Littlewoods Building | Edge Lane | Mixed Use

[jawida]

Originally Posted by Doug Roberts

I wonder if it will be lit up it night?? BTW how did the the gig go??

The Plaza bit is, you could read it from the bus stops on London Rd this evening.
Dunno about the Bruntwood bit though.

[Gareth]

That's good to know. I'm a fan of signs and lights on buildings, particularly if they are as high as Bruntwood. It makes the city feel vibrant.

[richie1878]

The bruntwood sign was lite up too late afternoon, should look alright of a night and bring a 'city feel' to the place

[Ste]

What signs facing the waterfront?

[richie1878]

They are both on the city side, not sure if the same two are going to be put on the northside!

[buggedboy]

I see his building is now slated for schools. Shame about the Urban Splash proposal duying a death.

[EdgeHill]

Originally Posted by buggedboy

I see his building is now slated for schools. Shame about the Urban Splash proposal duying a death.

I did like the Urban Splash proposal, but the school option now looks like our last chance to save the building.

Unless English Heritage changed their minds and agreed to list it, it would have just sat empty for another 5 years until it was decided to demolish it.

I actually think it was a very brave move by the council, it would have been far easier to just build a brand new school.

Instead we could end up with an innovative and architecturally interesting school building (how many of them have we seen in the past 50 years) and save a major Liverpool landmark.

[eyeam]

Originally Posted by buggedboy

I see his building is now slated for schools. Shame about the Urban Splash proposal duying a death.

Any details/link for that?

[buggedboy]

Originally Posted by eyeam

Any details/link for that?

http://councillors.liverpool.gov.uk/....aspx?MId=9395

[eyeam]

Originally Posted by buggedboy

http://councillors.liverpool.gov.uk/....aspx?MId=9395

Ta mate. Not surprised at all that the Urban Splash project isn't happening btw when even their big city centre schemes are on hold.

[Chris B]

From the Daily Post -

Two Liverpool schools to move into iconic Littlewoods building

Jun 8 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

TWO schools are set to be built within Liverpool’s iconic Littlewoods building.

The iconic art deco building, within Edge Lane’s new Innovation Park, was built by the Pools firm’s founders in 1938, but has sat empty for years.

But now the building is set to “be saved” and become the home of two Liverpool high schools as part of a £348m overhaul of the city’s secondaries by 2013. Last night it was confirmed city planners will be asked to authorise the construction of two schools within the building – with Liverpool Council pledging to ensure its historical features are preserved.

It would pave the way for two Church of England secondaries – Aigburth’s St Margaret’s and city-centre Archbishop Blanch to co-locate to the site.

The £45m building project is designed to boost the overall regeneration of the area.

And by forging links with the park’s 40 businesses, it is hoped would provide a raft of vocational opportunities and dovetail with the schools’ technology specialisms.

With governors’ blessing, St Hilda’s CE high would transfer from its outdated base in Sefton Park to the St Margaret’s site under the plans.

Although the Innovation Park move is backed by the Diocese, governors at St Margaret’s say they “cannot support a move to Edge Lane” – preferring the two schools’ home to be on the Aigburth site.

Last night Tim Warren, the council’s assistant education director, stressed nothing was “a done deal” but in order to submit water-tight plans before the government next month – planning permission was needed now.

And he said he was “hopeful” governors at St Margaret’s would back the plans during ongoing consultation.

The two schools would operate as separate entities but with access to a shared sixth form.

Article continues here - http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/...2534-23813547/

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the Archbishop Blanch site if this comes off, as it's quite a sizeable piece of land, not that far from the city centre.

[Babaloo]

As I understand it the governors at St Margaret's school strongly rejected this move a couple of months ago preferring to stay in Aigburth. No one at the school wants to move to Edge Lane. I'm not aware of any change on this issue.

It occurs to me that another way to manage this site along the lines proposed would be to hand it over to the Bluecoat School. I'm sure they could fill it with a 1000 pupils without any trouble. The downside would be that it would be selective and would cause other schools to close (as a result of lower roles). It would also need to ensure that at least 50% of places were ringfenced for pupils from north Liverpool to ensure that the school wasn't swamped by pupils from south Liverpool.

Another concern that is highlighted here is how useless and partial English Heritage is when it comes to listing buildings of architectural significance. It bends over backwards not to list buildings that could be used commercially in case that interferes with future development. Either a building is 'listable' according to set of clearly defined and transparent criteria or it is not. EH is about as transparent in its decision-making as a glass full of Guinness.

[EdgeHill]

I think St Margaret's are still against it but Archbishop Blanch is happy with the idea.

I suspect we may end up with just Archbishop Blanch moving to Edge Lane, which would mean just reusing the Littlewoods building without any new build along side.

[Babaloo]

Governors at Aigburth school refuse to budge over move to Littlewoods building

Ben Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

GOVERNORS last night insisted they will not support plans to move their school into Liverpool’s iconic Littlewoods building.

The Daily Post revealed yesterday how the landmark art deco building within Edge Lane’s Innovation Park will become the home of two Liverpool high schools as part of a £348m overhaul of the city’s secondaries by 2013.

Planners are to be asked to pave the way for two Church of England secondaries – Aigburth’s St Margaret’s and city centre Archbishop Blanch – to co-locate on the site.

But unimpressed governors at St Margaret’s last night dug their heels in.
They want the two schools’ home to be their current Aigburth site and urged Liverpool council to support that course of action “without further delay”.

Head teacher Dr David Dennison said: “The governors would like to reassure parents that the resolution passed by the governing body on March 9 rejecting the proposed move to the Edge Lane site remains unchanged.”

The council has stressed the £45m building project would provide a raft of vocational opportunities and dovetail with the schools’ technology specialisms. Its assistant director of education, Tim Warren, said he was “hopeful” agreement could be reached with governors.

What might work for the council and NWDA might not work for the school. St Margaret's clearly wants to stay put. The council is flogging a dead horse on this one.

[Chris B]

Can someone explain to me why it is proposed to move St. Margarets, when it is in fact St. Hilda's that has the more outdated buildings? Is there any reason why (if they are willing) St. Hilda's couldn't be re-located to Edge Lane along with Archbishop Blanch and leave St. Margarets where they are?

[Babaloo]

St Margarets also needs money spending on it and there is only so much government money in the kitty so 'Edge Lane' and St Margarets might not be doable. Also, the St Margaret's site has more land than St Hilda's. I'm assuming that if the schools vacate their current site the land can be sold on by the council. Both sites are potentially very interesting to property developers.

[Chris B]

The article from the other day states that according to the plans, when St. Margaret's vacates to Edge Lane, St. Hilda's will move into St. Margarets vacated buildings, thus any work needing to be done to those buildings will need to be carried out anyway. Similarly, regardless of whether St. Hilda's moves to Aigburth Road or Edge Lane, St. Hilda's site can still be sold, and the St. Margaret's site cannot. As such, that is why I question why St. Hilda's can't be the school to be moved, if St. Margaret's aren't interested.

[Babaloo]

I suspect it's a bit of a moveable feast! When I first heard about it, it was St Hilda's and St Margaret's --> Edge Lane, nothing about Archbishop Blanch. As you say it's an odd choice to move St Margarets out and St Hilda's into the vacated site - maybe it allows them to remain an all girls school? (Assuming they still are - 6th forms tend to be mixed these days). The plot thickens. There could also be a bit of dissonance between St Margarets and Arch B. I know they're both CofE schools but I think St Marg's sees itself as, what's the word, 'different' from Arch B and might not see sharing a facility with that school as, erm, 'appropriate'!

[buggedboy]

It does seem a hell of a move, geographically speaking, to move an Aigburth school to Edge Lane. Also, can you imagine what two school runs would do to rush hour traffic on Edge Lane? I'm presuming that they could approach the school from various entry points. Isnt there a route from Wavertree? I can't remember.

[Chris B]

It's proposed that access to the new schools with be taken from Innovation Boulevard, the new road across the former MTL depot site, linking the Technology Park with Edge Lane. Keeping in mind the locations of the existing schools, and the most direct route to the new site, I'd say Rathbone Road and the Technology Park would bear the brunt of traffic from St. Margaret's, which will likely cause problems given how congested the roads around the Technology Park get in the morning rush hour anyway. As for Archbishop Blanch, there may be some spill-over onto Edge Lane, however I'd say Wavertree Road towards Matalan would bear the brunt of traffic here, although it would, largely speaking, be in the opposite direction to the morning rush hour, so might not cause too much of a problem, at least until entering the Technology Park anyway.

I think the main issue will be if people inevitably find the Technology Park routes too congested, and attempt to access the schools via the only other option - Edge Lane - thus adding to an already extremely busy road. That said, all being well, by time the schools are open, Edge Lane West should be complete, so traffic should hopefully be more free-flowing, and less prone to backing up towards the Littlewoods building due to the current Durning Road bottleneck, so perhaps it'll be alright?