Posts Tagged ‘Liverpool’

Two photographs this week both of the Rat painted in 2004 by Banksy as part of the Liverpool Biennial on the derelict White House pub on the corner of Duke Street and Berry Street.

It’s hard to tell now what the rat is holding as one of the original boards is missing.  Some (especially journalists who have never seen it in person who just repeat the first newspaper article they find in Google without checking facts) say it’s a machine gun. I suppose that fits their world view nicely. I can see how they think that but it’s not.  Looking at a picture of it before it aged the object the rat is holding is clearly a marker pen. Sadly the red tip has been worn away and the middle board has been replaced.

16 Cook Street, Liverpool isn’t the most astonishing building ever but the Grade II* Listed Building is one of only two by the architect Peter Ellis.  I originally went out to photograph his other building, Oriel Chambers, but it was covered in scaffolding when I walked to it so I’ve picked out his Cook Street building instead.

Why would I want a photograph of a stone and glass fronted building that I see everyday and not even realised what it was myself?

Oriel Chambers, built in 1864, was the world’s first metal framed, glass curtain walled building.  Every building with a metal structure supporting it’s weight and curtain walls is a descendant of this radical piece of architecture.  16 Cook Street is a development on the style of the Oriel Chambers and is a precursor to the modernist style of architecture.

The Cook Street building was built in 1866.  There is speculation that the  John Root, who was sent abroad to avoid the American Civil War and was in Liverpool at the time, was influenced by the building when developing early skyscrapers in Chicago.

Liverpool Ornamental Chinese Gate

The ornamental gate to Chinatown, Liverpool on Nelson Street. Unfortunately the dramatic sky doesn’t really show up as well as I’d hoped in the photograph but it does frame the top of the gate nicely. The arch is the largest of its kind outside of China.

Sefton Park Palm House, Liverpool

Britain’s Park Story on BBC4 last week included the Palm House in Sefton Park.  I took this photograph in April from the South East of the Palm House.  It was packed with children on school holidays so I’ve still not been inside but I’m going to try to get over there one day when I’m off work to get some photographs from inside.

Liverpool Resurgent is the statue, Sir Jacob Epstein, over the entrance to the former Lewis’s Department Store (not part of the John Lewis group). Known locally as Dickie Lewis the statue of a naked man completed in 1956.

Yates' Wine Lodge Building

Richard Wilson art installation has turned the derelict (and architecturally boring) Yates’ Wine Lodge Building into an eye catching piece of artwork on a quiet road in Liverpool.  The oval section of the building rotates and while on line videos can give you a feel for it the scale of it is far more impressive in person.  Originally set to run from 2007 to the end of 2008 its still going.

Wellington's Column

Wellington’s Column or the Waterloo Memorial on the corner of William Brown Street and Lime Street in Liverpool.  Taken on a sunnier day than my previous photograph Wellington’s Head.

The tower on the Municipal Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool.

Another photograph taken on one of my lunchtime wanderings round Liverpool with my camera.  This one is of the  tower on the Municipal Buildings, Dale Street. The building was begun in 1860 by John Weightman and completed in 1866 by E.R. Robson. It’s Italian and French Renaissance influenced Northern Renaissance style are quite a contrast to the art deco structures of the Mersey Road Tunnel I posted last week. The central tower with balconies, clocks and five bells has a pyramidal spire. The spire has a wrought-iron balcony half-way down.

I’ve not had a chance to take my camera out at lunch time at work recently so here is a picture I took a while ago.  It’s of a decorative Liver Bird on one side of the art deco Georges Dock Ventilation Tower (sometimes called the Mersey Tunnel Building) in Liverpool near the Three Graces.  The detail on the bird itself appears to have been eroded by the elements but other elements are still crisp.

This sign is on the boards which cover the ground floor of an empty building a short distance from where I work. Whenever I walk past it amuse me in the same way that a sign on the side entrance to Wollaton Park in Nottingham amused me in my youth. It read simply “Escaping Dear Please Close the Gate”.