[Pablo Diablo]

Ok, another one of Pablo's fantasies!!

I've another quick fiddle with Google Earth and come up with a little idea for regeneration of the Brunswick area of Dingle.

So basically, this consists of two parts: Brunswick Village and Brunswick Quays.

The Village would involve the renovation of existing terraced homes in the form of providing a subsidy to the owners to enable them to replace windows and doors, add insulation, repair/replace the roof, add solar panels and refurbish the front of the house. New homes would be constructed in a Neo-Victorian terrace style to match the feel of the area. The village centre would be like a mini Cheshire Oaks - outlet stores, restaurants and cinema along with cafes, pubs and a leisure/sports centre. Some apartment blocks around the village centre too. A supermarket would be built on Sefton St (preferably a Morrisons or Sainsbury's as there's a Tesco and Asda nearby).

The Quays would involve the relocation of the business park (although to where, I don't know :lol and the excavation of the dock. The industrial units would then be replaced with the same type of apartments and houses found on the neighbouring marina. There'd also be bars, restaurants and hotels around the river front and the quayside. This would create a uninterrupted river walk from Princes Dock down to Cressington - it's currently just the business park (and to a lesser extent, the giant surface car park between the HMRC building and the arena) that 'disrupts' the walk between the city centre and Otterspool.


So what do we think? :cheers:

 

[Dreamer]

Nice plan, the area desparately needs this too. I would go alittle further and try and re intergrate everything that side of Park Road back in to the urban fabric by removing dead-ended streets and building new desirable housing to shake up the social mix - throw in loads of squares and trees and it would be a great success. The Columbus Quay project needs to be finished and some new office buildings with underground parking near the roundabout should be built.

 

[Pablo Diablo]

Thanks Dreamer

Yeah I agree with you 100%! This was really like a 'Phase 1' to a wider idea for the entire West Toxeth/Dingle area...
Basically, the 'rectangle' between Park Road, Dingle Lane, Grafton Street and Harlow Street and the area between Park Road, Upper Warwick Street and Princes Ave would have existing terraces refurbed and new Neo-Victorian terraces constructed on empty land and to replace the patches of council estates. The original street pattern would be rebuilt. Like you said, trees everywhere and small squares with shops, pubs, cafes etc.

Some land in the south of this area near Princes Park and Ullet Road would be cut into large plots and sold to self-builders.

The rest of West Toxeth (i.e., between Sefton Street, Park Street, Parliament Street, Park Road, Upper Warwick Street and Princes Ave) would be rebuilt with modern Berlin-style family apartment blocks on a grid street plan. The ground floors of these buildings would have shops, pubs etc. Trees everywhere and loads of garden squares.

 

[Dreamer]

^^ Thats brilliant, Id love to see that become a reality, it would really work too and attract alot of new people to the area. Why not send it to Mayor Joe and see what he thinks?

 

[Martin S]

A few years ago, Doug Roberts and myself went on a walk that took in the Brunswick Business Park and we both agreed that Toxteth and Harrington Docks should be re-excavated to make them into great urban spaces. Personally, I would like them to retain the dockside transit sheds as they add a great deal of character to the area and would allow a lot of the activities in the Brunswick Business Park to continue.

 

[Tom Hughes]

Controversially....... I would like the docks to be docks again. Of course I can see how this would conflict with all the residential stuff there now but I've a feeling that one day we might regret the loss of south Liverpool port capacity. The village scheme sounds good. Density around this station should be increased dramatically.

 

[Pablo Diablo]

A few years ago, Doug Roberts and myself went on a walk that took in the Brunswick Business Park and we both agreed that Toxteth and Harrington Docks should be re-excavated to make them into great urban spaces. Personally, I would like them to retain the dockside transit sheds as they add a great deal of character to the area and would allow a lot of the activities in the Brunswick Business Park to continue.

I don't think just re-excavating the docks would made them into 'great urban spaces'. If the only thing around there is industrial sheds, who's going to go there? What would the water be used for?
Now you've mentioned it though, I don't see any reason why business activities can't continue. I would like to see the area primarily used for leisure and residential but some businesses could remain - in fact, a mixed area is probably better. Those 'tin shed' industrial buildings should be replaced with Marina type homes and leisure facilities though.

Controversially....... I would like the docks to be docks again. Of course I can see how this would conflict with all the residential stuff there now but I've a feeling that one day we might regret the loss of south Liverpool port capacity. The village scheme sounds good. Density around this station should be increased dramatically.

If they were rebuilt as working docks, would they actually be working? I'd imagine that when demand increases, it will be demand for more post-panamax facilities. At that point, I'd imagine Ellesmere Port would be a better location.

 

[Martin S]

I don't think just re-excavating the docks would made them into 'great urban spaces'. If the only thing around there is industrial sheds, who's going to go there? What would the water be used for?
Now you've mentioned it though, I don't see any reason why business activities can't continue. I would like to see the area primarily used for leisure and residential but some businesses could remain - in fact, a mixed area is probably better. Those 'tin shed' industrial buildings should be replaced with Marina type homes and leisure facilities though.

I wasn't thinking of just re-excavating the docks. I think that they should be filled with water as well and then possibly float a few boats in them.

Basically, I agree that you would need leisure and residential activities to make the area into a 'destination' but what I really like about the space is its scale. I think that overdevelopment could make the spaces oppressive although there would be some scope for taller buildings along the east side where they would not overshadow the dock basins.

I think that some of the transit sheds look really good and should be retained for small businesses at least until such time as a more profitable activity could be found for them.

 

[Pablo Diablo]

Some of the buildings are nice - they could probably be converted into great mixed business, leisure and residential buildings. But those ones that look like aircraft hangars would need to be replaced - they look far too industrial (doing their job I suppose!) to be next to homes.

I mentioned in my original post that I didn't know where the business park could be relocated to. I've just thought, what about a Wavertree Tech Park style development in Everton, Anfield or Walton? I'd like to move that little business park in between Brunswick Road and Erskine Street here too and redevelop the land as a small park (as part of a wider plan for breaking down the 'barrier' of Islington/Hunter Street and reintegrating Everton and allowing Central Liverpool to expand northward).