A colossal project to regenerate Liverpool's north docklands received planning permission a few months ago. “Liverpool Waters” – a development by landowners Peel – hit a wave of controversy and opposition, centred around UNESCO's threat to remove the coveted World Heritage Site badge from Merseyside if the plans went ahead.
I'm not against regeneration in historic areas. In fact, to let old buildings get in the way of development is suicidal from a preservation perspective, and just provides fuel to those who are set to profit from unnecessarily demolishing the old and building anew.
I’m not worried about what will be removed. I’m not worried about what will get demolished, dug up or thrown out. I’m concerned about the landscape of Liverpool. And it’s not just the historic landscape - that thing which furrows brows within UNESCO. It’s the landscape character of Liverpool, of which historic buildings are just one part, and which Liverpool Waters will impact upon.
There are two routes this development may go down, both the subject of artists' impressions doing the rounds. The first is full of skyscrapers, crazy windmill-powered buildings and the ‘tallest structure outside London’. Does this in any way reflect the current Liverpool landscape, historic or otherwise?
The second looks more like a marina, or a modern version of the Albert Dock. New buildings are the height of the Three Graces, or the hotels around the Kings Dock, and are interspersed with water and boats. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were already out there, somewhere between the Garden Festival site and the Echo Arena. They are modern, they are new, they replace empty space, and yet they are undoubtedly ‘Liverpool’.
We went through a period, not so long ago, when the city was in a similar position to what it’s in now: austerity had bitten hard for many years, and unemployment was a huge problem. The 1960s gave us many great things, but architecturally it was a disaster. In our zeal to solve the social issues of the day, we were left with such gems as the Piggeries, the Kingsway Tunnel entrance, and Concourse House. In the last three decades we've pulled down many such brutalist eyesores as well as unloved and unsafe tower blocks. What were they replaced with? Low rise housing and more imaginative glass and steel structures.
In short, I hope that the developments in the north docks reflect the landscape into which they are newcomers, that they fit the scale and historic characteristics that are distinctly Liverpudlian, and that the project is one that our descendents thank us for, rather than demolish in a few short decades.
Martin Greaney is the author of Liverpool: A Landscape History, to find out more about Liverpools rich and varried history click here.