LIVERPOOL’S architecture was a hallmark of our Capital of Culture year, billed as “the stage on which we live our lives”.

People learned afresh to look up at the domes, towers and turrets bequeathed by the silk-hatted merchant princes of old, and their interface with the burgeoning of new glass and steel skyscrapers and offices.

Despite the cultural vandalism of the 60s and 70s, which destroyed swathes of Georgian Victorian and Edwardian housing (as well as Queen Square, Williamson Square and the original Cavern Club), there is enough that endures to stir pride.

The purpose of this multi-media show, a partnership between St George’s Hall and city-based Dot-art, was to re-examine local architectural heritage, highlighting the neglected, and giving fresh perspectives.

So why, give or take some zany angles, do seven of the 29 works opt for that predictable signature the Liver Building and the Anglican Cathedral?

Although there is much to commend – Alan McKernan’s beautiful black and white photography and the photo-realism of Bev Evans’s Exchange Flags Silhouettes, with its striking skyline statues – we have to cut to Stephen Collett’s mixed media collage, Planning Permission Approved, or Tony Evans’ bronze relief, Liverpool Waterfront, to find true innovation.

Where familiarity or predictability looms too large, interest wanes. Conventional art needs to seek out more unusual subjects: that works best in the case of Simon Birtall’s paintings of Birkenhead Park and the town’s wonderful and isolated ancient priory.

Ryan Jones, who even makes the oversized and monstrous Pier Head ferry terminal look pretty, is one artist concerned with the newly- emerging Lime Street Station frontage. He also provides an exotic vision of Southport Pier.

For consensus, images of water abound. An affirmation, at least, that all great cities are on great rivers.

JOE RILEY