RENOWNED for his exquisite taste and aesthetic judgment, Loyd Grossman honoured his commitment to deliver Lord Alton’s Roscoe Citizenship lecture on heritage to a packed St George’s Hall, in spite of his shock resignation from chairing National Museums Liverpool’s board of trustees.
However, when he was asked during audience question time if there were any post-war buildings he rated as being of future iconic status, he replied that he "could not think of one" and was "still waiting hopefully". Presumably the monolithic new Museum of Liverpool on Mann Island, whose carcass already dominates the waterfront, had slipped his mind?
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IMAGINE Mr Brocklebank’s surprise on visiting Dale Street for Liverpool’s newly famed Cutting of the Buddleia on Listed Buildings Ceremony (as noted last week) to find that heritage champion Cllr Berni Turner had already wielded her Roscoe botanical pruning sheers on the row of celebrated Georgian derelict shops. How did she reach such dizzy heights? Or had some other council personage with, say, access to a fire brigade turntable ladder given her a hand?
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HAVING dealt with rampant vegetation, perhaps Cllr Turner could pop up to Myrtle Street and redress the controversial decision whereby Liverpool’s planning committee gave retrospective permission for Maghull Developments to demolish historic Josephine Butler House, Liverpool’s 1851 former laying-in hospital and pioneering X-ray centre. Maghull stripped the outer stone skin off JB House, but have now stopped work. With council buildings at risk officer Chris Griffiths sturdily holding a step- ladder, Cllr Turner could easily have had the missing stonework, handily piled alongside, back up in a jiffy. Another heritage blunder sorted!
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ENGLISH Heritage top banana Dr Simon Thirley got a right Scouse welcome when he ventured over from its Manchester regional HQ to launch a Liverpool book range at the Bluecoat Arts Centre. He heard city leader Cllr Warren Bradley praise the EH books and his thoughtful remark – "There’s a careful balance to be made between heritage and regeneration" – only for some reprobate to shout "You’ve not got that right here", followed by heckling from other well-dressed guests. And that brouhaha occurred with some leading conservationists missing from the guest list, most notably Liverpool’s long-standing campaigner Florence Gersten. Doubtless, the EH panjandrums were relieved it was not much more rowdy.
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FANCY that: Later at the Bluecoat Centre, a lecture was given by Britain’s best-loved 1960s political activist, Tariq Ali, who told his audience: "I’ve just walked through Liverpool and it now looks like everywhere else – and what a mess they’re making at the Pier Head."
