conferencing and concert venue on setting has not always been subject to the same knowledge businesses, in a lively townscape of the city’s waterfront. level of strategic regeneration attention as that Georgian squares and magnificent cathedrals. focused on the restructuring of the waterfront The assets of the area include: During this time, has been and commercial districts. The Prospectus for re-established as a place where people want to Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter highlights the Knowledge institutions live as well as relax and do business. The city importance of the city centre’s eastern sector centre population has risen from 3,000 to around to economic growth across the Northwest Liverpool John Moores University 20,000. region. This document gives physical form to Royal Liverpool University Hospital LJMU’s new Art and Design Academy on Brownlow Hill; image courtesy: LJMU

 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Abercromby Square The Foundation Centre The Metropolitan Cathedral steps and cafe

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine A human scale: The area is compact and can urban design of the area does not fully reflect can move, experience the arts, meet, socialise, address problems in-between and adjoining Liverpool Science be walked across in 15 minutes. Buildings its high standard operations, and the public stay overnight, live, eat and drink – the social these areas, in order to maximise the impact of Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory are generally of a size and density which is realm does not adequately support the ease of and physical fabric of the Liverpool Knowledge the planned improvements. Liverpool Hope University sympathetic to the pedestrian. interaction vital to knowledge transfer. Quarter. The leisure and cultural offer focused Liverpool Community College on the Hope Street area must be seen as key to A strong knowledge environment? Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts Significant architectural value and URBED and Landscape Projects have conducted Liverpool’s effort to attract and retain students, character: Many parts of the area have an intensive physical study of the area and academics, researchers and other knowledge The Prospectus identifies environmental qualities Cultural Institutions notable and attractive buildings, in a diversity propose a Design Framework and prioritised workers. The recent high quality public realm that will sustain the success of Liverpool’s Anglican and Metropolitan Cathedrals of styles. A number of new buildings provide set of projects aimed at matching the quality of works in and around Hope Street have been Knowledge Quarter: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and high quality and striking additions to the environment to the best institutions within it. highlighted by CABE as a best practice example.’ Orchestra townscape. A distinct sense of place: The visitor should Everyman and Unity Theatres An Inspirational Environment There has never been a better time to bring have strong sense of having entered a distinct Blackburne House A rounded offer: The Knowledge Quarter, about this transformation. Major physical change part of the city. Cornerstone Gallery notably within the Hope Street area, contains As the Knowledge Quarter Prospectus states: and development is already underway across Victoria Museum & Gallery a diverse and vibrant set of leisure pursuits ‘Knowledge and knowledge workers are mobile. the Knowledge Quarter as both universities Clear but permeable boundaries: The ideal Increasingly strong high quality hotel, bar and which are a strong complement to its Academics, researchers, students and knowledge implement major capital programmes (with a knowledge environment needs to have a restaurant offer knowledge strengths. based businesses have a great deal of freedom combined estimated value of £300m). The Royal defined quarter with clear, albeit permeable Distinctive architectural and public realm over where they locate. It is vital that Liverpool Liverpool University Hospital is also to be rebuilt borders. assets Clear and logical routes: The area benefits and the North West are able to offer outstanding at a cost of over £400m, opening opportunities Proximity to Ropewalks, the from a number of strong landmarks (foremost knowledge environments in which to work, to develop much stronger physical and visual Visual and physical linkages within and Independent District and the World Heritage the cathedrals), and some parts of the study, collaborate and relax. Surveys of leading links with the universities and School of Tropical between: Visitors, users, students and Site Knowledge Quarter are highly legible, making researchers who have been attracted to Liverpool Medicine. New opportunities for appropriate staff need to navigate efficiently and safely it relatively easy for visitors to find their way in recent years confirm that the quality of the private sector investment within the Knowledge between buildings and places in the campus The area also has many physical strengths: around the core area. physical environment is an issue that we need to Quarter are also being created. area. address. The environment is, however, fragmented and These efforts need to be set within a coherent Open and inclusive spaces: A vibrant these strengths sit alongside environments that The area’s continued growth depends upon framework, and complemented with action to knowledge location must be open and are in places degraded and disconnected. The the high quality environments in which people  Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

University Square ‘A Case History’ by John King, Hope Street Refurbished retail and leisure units on Blackburne Place

accessible to all, in order to focus a sense of Prospectus Investment Priorities Improving routes within the Knowledge Making memorable spaces: Examine the interaction and allow people to apprehend Quarter: Strengthening the quality and legibility relationship between important buildings and what is going on in surrounding buildings. The Prospectus prioritises improvements to the of routes within the area, particularly within and groups of buildings and how they relate to area’s image and marketing; better co-ordination across the University of Liverpool Campus. adjacent spaces to create memorable and usable Facilitating and encouraging social of investments, and pursuit of an integrated spaces that promote a convivial environment for interaction: Social and public spaces where programme of public realm enhancements, Developing the physical linkages with other the exchange of ideas and knowledge. people can meet and interact are vital. distilled into the following activities: key assets and neighbouring communities: Promote vitality of the urban environment linking Promoting awareness of the Knowledge An engaging feel and structure: Thriving Tackling key linkages to the city centre: the core area to key knowledge assets, such Quarter both nationally and internationally: knowledge locations do not feel sterile and To create a strong route from Lime Street as the LJMU City Campus on Byrom Street and It is vital that awareness of the strengths, empty, they are active, lived in, comfortable station up Mount Pleasant and Brownlow Hill, adjacent neighbourhoods such as Edge Hill, opportunities and aspirations within the and relaxed, but also have a determined air of complemented with more animated active , Kensington and . Knowledge Quarter are raised amongst investors progress and endeavour. ground floor uses and improvements to the public and other stakeholders, both in the UK and realm, which enhance pedestrian priority. Overcoming domination by cars: At the overseas. The Knowledge Quarter should play High quality teaching and working moment the car has a major negative impact an increasingly prominent role in the ongoing environments: Learning environments Concerted investment in underperforming on environmental quality across the Knowledge repositioning of Liverpool and the North West. must provide quality teaching and research areas: The Road, Brownlow Hill, Mount Quarter. Further vehicle calming, creative facilities. Pleasant and Hardman Street/Myrtle Street solutions to car parking and improvements to Quadrants are critical to the development of the public transport, along with better pedestrian and knowledge economy in Liverpool. They each need cycle links, are all required. investment in image and identity.

 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

PART 1: The Area

 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter with the Georgian quarter and the Anglican Cathedral in the foreground  Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1:1 Historic Pattern

In which we describe the history of the Knowledge Quarter, from rural hinterland to the city to a model Georgian neighbourhood to a riotous working class district to a district of university and institutional campuses.

“From the late C18th and especially after 1816, this ridge of high ground overlooking the crowded town was laid out with regular streets and developed as a favoured residential area. Alongside terraced housing it acquired churches (mostly demolished) and institutions, Liverpool city centre in 1765 many associated with education and medicine. In the late C19 the new University College made its home here, and is now a dominant presence. Liverpool’s two C20 cathedrals stand at the North and South ends of n this section we explain our understanding parish’s first workhouse moving out of College heath-land, dominated to the south by the Royal the ridge, visual anchors that give coherence to a large and architecturally of the historic development in and around the Lane. The workhouse would expand on this site and Ancient Park of Toxteth, hunting grounds diverse district.” (Sharples, 2004) Istudy area, most of which occupies a broad, for the next 150 years, at times housing up to once owned by the Crown and later by the flat plain on the ridge between successively rising 5,000 of Liverpool’s poor, until it was chosen as Earls of Sefton. The boundary of the old Toxteth steps of two short but steep inclines. the location of the new Roman Catholic Cathedral Park ran along what is now Parliament/Upper in 1930. Parliament Street, from the Mersey to Lodge Lane Pre 1800 (which led to one of King John’s original hunting St. James’ Terrace, or ‘The Mount’, was laid out lodges, and also that of the Victorian Boundary The eastern part of the study area was for as one of the town’s first three Public Walks pub). From Lodge Lane the boundary ran along centuries very much a rural fringe of the historic and Promenades around 1775. This was the what was then Smithdown Lane, now Smithdown borough of Liverpool, at its boundary with the precursor to a major planned expansion of the Road. much larger and even older administrative unit of city along Rodney Street by William Roscoe and . Peripheral status is reflected in place others in 1783-4. The old park began to see development along names such as Edge Hill and Boundary Place. the river from around 1774, when Parliament “(Rodney Street’s) length, width and straightness granted building leases for the 1st Earl of Sefton. “Lime-kiln lane, now Lime Street, was quite were unprecedented in Liverpool. It was The building of St. James’s was begun in the country, with fields on the east side… developed piece-meal up to the 1820s with in this year. This church is of particular historic the author recalls one of these fields, called houses for the affluent, escaping the old town significance as it was the place of registry of Waterworth’s, remaining unbuilt on as late as centre.” many immigrants who settled in the city from the 1807”. Richard Brooke Sharples, 2004 late C18th onwards, including former slaves freed in return for fighting for Britain in the American Even this far back in history, a major institutional Just to the east of Rodney Street up the hill, Hope War of Independence. Although little developed, use was located here, when the new “House of Street was laid out around 1790, with houses the study area was crossed by a number of Industry” was built on Brownlow Hill in 1769, the appearing at its north end around 1800. For the important old roads leading to Liverpool. These most part, the rest of the plateau remained open included Smithdown Lane itself, which continued Liverpool city centre in 1851

 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter Street Improvement Projects 2 of 2 Street Type Length (m) association with development site high footfall prominent location poor existing condiion connection project contributes to Street / place network Timescale (years) l significant Cost Associated development m partial site u potential Type 1 - Granite/ q not important Yorkstone = £2,227 p/m2

Type 2 - Perfecta = £1023 p/m2

Type 3 - Precast Conctrete - = £805 p/m2

20 University Quadrangles 1 100 £222,700 Univ of Liverpool l m m m l l 2-4 14 Hatton Garden 1 140 £311,780 q l m m m m 2-4 15 Roscoe Street / Newington / Benson 1 300 £668,100 Rapid Hardeware dvlpt l m m l m l 2-4 17 Bedford St / Eleanor R 2 150 £153,450 Myrtle Parade l l m m l l 2-4 21 Newington / Slater cycleway 1 550 10% £2227 = m l l l l l 2-4 227 x 550 = £124,850 22 Hope Place / Philharmonic route 1 200 £445,400 Maghull m m m m l l 2-4 23 1 650 £1,447,550 q m l m u u 2-4

third priority third 24 Smithdown lane cycleroute 3 820 10% £805 = q u l l u u 2-4 80.5 x 820 = £66,010 25 “Railway Axis” 2 460 £470,580 q u l l l l 2-4 26 New Axis Cathedral - Lime St 2 390 £398,970 JMU / College / Science l u u q l q 2-4 park

Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Liverpool in 1868 with the Knowledge Quarter outlined in red.  Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Liverpool’s city structure pre 1800 Liverpool’s city structure post 1800

Place, where the first Adelphi Hotel was built in 1826 at the confluence of routes from the south and east.

A truly seminal change in the first half of the C19th was the opening of the world’s first inter- city railway, George Stephenson’s Liverpool – Manchester line, at Crown Street in 1830, with a tunnel under the study area to Wapping Dock. By 1835 a further tunnel and cutting took the line to Lime Street, where the first of three stations to occupy the site was opened the following year. north-west from the boundary of Toxteth Park Early to mid 19th century Decisive change came in 1800, when the between Crabtree Lane (now Falkner Street) and along the level ground at the foot of Edge Hill. Corporation through its chief Surveyor John Foster Brownlow Hill. Beyond the grid-planned area, Lime Street was the location of the first of the This was the main highway to settlements “By the 1840s almost the whole of the eastern, (Senior), resolved to promote a planned urban contemporary developments like Seymour Terrace, city’s purpose built Infirmary hospitals from immediately south of the town. It approached the elevated half of the Corporation estate had expansion, in a form that expressed mercantile designed by Foster (Sen.) in 1810, reflect the 1749. This was replaced in 1824 by a building city centre via Brownlow Hill and the old Crabtree been built up with broad, straight streets of Liverpool’s classical aspirations. At the heart of same orderly architectural values. His individual on Brownlow Hill, leaving the west side of Lime Lane, later to become Falkner Street. predominantly high class houses.” Foster’s vision were two large and prestigious buildings like St. Luke’s Church, begun in 1811, Street to be filled by St. Georges Hall, begun in Sharples, 2004 garden squares, Great George Square (just west and his son’s dramatic Necropolis at St. James’s 1839 as the centre of an ambitious civic forum. The road to (Prescot Street and London of the study area boundary), and Abercromby Cemetary, symbolise the growing confidence of The new Royal Infirmary was the forerunner of Road, now the A57) was the first in Lying just above and beyond the main extent of Square, both to be built on a grand London the Corporation as the agent of expressive urban the major medical institutions that now dominate to be improved by formation of a turnpike trust, the teeming 18th century town, the area now scale. The former was laid out by 1803 though design. the study area. in 1725, ten years after the opening of the first covered by the Knowledge Quarter was developed development around did not dock in 1715. This was Liverpool’s main land link in the second wave of Liverpool’s expansion. advance far until leases were assembled in 1816. Canning Street was an extension of Duke Street Another important step was the formation of to ready supplies of coal and other goods, and for Although containing a handful of major private Foster (Senior) produced a design for one side of laid out in the 1820s and early 1830s, and built up Liverpool’s Mechanic’s Institution in 1825, which distribution of its seaborne imports to the rest of residences like Blackburne House, it is from this Abercromby Square in 1819, and the ensemble from the 1840s. It connected to an area between built its imposing technical school on Mount the country. late Georgian period that the underlying structure was finally completed by his son John Foster Falkner Street and Upper Parliament Street, laid Street in 1835. In 1844 the girls’ school of the of long, wide terraced streets, punctuated by (Junior) in 1831. out in 1827 by Foster (Jun.) on a similar grid Mechanical Institution took over Blackburne Other important roads converging on the east set-piece spaces and vistas to landmarks, derives. model to that pioneered by his father at Mosslake House. The Mount Street building was later used side of the study area were West Derby Lane Much of it was shaped by the architectural and Abercromby Square was the centre-piece of Fields, with Falkner Square at the centre, built as the celebrated Liverpool Institute grammar (now West Derby Road), which led into Islington, surveying talent of two men, father and son, an extensive, regular and symmetrical grid of up from the 1840s. Other city squares included school, and is now Paul McCartney’s Liverpool and Low Hill, , and Road. explaining its enduring spatial harmony. streets across an area known as Mosslake Fields, Islington Square, circa 1840s, and Ranelagh Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA).

Liverpool’s Waterfront in 1851 The Scottish Church of St. Andrew’s, built on Rodney Street in 1823, heralds status as a magnet for immigration. The city’s prestige as a place of arts and culture was assured by the building of the Philharmonic Hall in 1846. A School for the Blind was established on the corner of Hope Street and Hardman Street in 1849.

Thus the study area’s essential role and function of civic, medical, educational, cultural and ecclesiastical uses set within a well-ordered district of desirable private residences stems  from this period. Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1851 Figure Ground Plan (University Campus Area) 1927 Figure Ground Plan (University Campus Area) 2007 overlaid onto 1927 (University Campus Area)

what is now John Moores University’s Byrom Early to mid 20th Century Mid to late 19th Century Street Campus became known as ‘Little Italy’ from around the 1870s, as Italian catholics The turn of the century was a time of almost Built up by the mid C19th, the late Victorian settled near the Irish catholic district of Scotland boundless confidence in Liverpool, the city period saw major expansion of the study Road. By 1813, one in ten people in Liverpool hosting more foreign embassies and consulates area’s institutional role. The most significant were Welsh, and the first Eistedfodd was held than London, with a civic bearing and ambition developments took place around 1880, when here in 1840. In the 1870s, some 50,000 fixed as much on New York as the capital. Traffic Liverpool was granted City status, and raised to a moved to the city, making it a of architectural and engineering knowledge Diocese by the Anglican Church. larger settlement of Welsh people than any in capital between Liverpool and the United States the Principality. Pall Mall and the junction of was two way, the city pioneering the glazed A year later, the University College was founded, Marybone and Great Crosshall Street became curtain walling and pre-cast concrete used on locating its offices and teaching rooms on Liverpool’s own ‘Little Wales’. American skyscrapers, and the underground, Brownlow Hill. By 1889 the magnificent Victoria underwater and electric overhead railways that Building was under construction, the embodiment The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived made metropolitan rapid transit possible. Within of pride in a Civic University. At the same time, in 1866 with the establishment of the Blue the Knowledge Quarter, the size and splendour of just to the north, a new Royal Infirmary was Funnel Shipping Line, a branch of the Holt the Adelphi Hotel, 1911-14, “reflect Liverpool’s constructed by the same Liverpool architect, Ocean Steamship Company, which ran a line key position in trans-Atlantic trade” prior to WW1 Alfred Waterhouse. The new Diocese set about of steamers directly from Liverpool to China. (Sharples, 2004). finding a design for a cathedral to be sited next to Chinese sailors who decided to stay in Liverpool St.George’s Hall, but this project lapsed in 1888 and work from here settled in an area of the city Most physical change within the study area The overlay of the 2007 figure ground with the 1868 base plan highlights the dramatic physical change over the last and the actual site at St. James’s Mount was not that was close to the docks in Cleveland Square. centred around growth of the increasingly 150 years within the Knowledge Quarter selected until 1901. established public and ecclesiastical institutions. This was the genesis of Europe’s first Chinatown The most striking projects were the inception Immigration during this period shaped much district that today abuts the western edge of the at either end of Hope Street of the Anglican and of the metropolitan character of the city. The study area around Berry Street and Nelson Street. Roman Catholic cathedrals. Giles Gilbert Scott’s study area and its surrounding streets became The wealth and opulence of the city at the end of design for the former was underway from 1904. the focus for a number of distinct immigrant the 19th century can be appreciated in buildings On Brownlow Hill, the Workhouse was cleared communities and their facilities. The area around like the lavish Philharmonic Hotel on Hope Street. in the early 1930s and work began on one of  Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Artist Doug Kewley’s painting of the Majestic Cinema and the now lost junction of Crown Street and Boundary Place, 1939 A view of Great George Place c. 1910, with the David Lewis Theatre on the right. Only the Gothic bank building survives today.

the most ambitious buildings ever attempted, to on London Road and nearby Majestic Cinema seem a location more fit for institutional use areas. Private car ownership suggested a sizeable population of almost 5,000 residents, Edwin Lutyens’s designs. embraced ‘modern’ design. This was the period than neighbourly living. Positive qualities of freedom of mobility. with countless premises supporting commercial of Liverpool’s population peak and the start of community and townscape were easily obscured. and social functions like shops, pubs, cinemas, Other key physical changes were driven by the its long decline (only recently stemmed) – it Architectural historian Professor James Stevens There was a desire on the part of Liverpool’s schools and churches. Over the next three steady expansion of the University and Medical had not fully recovered from the Great War’s Curl recalls Lime Street Station in 1947, before ‘city fathers’ to retain the teaching hospital and decades, the University and Hospital would act Institutions, including the School of Tropical effect on its wealth and status by the time of the clean air acts, as “a fascinating, yet horrible university within the central area, and dissuade as ‘cuckoos in the nest’, displacing all other land Medicine, begun in 1913, the completion of the the Great Depression and the ‘hungry thirties’, vision of a Sublime Inferno”. (Stevens, Prof. any move to a green field campus beyond the uses, and erasing hundreds of buildings across Victoria Quadrangle and the Reilly Building, a but its population kept rising until around 1936, J. Stevens Curl, 2007, Victorian Architecture: city boundaries. As an incentive, the Corporation scores of streets, a cost the city felt necessary purpose built Guild of Students, begun 1910. when it peaked at some 870,000 (compared to Diversity and Invention). offered the combined institutions a large swathe to secure the huge benefits the two institutions c.430,000 today). of their freehold property in the grid of streets conferred within the city boundary. The social status of housing in the district A settled view of the Georgian and Victorian city north and south of Abercromby Square – broadly changed more dramatically than the physical The study area was damaged by WWII bombing, as ‘obsolete’ had taken hold by the time the coterminous with Foster’s original Mosslake In place of the densely variegated mix of layout, with accelerating flight of wealthy tenants although it escaped the total devastation wrought end of WWII and a newly interventionist public Fields grid plan of 1800. activities within an ordered web of streets following the First World War and then the Great along the waterfront, where parts of dockland mood ushered in the age of comprehensive emerged a specialised area of singular buildings Depression to more salubrious suburbs. The shift , the anchor point of Britain’s Battle redevelopment that would radically reshape The 1947 Holford Plan, led by the University’s within open surroundings, much of it given over in economic circumstances saw the widespread of the Atlantic and convoy lifeline, received more much of the study area in the mid to late C20th. former Professor of Architecture, William Holford, for highways use and, increasingly, for parking. In conversion of large townhouses to more Luftwaffe bombs per square mile than any area set out a vision that would mark the elevation addition to the University of Liverpool, a number downmarket multiple occupation. Public housing of London. Mid to late 20th Century of universal health care and higher education, of established places of learning, such as the projects were initiated at St. Andrews Gardens in and sweep away the soot blackened brick and celebrated Art School and technical colleges, 1935, in the most progressive architectural style Ultimately more corrosive to the fabric of the area In the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Liverpool stone housing of the old city. The University and coalesced in the latter half of the century to form of the day. were the social and environmental conditions embraced a series of ambitious plans for post- its Teaching Hospital would have an entire city what is now Liverpool John Moores University. between the wars, and the corresponding shift war reconstruction, with a profound and lasting district set aside for their sole use, with academic It is housed in a diverse estate spread in The Victorian Philharmonic Hall burned down the in perceptions of this part of the city as one not effect on the urban form and function around the and medical functions housed in a spacious buildings of a range of ages and sizes across same year, and was replaced by another forward really fit for people to live in. Crowded lodging study area. The Welfare State promised national precinct of modern concrete and glass buildings. the Knowledge Quarter. At two points these looking building by Herbert Rowse, reflecting houses, smoke and steam from the open rail investment in health, education and housing. form clusters given the name campus, at Mount the deco taste dominant in the USA. Commercial cutting, the clank of trams and the folk memory Planning approaches favoured comprehensive At this point, the proposed precinct was still a Pleasant and Byrom Street. developments like the Co-op department store of the Workhouse, all combined to make this development, to open up smoky, congested bustling, if grimy, inner urban quarter, home to

10 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

The Holford Plan with land uses 11 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1:2 Topography

In which we describe the position of the Knowledge Quarter on a shelf of land separated by a steep slope from the heart of the city centre.

Hill and Low Hill. Within buildings of even modest Comparing the plan of topography and steep height, there are often fine views from upper streets with the plans of inherent townscape storeys, extending on a clear day across the quality and ‘Shatter Zones’ elsewhere in this and North Wales, as far as the study shows how the most challenging streets mountains of Snowdonia. to walk or cycle up tend to coincide with the View down Oxford Street/Mount Pleasant weakest environments, which all but surround Separation is negative where it becomes a the study area and erode much of its edge. This opography is a defining factor in the barrier to access and interaction, and stands emphasises the need for the Knowledge Quarter functioning of the Knowledge Quarter. To between opportunity and need. We believe these Framework to pay extra attention to the quality Tthe east and west of the relatively level to be problems at present, but the core problems and safety of the streets where the land rises central section, the land rises steeply upwards are not fundamentally ones of topography. most sharply. from the . Oldham Street Around the Knowledge Quarter, topography only 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70m Pedestrian and cycle access from the core exerts a negative impact where it exacerbates the commercial centre and public transport hubs serious ‘deterrent’ effect of poor street form and thus necessitates a climb up fairly steep streets. traffic severance on journeys by pedestrians and This is important as it lends a certain sense of cyclists. The topographical context may reinforce a detachment to the area, differentiating it within sense of dislocation and partial isolation from the the city. There are positive and negative aspects life of the city centre and adjacent communities, to this separation. but it is not the cause of it.

The tradition of cultural, ecclesiastical and academic concerns being cloistered away from worldly transactions is long and fruitful. Their situation above and away from the main shopping area gives streets around Hope Street and quiet spaces like St. James’s Gardens an air of timeless calm.

Certain points along the ridge afford broad panoramas of the city centre and waterfront. Incidental view points include the precincts of both cathedrals, and the high ground along Edge View down Parliament Street towards the River Mersey View down Duke Street Topography plan

12 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70m

Liverpool’s steep streets 13 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Left: Islington and New Islington cut off the Knowledge Quarter from its mainly residential hinterland. The busy carriageways make it unpleasant for pedestrians and cyclists to cross. middle: The Georgian terraces along Seymor Street form a clear built edge. 1:3 Urban Form right: Great George Place today at the western gateway of the Knowledge Quarter with the Gothic bank building as the only building surviving the area’s transformation. In which we describe the figure ground plan of the Knowledge Quarter and what it tells us about the density of development in the area, the enclosure of space and the grain of development.

hen analysing the urban form of the area Density of development today the starting point is to look at the Wfigure ground plan. This shows just the While it does not show the height of buildings buildings of the area taking away all other detail the plan shows the footprint of buildings and to reveal the structure of the area. This plan is the density of ground coverage. Again, on the Within the Knowledge Quarter the density and indicating that the urban fabric has broken down. A tight grain exists when public thoroughfares and useful in illustrating the following issues: figure ground plan we can make out a variety of amount of ground coverage breaks down, Areas are often referred to as ‘Shatter Zones’ spaces are very clearly defined by development. footprints. These reach from very large footprints, especially within the Liverpool University Campus where traditional building blocks and the street Fine grained areas are made up of a large variety The density of development. such as the Royal Hospital, the Women’s Hospital, area. This is mainly due to the impact of the Holford network have been altered dramatically or even of small buildings of different designs and dating The enclosure of space. both cathedrals, Lime Street Station and the St. Plan, where implemented. Traditional terraces and removed altogether and the spaces have become from different eras. Course grained areas are The grain and variety of the built form. John’s Shopping Centre to smaller footprints, townhouses were replaced with larger footprints, poorly-defined. This leaves such areas with a dominated by large buildings of similar design. which include all traditional, terraced housing such as the Royal Hospital, the Life Science surfeit of space, much of which is unpleasant or In general tight and fine grained places feel The plan on page 15 shows the figure ground areas, Ropewalks and China Town. Building, the Chadwick Tower & Laboratory and the dangerous to use, but a lack of attractive enclosed comfortable to be in, whilst those which are loose for most of Liverpool’s inner city area. It shows Donnan Laboratories. This leaves this area with a public spaces. The knock-on effect of this is and coarse are less successful and are able to a spectrum of urban quality from high quality Most successful urban areas are built up densely, low density of development with object buildings that the areas tend to lack activity making them sustain less activity and diversity. to very poor. For example, there are areas that shown by the area of black on the plan. Large surrounded by formless open space and surface unpleasant to walk or cycle through. Such areas are very well defined, such as the traditional open areas sometimes relate to and public car parking. include the Islington corridor, which forms the Liverpool’s inner city is rich in buildings of different residential terraced neighbourhoods of Edge spaces, but more often relate to vacant sites or northern boundary of the Knowledge Quarter, the building ages, forms, sizes and styles and so is the Hill and Kensington, or the multi-functional areas where the urban form has been damaged Enclosure of space Royal Liverpool Hospital complex and the eastern Knowledge Quarter within it. Today we are left with Ropewalks and the traditional commercial area by infrastructure such as major roads. part of the Liverpool University Campus, both a variety of buildings reaching from the traditional around Chapel/Tithebarn Street and Water/Dale Open spaces in urban areas need to be clearly forming the eastern boundary and Copperas Hill smaller terraces and the post-war modernists’ Street. These are areas that clearly stand out The plan illustrates that the traditional defined by buildings to be successful. Therefore in the physical centre of the Knowledge Quarter. architecture to again more sensitive modern infill from the plan. The streets and public spaces neighbourhoods, such as Kensington, Canning spaces which are well-defined show up clearly These Shatter Zones have the effect of cutting developments recently such as the Foundation are clearly visible because they are enclosed by Street and Toxteth (in areas where no clearance on the figure ground plan such as St. John’s off the Knowledge Quarter from its surrounding Building and the Art and Design Academy, both on buildings with continuous street frontage. Other has taken place) and the inner city between Garden, Derby Square, Monument Place on London neighbourhoods, which is described in more Brownlow Hill. parts of the plan show very poorly defined urban Chapel/Tithebarn Street to the north, The Road, Abercromby and Falkner Squares. These detail in section ‘townscape’. Bridging the Shatter form either as a result of gap sites, or more often Strand/Strand Street to the west, Canning/Duke spaces are well-defined by building lines as are Zones is one concept of the Knowledge Quarter A fine grain defines most of the southern poorly planned buildings. These are the parts of Street to the south and Renshaw/Berry Street to most of the streets within the city centre and the masterplan and will be dealt with later in this Knowledge Quarter, namely the conservation the plan where the ‘ground’, the white space, the east are relatively densely built. The figure Knowledge Quarter itself. document. areas Georgian Quarter and Rodney Street. The predominates. Here it is much more difficult ground also shows that the new Paradise Street northern part of the area is much coarser in grain to recognise streets, spaces and urban blocks. L1 development has been sensitively integrated The enclosure of space breaks down in the areas Grain and variety with buildings such as the Royal Hospital, the This is particularly true of the residential areas into the existing urban fabric, picking up the affected by major 1960’s highway schemes and Royal Mail Sorting Office, Lime Street Station, north of Islington and Kensington, Toxteth, and traditional network of roads, building lines and housing clearance/redevelopment. Here there The grain is characterised in terms of its tightness the Mount Pleasant multi-storey car park and the the eastern and northern parts of the Liverpool block sizes typical for this area. are no clearly visible urban spaces on the plan or looseness, and also whether it is fine or coarse. Metropolitan Cathedral’s Crypt. University Campus.

14 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Figure Ground Plan 15 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1:4 Built Heritage

Falkner Street LJMU Faculty of Art and Design Chatham Building

In which we describe the large parts of the Grade I: buildings of exceptional interest World Heritage Site (WHS) The city and the are an Knowledge Quarter and its surroundings that (shown in red) exceptional testimony to the development of Grade II*: particularly important buildings of A cultural World Heritage Site is an historic maritime mercantile culture in the 18th and have conservation area status as well as the more than special interest (shown in orange) monument, group of buildings or site which is of 19th centuries, contributing to the building up large number of listed buildings in the area. Grade II: buildings of special interest, outstanding universal value to the international of the British Empire. It was a centre for the warranting every effort to preserve them community. In 2004, Liverpool Maritime slave trade, until its abolition in 1807, and to (shown in yellow) Mercantile City was inscribed as a UNESCO World emigration from northern Europe to America. Heritage Site. Conservation Areas The Knowledge Quarter is also surrounded The study area is rich in listed buildings. Over Liverpool is an outstanding example of a by conservation areas. Directly adjacent at its 700 are listed at Grade II, approaching half of Crucial to the understanding of the Outstanding world mercantile port city, which represents Conservation areas are shown in pale red on eastern boundary lie the Edge Hill and Kensington the properties in the area. 26 buildings are rated Universal Value of the World Heritage Site is the early development of global trading and the plan opposite. The southern half of the Fields conservation areas. The herringbone Grade II*, and there are also two Grade 1 listed that the overriding reason for its inscription is cultural connections throughout the British Knowledge Quarter contains larger stretches of pattern of terraced streets around Kensington buildings, the Anglican Cathedral and the Oratory, the theme: ‘Liverpool - The supreme example Empire. fine historic buildings in their original setting, Fields has just been granted conservation area with Grade I listed St. George’s Hall immediately of a commercial port at the time of Britain’s undamaged from the impact of bombing and status. To the north, Shaw Street conservation adjacent to the area. greatest global influence.’ The Statement of Liverpool’s World Heritage Site covers the post-war clearance. The conservation areas of area covers the Liverpool Hope University Significance in the Nomination Document made Wapping Dock, the Albert Dock and Canning Street, Duke Street, Mount Pleasant campus. The North Western Hotel and Empire Most of the listed buildings are within the the justification for Liverpool’s inscription on the and stretches along New Quay/Bath Street to and Rodney Street cover most of these areas, Theatre on Lime Street are part of the William conservation areas. Seymour Terrace, Lord basis of: include Stanley Dock in the north. It covers all which link the Knowledge Quarter with its mainly Brown Street conservation area, which is directly Nelson Street and the cluster of listed buildings of the Castle Street and most of the William residential neighbourhoods. adjacent to the western study area boundary. around the old Royal Infirmary and University Liverpool’s role in World History; Brown Street conservation area. From Hanover Victoria Building are the only significant groups Liverpool’s Tradition of Innovative Street at the bottom to Berry Street at the top the The special character of these areas does not Listed Buildings of listed buildings not set within a conservation Development; World Heritage Site includes the majority of Duke just come from the quality of their buildings area. Liverpool’s Outstanding Urban Landscape; Street, Henry Street and Lydia Ann Street. The alone. The historic layout of roads, paths and Listed building are chosen by English Heritage and Lime Street Station building is also part of the boundaries; characteristic building and paving and protected through a number of legal The listing of Lewis’s department store means Liverpool’s Collections. WHS. The WHS is the subject of a management materials; a particular mix of building uses; procedures. Listing ensures that the architectural three sides of Ranelagh Place have statutory plan agreed with UNESCO; a statutory planning public and private spaces, for instance gardens, and historic interest of the building is carefully protection, with the former University Club on the In order to receive World Heritage Status document is in preparation to reinforce parks and squares, trees and street furniture, considered before any alterations, either outside triangular south east junction also a fine building Liverpool had to meet some criteria, which were development control standards in and around the which contribute to particular views contribute to or inside, are agreed. The main criteria for listing deserving of protection. the fact that: area. the quality of the area as much as the buildings. are the architectural and historic interest, close The conservation areas therefore give broader historical association with buildings or events and Otherwise, listed buildings beyond conservation Liverpool was a major centre generating protection than listing individual buildings: all group value (squares, terraces or model villages). areas are scattered fragments of pre-clearance innovative technologies and methods in the features within the area (listed or otherwise) Listed buildings are graded to show their relative townscapes, such as Sacred Heart Church on dock construction and port management are recognised as part of its character and the importance: Low Hill, the recently listed Bridewell on Prescot in the 18th and 19th centuries. Through local authority has control over demolition, minor Street, and the quirky ‘Octagon’ Villa on Grove this it contributed to the building up of the developments and trees. Street. international mercantile systems throughout the British Commonwealth.

16 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Heritage plan and World Heritage Site (inset) 17 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1:5 Building and Townscape Quality

Townscape quality: Blighting impact 1 out of 5 Negative impact 2 out of 5 Neutral impact 3 out of 5 Positive contribution 4 out of 5 Maximum contribution 5 out of 5

In which we describe e have conducted a detailed, block by The survey is not so much designed as a Ropewalks area to the west, which includes A great deal of the area is therefore making block visual assessment of townscape judgement on each property, as a means of Renshaw Street, Ranelagh Place and Lime Street. no contribution to the city’s townscape quality, the visual assessment Wquality across the study area. Each building up a well grounded picture of patterns of including: that we have undertaken block, and in many cases individual buildings townscape quality around the Knowledge Quarter. A spur of good townscape reaches along London within them, has been rated on a scale between Differentiating the buildings and blocks that Road from Lime Street to Monument Place and most of Brownlow Hill; in the Knowledge 1 and 5, to provide a consistent measure of their contribute to townscape (those rated 4 and 5) Pembroke Place, connecting with the positive the Royal Hospital precinct; architecture’s underlying effect on the overall from those that make no contribution or detract area around the Royal Infirmary and University Norton Street Coach Station; Quarter which has townscape. (those rated 1, 2 and 3) highlights an interesting Victoria Building. This area of institutional uses LJMU City Campus and context; rated all buildings from pattern around the study area. includes the Reilly Building and Harold Cohen much of the area around Lime Street Station; Blocks and buildings rated 5 and 4 make strong Library on Ashton Street. and 1 to 5 in terms of their and positive contributions respectively. Those A core of strong townscape exists between the the majority of the University of Liverpool contribution to the rated 3 are neutral, neither contributing to nor cathedrals, reaching east to Abercromby and Other fragments of quality townscape are located Campus. detracting from townscape quality. Ratings of 2 Falkner Square, and continuing to the south at St. Andrew’s Gardens, and on the very edge townscape of and 1 denote negative and ‘blighting’ impacts. along Princes Avenue. This core barely connects of Kensington where the Bridewell and Sacred the area. to the positive townscape of the Bold Street and Heart Church are outposts of the intact Victorian neighbourhood around Kensington Fields.

18 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Blighting impact Negative impact Neutral contribution Positive contribution Strong townscape Maximum contribution Weak townscpae

Inherent townscape quality: All levels 1 to 5 Zones of strong and weak townscape 19 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1:6 Building Heights

In which we describe the he plan opposite shows the result of wasteland of surface parking and muddy verges. the heights survey, which we have Entering the University Campus, the buildings building heights in the Tundertaken for the Knowledge Quarter and vary widely in height. The tall 1960s Bio-science area including the mainly its immediate surroundings. It shows that the podium block has a new single story extension scale of buildings across the south side of the on a prominent corner site. There are single and residential scale of study area is quite consistent, mostly made up small two-storey units around the Alsop Arcade, of townhouses averaging three to five storeys in opposite a series of blocks at discontinuous much of the Knowledge height. There is a block pattern of taller frontages heights along the north side. A civic scale is Quarter with some on primary streets, and lower buildings to the briefly achieved around University Square and rear, often former stable blocks. the Victoria Building, extending as far as the new significant landmark LJMU Art and Design Academy, but falls away buildings and a series of In the southern and central part of the Knowledge beyond the cathedral until heights suddenly Quarter, those buildings that break higher than decline to suburban domestic levels around less sympathetic taller this block pattern are important public buildings the Clarence Street junction, and single-storey structures. like the Philharmonic Hall, the former Women’s primary school buildings set back within surface Hospital, various churches and of course the two level playgrounds take up the south side. cathedrals. The massing of buildings around the conservation areas is broadly consistent, with This suburban scale is then uncomfortably most buildings respecting the urban scale of the juxtaposed with major buildings on the edge of Foster Plan. Anglican Cathedral the central business district, including the Mount LJMU tower on Norton Street A number of mid to late 20th century taller Pleasant multi-storey car park, the Adelphi Hotel whose streamlined brick tenement blocks used to The cathedrals punctuate each end of Hope buildings associated with the Royal Hospital and and Lewis’s Department Store, the Royal Mail stretch to Brownlow Hill until partial demolition in Street. Views to them are well framed and universities are scattered across the central and Sorting Office and Lime Street station. The area the early 1990s. relatively unobscured, although some recent northern parts of the area, with limited sense of around Copperas Hill is home to much surface new developments like the Foundation Building coherence to their placement. Most of these have parking and ‘left over’ open land. Another area of stark juxtaposition in scale on Brownlow Hill, No.’s 1-51 Arch View Crescent a broadly neutral visual impact, being well away is around the LJMU Byrom Street campus, and to a lesser extent the Science Park on Mount from sensitive views, but the squat LJMU tower The current domestic form represents a where tall and long modernist slab blocks are Pleasant have begun to intrude on views from on Clarence Street mars the view along Rodney diminution from the metropolitan scale of inner surrounded by domestic estates of suburban close range. Street from the north. city living achieved at St. Andrew’s Gardens, style bungalow housing. This discord continues along Islington, where low rise, low density The Royal Hospital could be seen to generate an estates and single story business sheds isolate axis with the two cathedrals, though its slab like a surviving fragment of civic splendour around form does not offer any obvious relationship. Its Shaw Street and the Collegiate. proposed replacement on West Derby Street may be able to address this latent axis more directly It is a lack of scale rather than excessive building with a tall element at its western apex. height and mass that has most negative impact in terms of building heights. When placed along There are jarring changes of scale along main routes, single storey and small buildings Brownlow Hill. The east end is disconnected from tend to weaken the sense of spatial continuity the well composed Victorian urban form around and enclosure of the streets and spaces around Edge Hill and Kensington Fields by a virtual them. Russell Street pedestriansed Bedford Street North 20 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70m

Topography and building heights 21 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

In which we describe the local and long 1:7 Townscape range views within the area as well as the landmarks that punctuate these views and contribute to the city’s skyline.

iverpool has a very dramatic and varied Street from the NW corner of the Royal Hospital townscape. The plan to the right shows the site, and when travelling along Islington. Lmain landmarks together with important long range views and vistas and local views. Sacred Heart Church is a local landmark, best viewed from the south along the old Mount Vernon Many of the local landmarks and street vistas that Street. The tower of St. Mary’s Church Edge Hill is Hope Street Hope Street and the Metropolitan Cathedral punctuate the study area are arranged along its aligned on the vista up Brownlow Hill, although the Long range landmarks, views and vistas Hardman Street from the junction with Hope the south, notably along Park Road, Windsor Street edge, particularly the western interface with the building of Archibishop Blanch High School over the Street – views of the Pier Head, although and Princes Road. Similarly, the Metropolitan city centre: old route of Paddington currently denies movement Thanks to its elevated position and long, wide starting to become obscured by development, Cathedral is framed by the buildings on Edge Lane, along the desire line. South of the area, the spire of streets the study area affords a number of longer such as the FACT centre; and the city’s key road access from the east. The high St. James Church Tower – this punctuates the the Welsh Presbyterian Church on Princes Road range vistas and views. A number of these are Upper Duke Street – views of the Port of points around the east and north edge of the study southern end of Great George Street; is a fine landmark. focused on the iconic clock towers and sculptures Liverpool Building dome. area, such as Everton Park, Low Hill and Mount The Blackie and Chinese Arch – the Blackie of the Royal Liver Buildings at the Pier Head. Vernon afford spectacular vistas of both cathedrals closes the vista from the Leece Street/ Within the study area the main landmarks are of The copper clad dome of the Port of Liverpool Given the topography it is perhaps surprising that and the waterfront landmarks. Renshaw Street/Bold Street/Berry Street course the two cathedrals, which aid orientation Building is also visible from some points. Key there are not more views to the River Mersey from junction by St. Luke’s place; from almost any point. A cluster of distinctive views of the Pier Head group are available from the streets of the study area – the built up nature Negative landmarks St. Luke’s ‘bombed out’ Church – the tower is landmarks reinforce identity around the Mount most of the main east-west routes, including: of the city centre along the waterfront precludes a prominent landmark at the top of Bold Street, Street junction of Hope Street – the LIPA building, this. Perhaps the best glimpsed vista to the water Viewed from the Anglican Cathedral end of Rodney and also acts as the pivot on the axis between the suitcase sculpture, and Blackburne House Prescot Street and the gateway to the study is afforded from the top of Mount Street, near the Street, the LJMU tower on Clarence Street detracts the Blackie and St. George’s Hall; are located just south of the even better known area at the junction of Kensington/Low Hill/Hall Hope Street junction. A wider vista of the river is from the scale and perspective of the Georgian Adelphi Hotel and Lewis’s – Ranelagh Place Philharmonic Hall and Hotel. Lane – good views of the available from the precincts of the cathedrals, townscape along its entire length. Regrettably, is the confluence of key routes to & from the clock tower; although these spaces are not designed as view some of the newest buildings in the area are also elevated ground; Mulberry Street provides a surprisingly well Oxford Street - also offers good views to the points and are not especially welcoming or well among the most negative landmarks. The Unite ABC Cinema - this curved facade frames St. punctuated secondary axis. The south end closes Liver Building; animated. student blocks on Skelhorne Street dominate George’s Place viewed from Lime Street; on the façade of the former Women’s Hospital, the key gateway between Lime Street and the St. George’s Hall – the southern portico closes while the north end focuses on the clock tower of The commercial centre of the city is marked by Knowledge Quarter, on a scale that demands the vista from St. Lukes place; the Victoria Building. The Reilly Building is well several tall towers. The most distinctive is St. radically higher design and material quality than Wellington Monument – The monument placed to close views south along Ashton Street. At John’s Beacon, clearly visible at various points delivered. Lord Holford’s brutalist Royal Liverpool marks the culmination of the Pembroke Place Ranelagh Place, the clock tower of the Vines Hotel, and quite dramatic when approaching the city University Hospital design has its admirers, but its and London Road approaches to the city centre; the Adelphi Hotel and Lewis’s Department store centre at the bottom end of Mount Pleasant. Also impact on the A57 approach, where it punctuates and with its famous ‘exceedingly bare’ of Liverpool impressive is the cluster of towers at the north the view along Kensington with a concrete boiler buildings - each is a resurgent, form a collection of landmarks. The end of Old Hall Street – these make a charismatic house and oil stained chimney, takes an effort landmark in its own right. glazed stairwell tower on the corner of the art- group when viewed from the top of Islington and to like. The Mount Pleasant multi-storey car deco Co-op building on London Road does the the newest tower, , punctuates views park and the linked former cinema and nightclub The spire of St. Francis Xavier Church is one of same when viewed along Great Newton Street and across the area when approached from the east building sit on one of the study area’s most the few strong landmarks to the north of the area, Anson Street. The curved north wall of St. Andrews along the A57. prominent gateway sites, at the threshold of the standing out clearly when viewed from the top of Gardens is a striking local landmark when seen city centre core and the Knowledge Quarter. The William Brown Street up Islington. ‘SFX’ sits along from Monument Place. The equestrian statue of The presence of the two cathedrals also means dead frontage of the car park complex does nothing side the former Collegiate School front; together George III on Monument Place is a distinctive piece the study area itself contains instantly recognisable to entice pedestrians to climb Mount Pleasant or with the surviving buildings on Islington Square. of public sculpture, although not on its original axis landmarks visible for many miles. The Anglican Brownlow Hill. These form a fine group looking north along Moss in the centre of the space. Cathedral is visible on most approach routes from The Civic Group with the West Tower in the background 22 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70m St Francis Xavier’s Church The Collegiate 1:7 Townscape Liverpool Hope University College

West Tower Royal Hospital Sacred Heart RC Church

Liverpool Museum

St. George’s Hall

Town Hall St John’s Centre ABC Cinema Unite student accommodation Radio Tower Victoria Building Royal Liver St Mary’s Church Building The Adelphi LJMU tower The Foundation Building Cunard Mount Lewis’s Building Pleasant car park Port of Liverpool Building Metropolitan Cathedral

Philharmonic Hall

Gustaf Adolfs Kyrka Roxby Tower Blackburne House LIPA

Anglican Cathedral St Vincent de Paul’s RC Church

St James’s Church

Positive landmark Welsh Presbyterian Church

Short-range vista

Long-range view

Negative landmark

Topography and townscape 23 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

In which we describe the distinctive character 1:8 Character Areas areas that make up the Knowledge Quarter and its surroundings.

Campus University Islington and London Road Challenge investment – damaged street trees have not been replaced, and block paving has The University of Liverpool’s precinct plans London Road has historically been an important been patched with bitmac. Happily, private culminated in what Nicolaus Pevsner described transport hub for people travelling to the north investment in new buildings and refurbishment as ‘an architectural zoo’ across the eastern and east of the city. It is also a gateway by rail appears quite buoyant. fringes of the city centre. Larger footprint from Lime Street and the National Express Coach buildings at varying heights are set in areas of Station at Norton Street. North of the main frontage is the Islington light ragged semi-landscaped space, a tired public industrial and wholesaling area. This retains its realm further marred by wide areas of surface It was until the 1960s part of the city’s core historic street pattern but few of its buildings, parking. Spatial continuity and enclosure are retail offer, and although its role has slipped having been redeveloped in the 1960s and weak. The American model of a green-field down-market, investment in the area under the 70s to rehouse businesses evicted for the campus university, with set-piece buildings City Challenge programme in the early 1990s inner-motorway scheme. Paved with black bit- surrounded by serene areas of space functions secured the area’s sustainability. It is now a mac and home to a series of concrete sheds, uncomfortably in this more compressed inner-city thriving discount and wholesale area, with a busy Islington is degraded in character, although a context – buildings in space become buildings street market in Monument Place on Thursdays lively tertiary employment area during trading Metropolitan Cathedral entrance Monument Place in a car park. The character is enlivened in and Saturdays. It acts as a local centre to the hours – it is the subject of a detailed Planning term time days by the presence of thousands Cathedrals established inner city residential areas to the School of Tropical Medicine, which is enjoying Framework prepared recently and is expected to of students, staff and visitors. This is in stark north and south, a role which has been reinforced major investment, and the Glaxo and Roy Castle see considerable change in the short to medium contrast to the ghost town aspect taken on by Although architecturally contrasting, the spaces in recent years with the building of several new research centres. term. http://www.liverpoolvision.co.uk/documents/masterplans.asp the campus each night, at weekends and during around each cathedral share some common apartment blocks and student residences, with the university holiday months. The singular focus characteristics. Both are on magnificent elevated more in the planning pipe-line. Close to the On the main frontages of London Road the urban The lower (western) end of London Road is on academic uses means there are almost no sites commanding sweeping views to the Royal Hospital, Pembroke Place is home to the form retains the architectural character, if not blighted by poor infill buildings, gap sites and an activity generators on the campus other than the river across the city centre, dominated by the always the condition, of its more prosperous air of disrepair, in part because of uncertainty university itself. cathedral buildings. Neither location, however, years, with intact blocks of Georgian buildings over the project, Line 1 of which generates spaces that take advantage of their in good repair along adjacent Seymour Terrace has permission, but not government funding. position and architectural charisma. Surrounding and Lord Nelson Street, complementing the The area houses a Salvation Army hostel and development in both cases is made up of polite equestrian statue of George III in Monument drug dependency centres which can make but nondescript university offices and social Place, and individual Georgian pubs and its environment seem intimidating during the housing. Interesting but under-used green spaces dwellings. Fine Victorian and early C20th evenings. adjoin each cathedral. banks and shops flank the triangular public space, notably the TJ Hughes department As a key gateway to the Knowledge Quarter, store, (originally built for Owen-Owen). A London Road is a let down, not because of any number of grand corner blocks, such as the insurmountable structural weakness in the turreted Nat West Bank with its distinctive clock built environment, but due to low standards of tower, punctuate the roof scape. The 1930s private maintenance, indifferent public realm modernist Coop Department store is one of maintenance and unexceptional development the most progressive buildings of its era in control. It does not at present provide a worthy the city. This built quality is let down by basic setting for the internationally acclaimed School of maintenance, cheap signage and a failure Tropical Medicine, or the adjacent World Heritage Myrtle Street and Eleanor Rathborne Building by the city to maintain the standard of public Site. realm improvements undertaken under the City

Stafford Street 24 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Marybone Lime Street Islington and This area is the interface between the Knowledge London Road Quarter and the city centre’s core retail and Royal Hospital cultural offer, as well as the primary public Civic Forum transport gateway to Liverpool. It looks onto the civic group around William Brown Street and the important set piece junctions at Ranelagh Place Redbrick and St. Luke’s Place. University Lime Street The western edge is the strong north-south axis St. Andrew’s formed by Renshaw Street and Lime Street, Gardens punctuated by a series of powerful vistas to landmarks and spaces, as well as fine listed Metropolitan Canning Street Campus University buildings like the Crown, Vines and Adelphi Cathedral Georgian hotels.

This area has the most consistently coherent and high quality character within the Knowledge Quarter, thanks to John Foster’s planned grid Ropewalks and layout and the basic ‘design code’ standards China Town imposed by the corporation as freeholders on the original builders. The architectural theme Georgian is mainly classical, usually in brick, with some stone faced buildings. Hope Street, Abercromby Square and nearby Falkner Square are among the ‘jewels in the crown’, well kept, but also well kept secrets.

Anglican Cathedral

Western Gateway

Grand Central Hall on Renshaw Street

Character areas 25 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

by the inactive western edge of the University Royal Hospital Campus. The campus has for many years turned away from this community - commendably this Once a dense network of streets leading in all is changing with the university’s decision to directions, this super-block sized chunk of the reconnect Dansie Street and Dover Street for city centre is entirely dominated by the massive pedestrians. concrete structure of the Royal Hospital podium and slab, and its numerous associated buildings. The least successful addition is the inward Its design was overseen by William Holford, but looking courtyard to the south of the railway, any coherence enjoyed by the original buildings which is effectively a ‘gated community’ model, of the precinct has been disrupted by the thicket adding little in the way of natural surveillance or of subsequent alterations and ancillary structures activity to the public realm. New student blocks added since the Hospital opened in the 1970s. such as Greek Street are lumpen, and provide no active uses at ground floor level, in contravention The precinct spurns the established building line of even the main streets around it, destroying St Andrew’s Gardens of the city’s adopted design guide standards. The old Infirmary Building Great George Place comfortable pedestrian movement through and St. Andrew’s Gardens There are also some relatively recent ‘cul-de-sac’ Redbrick University around the site. The severance effect, exerted Western Gateway layouts entirely inappropriate for their setting, on north-south movement from the University This denotes the inner-city residential area as they present hostile blank wall frontages to The character of this area is defined by the two Campus, and on east-west movement between Great George Street was until the 1960s a busy focused around the ‘bullring’ tenement block main public thoroughfares on Brownlow Hill and Alfred Waterhouse designed buildings for the Kensington and the city centre, is acute. Most approach route from the Park Road side of of St. Andrew’s Gardens, now given over to Russell Street. The primary schools buildings are University and Royal Infirmary. Later buildings movement is focused on the main entrance, set Toxteth, flanked by Georgian streets that once student use. This is an established community valued facilities but do not relate to their context respond to the red-brick materials and solid well back from Prescot Street, which serves led up the ridge to the Anglican Cathedral, and of long term residents who have retained their in design terms, breaking the building line along scale, although some exhibit a contrasting taxis, private vehicular drop-off, pedestrians and down to the docks via the grandeur of Great relationship with the city centre through several Brownlow Hill. classical rather than gothic style. The stripped ‘blue-light’ emergencies. This leaves relatively George Square. At the city centre gateway, Great generations of change and at least three waves modern classicism of the Harold Cohen library is little activity on the West Derby Street side, the George Place, the palatial David Lewis Theatre of planned clearance and redevelopment. a departure from the red-brick, but its progressive key interface between the teaching hospital and overlooked a triangular public space containing a Properties are well maintained and the small 1930s design sits comfortably here. University Campus. small pavilion and gardens. gardens carefully tended. The abortive inner-motorway and comprehensive Later development does not attempt to match redevelopment programmes swept most traces the scale or design ambition of the bullring. of this rich fabric away. A generation later, the Some of the post-war houses are similar to ‘pre- buildings that replaced the traditional streets fab’ typologies, while recent social and private are now themselves considered obsolete, and housing is suburban in scale and generic in style, the street is dominated by traffic, with minimal with 1990s bungalows situated incongruously animation. next to the tall tenement block. Developer Urban Splash has received planning Both post-war types appear to function well as permission for an audacious reworking of the homes, and offer some sense of overlooking and Trowbridge Street area of cleared social housing on the west side, enclosure to the streets, although the sense of with designs that will create a major impact on security is undermined along Great Newton Street this corner of the Knowledge Quarter. The Royal Hospital 26 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Marybone Ropewalks and China Town

This area at the city centre end of the old Berry Street is part of Liverpool’s China Town, district has a rich history. It and forms an edge between the C18th Duke was once the site of an ancient Celtic cross Street WHS ‘Ropewalks’ area and the Knowledge marking a site where St. Patrick was reputed Quarter. Recent public realm work has helped to have preached before sailing for , and support the reasonably good permeability of this was also the foothold for the Welsh and Italian interface, although the reconfigured junction at communities who settled in the C19th city. It St. Luke’s Place tempts speeding traffic with led to Richmond Row, on a vital ‘desire line’ link excess carriageway width, and requires a much between the Pier Head and Everton Brow, now all longer pedestrian phase. The crossing at Duke but buried under development. Street is better. Nelson Street, which leads from Duke’s Place through the imposing Chinese Arch, Marybone still contains a well established has taken on a new strategic importance as a Walker Art Gallery inner-city neighbourhood whose residents value direct pedestrian link via the Baltic Triangle area their area’s heritage and convenient location, to the new Arena and Convention Centre at King’s Civic Forum although few historic buildings survived the Dock. Duke Street will soon provide a direct 1960s highways and housing clearances. The pedestrian link to the new shops and amenities St. George’s Hall and the cultural facilities on physical fabric is a mix of well refurbished post- LJMU campus on Byrom Street around Paradise Street. William Brown Street form an opulent civic war towers, brutalist highways infrastructure, This is the location for John Moores University forum at the Lime Street interface between the domestic scale ‘suburban’ housing from the City Campus. This is a collection of buildings Knowledge Quarter and the city’s commercial 1980s and contemporary student and apartment around Crosshall Street. At the eastern end core. Heavy traffic and inadequate crossing blocks, interspersed with surviving fragments of is the Byrom Street complex, LJMU’s largest provision weaken the relationship between the Georgian and Victorian city. single concentration of accommodation. At the this area and its context, which is wrapped in Tithebarn Street end LJMU have built a very excessively heavy road infrastructure. Insensitive fine library building that responds to its curved architecture also detracts from the impact of the corner site and offers an extensive active group – the multi-storey car park of St. John’s frontage. Unfortunately, the link between is a dire Precinct vies with the TGWU building to be least experience for those on foot, with high traffic worthy of its World Heritage Site neighbours. speeding along Crosshall Street, dead ground floor elevations and exposed concrete walkways across the multi-lane inner ring road.

Lamp post on Berry Street

Churchilll Way 27 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

1:9 The Regeneration Context

In which we describe the socio-economic context of the Knowledge Quarter and St Andrew’s Street St Andrew’s Gardens the regeneration initiatives taking places Hope Street, restoring Blackburne House as the Liverpool city centre. Of the three areas in the John Moores University Masterplans – The Women’s Centre, and kick-started the private strategy the eastern area is most relevant to the Mount Pleasant and City Campus areas are within and around the area. sector confidence in abundance today. During University. The City Centre Movement Strategy the subject of emerging design studies and the 1980s, housing improvement grants allowed East Scheme Identification and Implementation investment plans, with the Art and Design area wide refurbishment and face-lifting of Report, produced in July 2004 includes a street Academy the first of a number of important the Georgian area around Canning, which had hierarchy including; Strategic Streets; City Streets projects. he Knowledge Quarter both contains and is The Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation suffered a collapse in investment in the lead up and Pedestrian Lanes. This is being applied to a immediately adjacent to long established 2004 (IMD) shows Liverpool’s edge of city centre and aftermath of the 1981 riots. number of schemes within the University area, Central Village – Adjacent to the western Tinner city residential areas. Marybone neighbourhoods as the subjects of deep and which include Brownlow Hill, Moss Street/Daulby Renshaw Street edge of the Knowledge Quarter and St. Andrew’s Gardens contain social rented multi-dimensional problems of poverty. Poor Further back in history, the radical remodelling Street corridor, Mount Pleasant/Hope Street is an area of former rail land around Central and private housing, as do the Georgian streets health is particularly acute, as are unemployment that took place in the 25-year period of post-war junction, West Derby Street and Crown Street. Station, where a large mixed use development around Hope Street. and low income. The Knowledge Quarter and comprehensive clearance and redevelopment is proposed. This will increase levels of activity city centre are ringed by places within the most did such damage that much subsequent Islington Planning Framework – A planning along this interface and should improve east- To the north, across the wide inner ring road, severe 1% of multiple-deprivation nationwide. regeneration over a similar timescale has been strategy has been drawn up for this area, west links around Newington to Bold Street. are low density 1980s estates of mainly social concerned with repairing the worst excesses. providing a detailed framework for improving the housing, stretching along the ridge to Everton. As the plans to the right show, there are clear For example, the modern Women’s Hospital built environment as investment patterns change. Great George Street – Urban Splash have spatial patterns across the city, with strong (1995) replaced the deck-access Falkner Estate, This retains the historic street grid and proposes secured planning permission for a landmark East lie the communities of Kensington and clustering effects delineated by sharp cut-offs. a late 1970s development on the site of cleared a stronger frontage to Islington, with more development reinstating the western frontage of Edge Hill, which are housed in a mix of sturdy With its location between these impoverished Georgian houses east of Falkner Square. Such productive use of land. Great George Street and Place, at the south-west late 19th century by-law terraces, 20th century districts and the many opportunities of the city accommodation had failed its residents within gateway to the Knowledge Quarter. An effect social housing, and their low density 1980s centre, the Knowledge Quarter has an important a few years of construction. The negative Royal Liverpool University Hospital – The of the scheme should be to support pedestrian replacements. The historic Victorian terraces of role as a place that promotes inclusive access for physical impacts of the abortive inner motorway, Hospital Trust is seeking to build a new hospital activity into the city centre from the south and Kensington Fields have just been designated its neighbouring communities and helps connect Royal Hospital and Holford Campus plans are and then redevelop the existing facilities. The draw visitors towards the Baltic Triangle and as a conservation area, while those of Edge Hill opportunity with need. highlighted elsewhere in this document. proposals offer a major opportunity to repair District. may be demolished under the Housing Market movement network and streetscapes around this Renewal programme. Regeneration Initiatives of the Past Regeneration Initiatives Today strategic site. Metropolitan Cathedral – The area around the cathedral has been redeveloped in recent years Toxteth’s historic Canning area of Georgian In the light of the ingrained deprivation found Key area based schemes in and around the University of Liverpool Campus Urban Design to provide vastly improved access from Hope streets and squares, lined with townhouses built around the city centre, it is sobering that Knowledge Quarter include: Framework – The University have developed a Street. The Liverpool Science Park, University for the city’s wealthy 19th century merchant Liverpool has been the recipient of numerous strong vision to guide physical change across Foundation House, LJMU Art and Design Academy class contains pockets of later infill developed on regeneration initiatives and funding streams, City Centre Movement Strategy - The Liverpool their city centre estate over the next fifteen years, and the new cathedral café represent outcomes blitz and clearance sites. The tenure of this area some of which have made a hugely positive City Centre Movement Strategy (CCMS), part with some flagship projects already underway. of the Archdiocese of Liverpool’s development is highly mixed, with high value owner occupation impact, whilst others wrought more harm than of the Merseyside Local Transport Plan and The Victoria Museum and Gallery and a series of strategy. Forthcoming elements will have further increasing alongside established social and good. The Knowledge Quarter contains examples the City Centre Regeneration Framework, sets public realm enhancements signal the strength of impact. A new access and reception facility in the private rented properties. Further south across of both types of consequence. The 1990s City out the vision for the current improvements this vision. The aim is to embody an environment Lutyens Crypt is proposed, to support visitors as Upper/Parliament Street are neighbourhoods Challenge programme can be thanked for being seen in the highway environment within worthy of a world class institution, and revitalise this unique space becomes more intensively used of Toxteth around Granby and Princes Park, saving Seymour Terrace and turning round the Liverpool City Centre. The CCMS is a £73m the role of Civic University, as higher education for events and exhibitions. On the west side an whose vitality has been blighted by poverty and London Road area, rescuing Monument Place, programme of works proposed by Liverpool City plays an ever more prominent part in the life of open area will be more creatively managed as a clearance projects. St. Andrew’s Gardens and the Coop Department Council, Liverpool Vision and to the city. habitat, recreation space and green route. Store building. The same partnership invested in improve the roads, streets and public spaces in

28 Liverpool Knowledge Quarter

Alt Valley

North Liverpool

Eastern Link

IMD - Income IMD - Health IMD - Employment City Centre Pembroke Place - The former Royal Infirmary Anglican Cathedral – The Diocese have Baltic Triangle and Independent District has been refurbished to provide teaching and enhanced the provision for visitors to the – The historic warehousing district between research facilities for the Liverpool Primary Care cathedral with the ‘Great Space’ interactive the Knowledge Quarter and King’s Waterfront Trusts and Universities at the costs of £12 million exhibition and high quality bookshop and café has been the subject of a Planning Framework, South Central by the time of its completion in 1999. It includes facilities. There is an ambition to make the setting out the area’s role and a framework for The Foresight Centre which offers conferencing external environment more accessible and change. Included within the boundary is the South Suburbs facilities. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine welcoming. Work is well underway with the emerging ‘Independent District’, which contains sees the erection of a new research building, Friends of St. James’s Gardens to improve the a cluster of ex-industrial buildings converted to including the part pedestrianisation of Pembroke dramatic space on the east side, with the aim flexible gallery and production space for artists Street and the erection of a new high level link of creating better access from Hope Street, and creative enterprises. The landmark Buddleia bridge to School of Tropical Medicine at the costs potentially including a pedestrian bridge. The ‘Contemporary Urban Centre’ is an impressive South Liverpool of about £26m. The project will be completed by west side is in need of a comprehensive plan to restoration of a vast Victorian warehouse, split Spring this year. better integrate the cathedral within a setting into a complex of cultural uses. There are obvious worthy of the building. linkages with the activities of the Knowledge Area behind Lime Street Station - An area Quarter. behind Lime Street Station and the Britannia Kings Waterfront – Liverpool’s long awaited Adelphi Hotel is part of an area identified as Arena and Convention Centre (ACC) is open for Toxteth TV and Carnegie Library – Grassroots A spatial map of Liverpool’s IMD SOA’s showing clear patterns in the distribution one of a number within the NWDA Strategic site business, and promises to generate substantial of poverty and prosperity. Concentric rings encircle the city centre, with a severely initiatives like Toxteth TV and the Buddleia deprived inner core surrounded by steadily less deprived streets, and finally pockets – University Edge which have the potential to new visitor numbers. The Kings Waterfront Contemporary Urban Centre in the nearby of acute deprivation in the large satellite estates of social housing on the edge of be developed in support of the City’s Knowledge developments also include hotel, leisure and Independent District are signs of the city’s the city. Quarter. residential buildings. The combined effect will cultural vitality. As creative enterprises have be a substantial pole of conferencing, tourist been displaced from city centre bases by rising and Lark Lane/ area, traditionally Campus. Alongside Urban Splash and other Oldham Street SPD - and business activity along the waterfront, land values, new creative quarters continue one of the city’s bohemian creative districts. private investors, a cluster of neglected historic adopted the Oldham Street area SPD in 2006. only a short walk from the western edge of the to emerge. Toxteth TV is a media training and The hub of learning and creative activity at the landmarks have been brought back to productive The guidance provided in this SPD supplements Knowledge Quarter. The ACC will be able to host production facility aimed especially at young top of Windsor Street will be reinforced by a use. The Cornerstone Gallery is a relatively the Liverpool UDP and builds on a planning brief significant national and international events people who are disengaged from formal confirmed lottery funded scheme to refurbish the unknown recent addition to Liverpool’s creative prepared in 2002 for Liverpool Vision. The SPD like party conferences, academic congresses education, housed in an award winning collection historic Carnegie Library and introduce new ICT infrastructure. Further investment along Shaw ensures that the area develops in a coherent and political summits, which offer a natural of refurbished and newly designed buildings. provision. The interface of Windsor Street and the Street is expected. There is scope to see the and coordinated manner and sets out key land complement to the activities and facilities in Knowledge Quarter promises to be an important Liverpool Hope University Everton Campus as use planning requirements, principles and the Knowledge Quarter. Nelson Street has been It has proved a catalyst for regeneration and point of interaction with inner-city communities. an extension of the Hope Street spine, echoing criteria that the City Council will use, alongside identified as an important linkage on the natural offers scope for strategic extension of the the role of Windsor Street as a ‘portal’ to the other considerations, to evaluate and determine desire line between the King’s Waterfront and Knowledge Quarter’s Hope Street cultural spine. Shaw Street and Project Jennifer – At the Knowledge Quarter for those in the deprived planning applications within the Oldham Street Cathedral area. This can be conceived running southwards along north end of the Hope Street spine Liverpool communities north of the city centre. area. Windsor Street, and towards the Princes Park Hope University have developed their Everton

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