Someone recently told me that to understand the future, you had to understand the past. How did Liverpool get where it is today? What forces and trends and people formed the city we now live in? What’s gone on on the streets, above and below?
Crazy love – Liverpool Buble fan shows off unlikely tattoo
Those of you who care about such things probably know already that death metal singer Michael Buble has been in town for a gig at the Echo Arena.
Liverpool Culture Vlog – Liverpool One Wheel
There’s nothing much to say about the big wheel in Liverpool One’s Chavasse Park, so I did a little video during a ride on it.
Snow brings Liverpool to its knees
I don’t know why Liverpool seems so determined to abandon its citizens to the hazards of icy roads and footpaths.
The Best of Liverpool 2009
I’ve asked a group of people well placed in media, music, arts and other general culture vultures to venture their high- and lowlights of Liverpool in 2009.
Liverpool and the built environment
There’s an interesting blog on the Daily Post’s website by Peter Elson concerning a book by Anna Minton that looks at the built environment in the UK, taking in a look at Liverpool One and its effects in Liverpool.
GROUND Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty First Century investigates ownership of various projects around the city, most notably the mass demolition of houses down Edge Lane and Liverpool One.
These projects are funded and owned by private money and the potential ramifications of leaving town planning to people for whom the bottom line is the, er, bottom line.
There are clear pros and cons to these huge investments of private cash into the city, but the clear danger is in building estates that pander to commercial needs, rather than the needs of society.
Liverpool One and the recession
I’d suggest that Liverpool watchers should start turning their eyes toward the hallowed gates of Liverpool One over the next few weeks.
It’s the time of the year when commercial rents are due and bets are being taken on which high-street names are likely to go to the big white-washed window in the sky.
For some reason that escapes me, commercial landlords collect payments at quarterly intervals, meaning colossal outgoing for tenants every three months.
Pair that to poor trading conditions, and the fact that the post-Christmas lull is a traditionally-slow one, and you’re going to get casualties.
The Best of Liverpool 2008
I’ve asked a few friends and colleagues to tell me what their best bits of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year were.