Sky's the limit for Liverpool Airport's 75th anniversary

Apr 29 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

England’s most important building

LIVERPOOL Speke Aerodrome’s original 1938 terminal (now the Liverpool Marriott Hotel South) was by far Britain’s pre-eminent municipal airport building before the war.

It was influenced by Hamburg-Fuhlsbuttel Airport, in Germany, which among other terminals, including Amsterdam, was inspected by a Liverpool Corporation team in 1935.

Built to handle passengers from small bi-planes, as commemorated by the replica De Havilland Rapide at the entrance, it was coping with Boeing 747 jumbo jets on closure in 1986.

Although listed by English Heritage because of its historical and architectural importance, it fell into dereliction.

After taking a decade to establish new users and finance, the result is spectacular and a tribute to Speke Garston Development Co and Neptune Developments. Some £53m of investment allowed the creation of the Marriott Hotel, plus conversion of No 1 Hangar into the David Lloyd Leisure Centre and No 2 Hangar into Skyways House, for the Littlewoods organisation.

The regeneration and sensitive restoration of the buildings’ original appearance is aided by the dynamic Jetstream Club restoring vintage planes for display on the former apron.

Already a Jetstream airliner is in place and a former British Eagle Airline’s Bristol Britannia is being rebuilt outside its former home, No 1 Hangar.

Growing fast

OVER recent years LJL Airport has become one of Europe's fastest-growing airports, having increased its annual passenger numbers from 875,000 in 1998 to 5.47m in 2007. The growth rate was 10.2% in 2007.

For the first time ever, more than 500,000 passengers were handled in one month, during May, 2007.

Reconstruction of Liverpool's main runway began in September, 2006. The runway was opened by HRH Duke of Edinburgh in 1966, and this is the first time the runway has been reconstructed (as opposed to resurfaced).

Also, the 40-year-old airfield group lighting is being upgraded with a new system and the taxiways have been strengthened and resurfaced.

The airport’s ownership was privatised in 1990, with British Aerospace taking a 76% shareholding, who then sold out to Peel Holdings Ltd. Peel also owns Mersey Docks & Harbour Co, Manchester Ship Canal, Salford Quays and Trafford Centre.

The present £42.5m passenger terminal began in 2000, which tripled its size and passenger capacity and this was completed in 2002, although further extensions have been added.

A big change to the airport’s public image also came in 2002, with its renaming in honour of John Lennon, some 22 years after the Beatle’s death. Tom Murphy’s seven-foot tall bronze statue of the musician portrays him striding across a balcony overlooking the check-in hall.

On the roof is painted the airport's motto, which is a line taken from Lennon's song, Imagine: “Above us, only sky”.

In 2005, the Yellow Submarine, a large steel artwork originally built for the Liverpool Garden Festival, was installed at the terminal entrance.