Liverpool ONE thrives

There may have been rather more Primark than Cath Kidston bags swinging from shoppers’ hands, but there was no denying that even on a cold February morning in the heart of the credit crunch, Liverpool ONE was thriving.

Words Pamela Buxton

BDP’s masterplan for 42 acres of ailing central Liverpool was the first ever masterplan to make it onto the Stirling Prize shortlist last year. It didn’t win, but the nomination alone rewarded both the vision of the client, developer Grosvenor, and the masterplan’s successful delivery by a long cast of practices including Allies and Morrison, CZWG and FAT. Finding myself in Liverpool, I jumped at the chance to find out what all the fuss had been about.

It might not be fashionable, but I have to confess a fondness for the easy-to-shop malls of Bluewater in Kent, not for the design aesthetics, but because of the stress-free, child-friendly experience. It’s a great, practical shopping venue, but it could be anywhere. Liverpool ONE is in many ways the opposite with its inner city location and traditional shopping street and arcades scale. This is not a shopping/leisure centre, but a piece of city, cleverly knitting old buildings with new interventions to create 1.4 million sq. feet of retail plus cinemas, restaurants, cafes, bars, apartments, hotels, offices and a transport interchange.

In this respect, Liverpool ONE is a breath of fresh air in more ways than one. Its open-air nature is mitigated by deep overhangs that protect the pedestrian from the worst of the weather. The streetscape scale feels generous and less stifling than a mall. And best of all there’s the variety of old and new buildings and styles that you just don’t get in a homogenous mall, from John McAslan’s restrained John Lewis, to the distinctive stripes of Marks Barfield’s Costa Coffee and the multi-coloured tiling of FAT’s Liverpool Pavilion at Church Yard Arcade.

Liverpool ONE’s real virtue is integrating with the urban fabric. The development looks outwards – down to the Albert Dock with the Liverpool Tate, and across to gems such as the charming Bluecoat Arts Centre, recently embellished by Biq Architects’s extension. There is decent public space in the form of Chavasse Park, created with Pelli Clarke Pelli.

Not all shops are let but there’s enough going in these hard economic times to be optimistic for Liverpool ONE’s future when things do pick up. I think I’m a convert. Liverpool One makes an eloquent case for inner city retail that puts out of town developments such as Bluewater firmly in their place.