Liverpool One

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Is, really, very nice. Very nice. I'm an infrequent visitor to Liverpool city centre itself, I occasionally go down with mates to see the football there but but when we do go it tends to be at night, straight into Anfield off the M58, into the ground, and back out again. "Liverpool FC fan in NOT FROM LIVERPOOL shocker," I know, but I never claimed otherwise.

But the "Liverpool One" shopping/cinema/restaurant development, right slap bang in the city centre (that, let's face it, used to be a no-go-zone) inbetween the Albert Dock museums/designer outlets and the train station, is possibly the most impressive piece of previously derelict city-centre regneration I've come across for a while. Some of the sweeping architecture would have Tubby drooling. It's as impressive - no, I'd stick my neck out and say more impressive - as what they've done with Leeds city centre.

If you go there, I'd seriously recommend the Thai-Mediterranean fusion restaurant next to the cinema. Yee Rah, I think it was called. Sounds odd, but the platter of coconut chicken satay, phad thai noodles and sweet-and-sour pasta and vegetables was something to behold. For £8.99.

[rick derris]

Liverpool One

what have they done to Leeds centre?

having lived there (and we have been through this) it would have to be hanging gardensesque for me to revise my opinion of Leeds as anything else but a total shithole

[hobbes]

Liverpool One

Of course, there are deeply worrying precedents set in making a whole city centre - once a public highway essentially private land so that the centre owners are allowed to prevent people accessing it on their own whims.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Liverpool One

I didn't get any sense we weren't "allowed" to access it hobbes; we had to pay to park there, but I suppose we could have parked further out for free and walked in. Is there a backstory behind this development I've missed?

[hobbes]

Liverpool One

I'll try to find the articles, but there was a lot a while ago about how Grosvenor now had the power to stop people using the city centre for whatever arbitrary reasons they decided on (like hoods being banned at Bluewater, but worse because this was supposed to be public land.)

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Liverpool One

When did the centre of Liverpool used to be a 'no-go-zone'?

[Taylor]

Liverpool One

rick derris wrote:

what have they done to Leeds centre?

having lived there (and we have been through this) it would have to be hanging gardensesque for me to revise my opinion of Leeds as anything else but a total shithole

Leeds is worse now than it ever was.

- Some of the finest Victorian buildings in Britain

+ Corporate shithouses

[Commodore]

Liverpool One

As a near resident, I feel obliged to comment on the wonder of Liverpool One.

Firstly, it does show some architectural innovation, especially with the intriguing escalators that take you from the depths of Paradise Street to the Odeon and all the other chained outlets that surround it (such as the glorious Nando's).

The message seems to be that Liverpool One can bring the soullessness of out of town shopping into the supposed heart of the city centre. Meanwhile, whilst it's brought a few new retailers it has mostly dragged other established shops from their spiritual home (John Lewis aka George Henry Lee for one - the listed building they once frequented remains unoccupied several months later).

I can only suppose that the purpose of this monstrosity was to expand the shopping base as part of the regeneration of the city. Instead it has merely shifted the focus from what was a comparatively vibrant location, which now looks set for years of neglect as those companies who decided to desert their designated locations for the supposed promised land wonder if this was such a smart move to make in the first place.

This is the wonder of Liverpool One. The Crapital of Culture summed up in the concept of consumerism, which is what has made the Beatles so fucking legendary. Sod the fact that Eric's, which spawned a musical movement no less significant than the Fab Four, is now a poxy overgrown pub where local shock jock Pete Price does an occasional turn.

Liverpool One does stand out as a wondrous 21st century shopping experience, however. Whoopee. Fucking. Do.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Liverpool One

Leeds a "shithole"?!

You are all insane. Sure, there are some pretty scuzzy bits - what large English city doesn't have such areas these days - but there are gems upon gems.

The Victorian arcades between Briggate and Vicar Lane are the best such arcades in the UK.

The town hall and the city library are a splendid duo. Behind them, the Civic Hall is a fine building.

Roundhay Park is indisputably the best urban park in Britain.

The Leeds and Liverpool canal provides the best jogging route from any city centre in the country, a beautiful blend of industrial heritage and wildlife.

Leeds has an excellent "traditional" university with a fantastically large and well-designed campus.

It has fine Victorian housing, in Headingley and other parts of the city.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Liverpool One

When Leeds is mentioned, I think there's always an implied comparison with Manchester. As LM says there's plenty of good stuff in Leeds. Manchester has a rather overblown aspect to it, I think, such as that war museum with its brash building.

Bradford usually gets mentioned as the worst city in England. Any defenders of it? Bill Bryson tries to be fair to it (having said its function is to make everywhere else look good) but can't come up with much better than good curries and a film museum.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Liverpool One

Rogin, I went there for the golf and did indeed drool.

Anyhow, here's a good civic building. Colchester Town Hall, by John Belcher:

[beak]

Liverpool One

i thought this was going to be a thread about michael shields.

[beak]

Liverpool One

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

Manchester has a rather overblown aspect to it, I think, such as that war museum with its brash building.

That's in Salford, not Manchester.