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”.

I was however a little nervous.  The rebuilt slab square in my home town of Nottingham just makes me want to cry. It has been turned into a bland, featureless slab with an embarrassing water feature that almost seems to have the ambition of escaping from an episode of Ground Force. I’m sure it’s very good for events but as a public space the rest of the time I’d take the old, fussy square back and do up the disgusting public toilets.

The new Lime Street frontage didn’t have a bold feature like the new frontage to Sheffield Station with the magnificent with the water covered blade slicing across it.  Could this be just another dull square that would reveal the station but nothing more?

Well I’m pleased to say that its far more than just a dull piazza.  The front has curvaceous steps intercut by ramps that sweep across its front.  Some of the paving on the ramps have images cut into them and more images have been included in the new glass in the arches at the front of the station.  There are places to sit and watch the world go by and an area with trees that breaks up the slabbed space.  Even though its only been open a few days it was obvious that it has already become a place to have your lunch or to meet people in the city centre.

There is a stubby tower including a lift that allows access from the station to the street and down to the underground station.  Which could hardly have been made smaller and which provides a visual clue to where the doorway in is for the unfamiliar traveller.

The new front doesn’t just reveal the lost front of the station.  It opens up the view across Lime Street that I’ve never seen before.  The sweep of the front of St. George’s Hall is opened up to the eye.

The one major piece of work left to do in the area is someone to restore the art deco cinema.  Unless someone wants a big project and decided to do away with the St. John’s shopping complex but that might be a bit extreme and where would all the shops go?

Photograph of the Organ in St Georges Hall, Liverpool

Daffodils in Sefton Park, Liverpool

Mossley Hill, Liverpool from Sefton Park