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The demolition of the Coach House at 23 Aigburth Road, Liverpool (El Chocon)

(Destruction of) Local history, corner. In July I was horrified that the demolition of the only surviving historic building on the north east side of Aigburth Road was allowed. This is an area historically of large Victorian houses, with terraced streets opposite. At the back of one of the few remaining Victorian villas was a period old coach house, full of character. It was demolished on behalf of the Vinco Group property developers, with the permission of Liverpool City Council – the planning officers of Liverpool City Council recommended allowing it – and no objection from the country’s official conservation body, English Heritage. A ‘historic buildings adviser’ Peter de Figueiredo wrote the report in favour of demolition of this historic building. Local councillors made no representations, and only 5 local residents did (all objecting to the large scale development of the site). I suspect that virtually no resident of the Aigburth Road area had any idea that this vandalism was being proposed and would be waved through by the City Council, backed by a ‘heritage expert’ for hire, acquiesced at by the body supposed to protect England’s heritage. So that one of the few historic buildings in what is supposed to be a conservation area is now gone.

One resident objected to the proposed flats on the basis that they would be five storey in height, out of keeping with anything else in the area. That is correct and it is not considered in the Planning report at all. That could be because the planned block of flats on Aigburth Road was reduced in height (according to Figueiredo’s report) in a revised application “following discussions with the Council and Historic England.” The planning officials adopt a line of Historic England (did they used to be English Heritage?) “the location of the new building means that it will be read in the context of the surrounding modern structures, rather than the historic development along Alexandra Drive.” What this bizarrely points out is that demolishing an historic building (albeit one altered and with few original indoor features) will mean the new building will be read (on that side of the main road) in the context of other modern buildings. The fact the historic building was a feature and part of the cityscape seems lost on the heritage officials. My usual view that those tasked with conserving and celebrating Britain’s heritage care mostly about the large and very old, rather than smaller and newer or industrial, is reinforced. And that planning laws about conservation can usually be overcome if the developer and development is large enough, but not as often when commonsense is asked for in relation to individuals genuinely trying to do their best.

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Tips for LFC fans going to Kiev (spelt Kyiv in official translations).

Tips for LFC fans going to Kiev (spelt Kyiv in official translations).

 

To add to my previous post, 8 May 2017.

Kyiv tips for Eurovision & other visitors.

 

  1. Nearly everywhere takes cards. Euros are very easily exchanged at fair rates but pounds will probably be exchanged everywhere. Exchanges on the street are perfectly good. Officially you have to pay in Ukrainian currency.
  2. Near the stadium there is a good Silpo supermarket in the basement of Gulliver mall.
  3. On Shota Rustaveli Street there are good Georgian restaurants. I’ve been to one and guessing the other is good.
  4. Good value self-service Ukrainian food at Puzhata Hata (Пузата Хата) e.g. a branch diagonally opposite the right hand Kreshchatik side of the Bessarabaska market.
  5. Porter pub has several branches around the centre. One is near the market, over the road on the left hand side away from the main street Kreshchatyk. Very near the LFC fan zone. One just off the other end of the main street and one on Sofiyska.
  6. Look out for shops and shopping centres in the underpasses and subways. Also many good bars and restaurants in the streets off Kreshchatyk before you reach the Maydan Square.

 

 

Brief more details.

Supermarket. The giant Gulliver shopping mall is very near the stadium (entrance nearest the Palats Sportu metro, or on the opposite side through what looks like the business entrance. There is a good Silpo supermarket in the basement (find escalators down), & a restaurant. On the 5th floor (our fourth floor, ground = 1) there is a good food hall for takeaway type food. Plenty of vegetarian options, I even saw a Tofu burger as the second dearest burger on the menu. There is a small perhaps cheaper supermarket along (Bul.) Lesi Ukrainki, 5 minutes walk away from Gulliver, a few blocks, with a very cheap traditional cafe attached.

 

Nearby the mall there are good Georgian restaurants, a falafel stall (good for vegetarian and vegans), and slightly nearer the centre a branch of the chain self-service typical good value Ukrainian food Puzhata Hata (Пузата Хата) http://www.puzatahata.ua/eng/ That branch is diagonally opposite the right hand Kreshchatik side of the Bessarabaska market. Look for a round red logo, and red writing. I spelt the name wrong in my earlier post.

 

Shops in underpasses. Ukraine is very hot in Summer and very cold in Winter. So they put shops and shopping centres underground, often in underpasses. Going along the main road from Gulliver mall to Bessarabska market (an old covered market) you may be surprised to find shops in the underpass. The next one in the direction of the main street Kreshchatyk you can get lost in there are so many twists and turns. Open at night to get through, with the shops closed. Under the main Maydan Square itself the whole underneath is a huge mix of prestige and regular shopping centre complex.

 

Pubs, bars, restaurants. It is normal in Ukrainian bars or ‘pubs’ to get food and drinks, so they look more like restaurants and you usually have to wait to be shown to a table. You can only get drinks but it is normal to get some food as well. I recommend it. As the FCO travel advice says, many drinks are stronger than at home. Their cheap ordinary lager is like our cheap ordinary lager (rubbish) but you rapidly get better, sometimes stronger, Ukrainian beer options, plus all the imported / foreign brands.

 

Porter Pub. Mentioned above. It’s like a Ukrainian Flannagan’s Apple but more civilised. A great rock covers & own songs band “Drive Music”, sometimes members of “The Brown Sugar” were playing in the branch on Taras Schevchenka last Friday night. Pub in Ukrainian / Russian = Паб.

There are good bars and restaurants on Prorizna. Khmilniy Knyaz on Prorizna is a British type craft beer bar (US / Aus / British type craft beer – not British type bar). Expensive for Ukraine – £16 for 3 beers & 3 small plates of food, good food and drink.

The area off Yaroslaviv, behind St. Sofia’s Cathedral is worth walking around to see lots of spectacular murals. A bohemian feel to it like similar districts in Berlin or Krakow. Thanks to my guide (& colleague) Sofi for showing me the murals district.

 

To add to my previous post, 8 May 2017.

Kyiv tips for Eurovision & other visitors.

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Welcoming the Polish, 2006 and 2017.

A motion to Liverpool City Council that I wrote in April 2006, encouraging the city authorities to welcome new Polish residents. See end.

Draft Motions to Council 26 April 2006.

Welcoming the Polish community.

Council notes the recent horrific racist murder of a new Polish resident in Southport.

Council notes that Liverpool still needs to increase its population and have more people come to live and work here and we welcome all new residents including those from new EU members in Eastern Europe.

Council notes in particular that both Liverpool and Polish cities suffered greatly during the war and that Polish airmen were the largest non-British contingent in the RAF in the Battle of Britain, making up more than five percent of all RAF pilots. The Air Minister Sir Archibald Sinclair stated that without the Poles “our shortage of trained pilots would have made it impossible to defeat the German air force and so win the Battle”. Many of those pilots and their families stayed in the North West to contribute to long established Polish communities. Newer residents are welcome as well.

Council resolves to encourage all members, officers and partners to think of ways that they can help new residents integrate and enjoy the famously generous welcome of Liverpool people.

Proposed by:

Written 4 April 2006 for City Council meeting 26 April 2006.

A month later I was fortunate with my sister and friends to hear Lech Walesa, former Solidarity Trade Union leader, speak at a Liverpool John Moores University Roscoe lecture. 15 May. Three years ago I visited the shipyard at Gdansk which was a central point in the struggle for freedom in Eastern Europe. It was reading Neal Ascherson’s writing about Poland in the Observer (later the Independent) in my late teens that crystallised my interest in Eastern Europe and I’m privileged in the last ten years to have had the chance to work there.

Now many of the Polish residents have gone back to Poland, there are fewer Polish shops in our local streets but Polish beers and some foodstuffs have become staples in our supermarkets. There are some community events and groups, such as Liverpool Polonia, that have encouraged interaction and integration but I think it is a real shame – on both sides – that there has been little actual social and cultural interaction between many of the Polish and other Eastern European working migrants and existing residents. At least that is my experience. I hear negatives as well but think interaction and increased understanding can only be good for us and them. Plus always remembering our cultural links and great war time debt we owe.

I like Poland and have visited several times. I’ve also worked with Polish colleagues in both Ukraine and Georgia. I’ve visited Ukraine more often and recently but only more recently learnt that there are many (not just a few) long established Ukrainian communities in the UK. A reminder that our country is both more mixed and has always had immigrants who have over time integrated while retaining elements of their heritage and culture.

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An excess of flats planned for Liverpool river side Festival Gardens site.

Festival Gardens site Liverpool 2007 & 2017

How Liverpool City Council repeats the mistakes of ten years ago in its plans for the former Garden Festival site, a prime River Mersey side location three miles south of the iconic Pier Head. An excess of flats are planned for the Liverpool river side Festival Gardens site by the Labour Mayor & Council and its development partners, the same mistake that the Council was proposing in 2007 under Liberal Democrat control. The site is a brownfield former landfill site that was famous as the location of the Liverpool International Garden Festival in 1984, one of the initiatives supported by Conservative Minister, Michael Heseltine, that started to stop the decline in the Liverpool City Region. In fact Mayor Anderson and the Council are wanting to cram even more properties onto the site – 2500 as reported by Your Move magazine instead of the 1400 nearly all flats I object to in 2007. My objection in 2007 is set out in the attached submission to the City Council’s then ‘Executive Board’ (Cabinet) and article / report which detailed my reasons for objecting. The reasons are the same now as then – Liverpool needs a variety of housing stock to encourage a varied population, and that must include houses rather than just cramming in apartments in nearly every available space. Houses should be family sized houses as well, not just one or two bed town houses. This will help ensure there is space for growing families as well as a growing population.

My objection to flats is linked to the student housing bubble. In Liverpool, and every town and city with any University, no matter how new, the apartments complexes of purpose built student complexes have been thrown up over the last ten to fifteen years at an ever increasing rate. In Liverpool new apartment developments seem to be mostly student complexes. I also believe that the student numbers boom is a bubble that will burst at some point, and therefore many student apartments will be left empty. Re-purposing of those will be needed, as well as investment to help areas thrive and support families moving into vacated student houses. Though after more than ten years of making the prediction that the student numbers bubble in the UK (and everywhere else in the world) must burst it hasn’t looked at all like happening yet. Specifically as to Festival Gardens. More apartments will not necessarily help sustainability of the city’s housing but will help keep prices artificially high because of investors and speculators. Whatever happens with the site, I am sure that the former Garden Festival site, now Festival Gardens, will be a wonderful new city district in the future, and all those who have helped look after the site over the last thirty years will deserve some of the credit.

Liverpool City Council’s Festival Park masterplan can be found on the City Council website.
My background information for this post has included articles in Your Move magazine online, the City Region’s premier property and lifestyle magazine, and reports from the St. Michael’s ward Green Party councillors, who represent the effected area and have raised objections to the scale of the plans and implications.

gardenfest-art

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