Littlewoods Building Edge Lane Goes Up In Flames. I Am Gutted.

LITTLEWOODS ON THE EDGE.

It seems a long time ago now, 2002 or so when I found that there was a planning application to demolish The Littlewoods Building on Edge lane.

This seemed a stupid idea to me.
 It was a landmark building.

An Art Deco building straddling Botanic Gardens looking like a giant ocean liner on the crest of a green wave.
A landmark for the city.

It survived the blitz but would it survive the North West Development Agency who now took it into their portfolio.
 This was dangerous times for the whole rundown area.
Where would it be without a focal point.
http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2012/11/art-deco-architecture-in-liverpool.html

I kicked into gear and ran a press campaign to save it. I felt I was qualified to express my opinions to the style of architecture being a specialist in the Art Deco period, a period still undervalued and I made an application to list it.

https://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2012/11/art-deco-architecture-in-liverpool.html

The application was supported by the C20 society with special help from the late Gavin Stamp, a real champion of Liverpools heritage.

I got their support and the support of SAVE Britain's Heritage who were in the same building in Cowcross Street London at the time.
Through frantic last minute negotiations I managed to get the ear of the then Council leader Mike Storey who was also a board member Liverpool Land company and we managed to get the prowess of the structure recognised as important.

Then I found out English Heritage would not list it.

I have lost count how many time those English Heretics have hindered the saving of a structure. Though there have been successes.

I recall as the only objector to the Museum of Liverpool at The Pier Head pleading with the planning committee in 2005 to reject the scheme, and telling them, here, in Edge Lane, this was the perfect building for a museum, a ready made structure.

“Why does the city centre get it all” I asked “Surely the people of Edge lane deserve the chance”. I cried. “This would kick start the regeneration that was long overdue”. They did not listen.

Piloti writing in Nooks and Corners for Private Eye took up the cause and give me some valuable print. The Daily post and in particular Peter Elson gave it pages of airtime. The public seemed to love this building and got behind the campaign. Letters appeared in the press and it was agreed by the council that it was a important local landmark.

Mike Storey and his council put out a call for ideas and the need to create a scheme that would work and it was announced that Urban Splash had won and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Then nothing happened and the recession crept in.

Then that scheme was dropped then there was a foolish announcement to turn it into a school.

Nothing happened. Other schemes came and went and nothing happened.

Recently there has been a lot of emphasis on filming the city. Even though most of the films have been low grade rubbish there a big ideas and it was announced that this building would become “A huge complex that'll be a breeding ground for the best creative talents in the UK”. http://www.liverpoolfilmoffice.tv/home/capitalcentric-acquires-iconic-littlewoods-buildings/

I had a real sense of pride in helping to save the landmark and silently inside I was so proud of spending my time in effort for no financial return but for the love of my city.

Well all that work now looks a waste of time and any scheme to regenerate the area now looks in doubt after a fire has raged through the structure leaving it gutted.

I am gutted too. I drove over to see the building being engulfed last night,  as soon as I received a text from Peter Elson. It was heartbreaking.
The fire starting on the 2^nd September at 7 o'clock, it took several hours to bring under control and when I saw the fire it looked as if the building that survived the blitz Militant and 20 years of decay has been finally wrecked by the years of inactivity. Twenty years it has been laying there empty. While a fortune of European Objective One Funding totalling near a billion pounds there was no money for the first landmark you see driving into the city at the end of the M62.

So now what for the Littlewoods Building. Lets hope they don't clear the site and build student flats, that would be a crime. Actually who started the fire?

Some serious enquiries need to be made. There were several outbursts of anger around the fire last night with questions being asked, just as to how the tragic fire started. Some asking how this fire started. 

Just weeks after it was announced that Channel 4 would not be bringing their news headquarters to Liverpool. Very Strange indeed.

Tiffany Favrile Bowl-Piece of the Week.

Louis Comfort Tiffany was born (1848-1933) into wealth.

He was a gifted painter in his younger years. 

He was also an architect,designed furniture, textiles, wallpaper and rugs. He worked in Bronze, silver, wrought iron, wood ceramics and silver.

But he is mostly known for glass.

“I have always striven to fix beauty in wood or stone, or glass or pottery, in oil or watercolour, by using whatever seemed fittest for the expression of beauty; and I see no reason to change it.”

He expressly refrained from imitating by striving for a new medium.

“God has given us our talents not to copy the talents of others, but rather to use our brains and our imagination in order to obtain the revelation of true beauty.”

He searched also for new technical inventions that could help him with his restless ideas.

The son of Harriet and Charles Lewis Tiffany, New York. He was the founder of Tiffany & Co a purveyor of jewelry silver objects and timepieces.

 That name had become a byword for luxury and craftsmanship. Opening in 1837 by the 1870's his Fifth Avenue store became the place where presidents would buy gifts for royalty and heads of state. By 1900 they had 1,000 employees around the world.

Louis showed no interest in joining the family firm instead he went to Eagleswood Military Academy in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. 

In 1865 he toured Europe. 

While in London he visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Roman and Syrian glass made a monumental impression on him. 

This same museum now has a collection of Tiffany Glass. 

On return to New York he enrolled in the National academy of Design and exhibited, in 1867 paintings that were inspired by his European travels.

He worked alongside George Innes (1825-1895). He was part of The Hudson River School. 

They both enjoyed a love of nature.

Innes had a dialogue with the Babizon school of painters who worked near Fontenbleau.

Tiffany went back to Europe in 1868 where he met Leon-Charles-Adrien but could not work within his strict regime. He then met Leon-Adolphe-Auguste Belly (1827-1877) who was a painter in the exotic and orientalist style and exhibited at the Salon.

On return to New York he met Samuel Colman at the Century Club. 

While travelling separately they met in Granada and decided to travel on to Egypt and Africa together.

Morocco, Tangier where he painted the Souks. then to Tunisia and Egypt they often painted the same subjects.

He began to love Islamic art and started collecting glassware and other objects. These pieces would lead to later inspiration. He took photographs and would use these later to recall his influences. 

1878 would see him exhibiting street scenes of New York at the Paris Exhibition Universalle of 1878.

He received many awards and showing his work at 27 different exhibitions by the age of 21.

 He formed the society of American Artists along with John Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler. He realised his lack of classical training would always hinder him and his vast wealth gave him the opportunity to follow a avenue less crowded where those with more skills would outshine him. 

His works of this period is now valued for its skill and approach and highly valued.

His acquired sense of colour and his experiences would lead him into creating glass.

Industrialisation would give new opportunities and the demand for luxury items to fulfil the ambitions of the new rich industrialists led him to draw on his fathers reputation.

He formed a Interior design company that lasted for four years. He would encompass many variations of design and was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and in particular William Morris who was enlightening the world to medieval design and craftsmanship.

Art Nouveau, was the breath of fresh air that filled his lungs.

Tiffany would be inspired by art nouveau and its principle designers but would look to nature for his own special style. In 1882 he had received a commission from President Arthur who was a New Yorker to redecorate the Whitehouse where he would install a three part glass screen to separate the public and private areas. 

Twenty years later Theodore Roosevelt would remodel the Whitehouse again. This time in a Neo-Classical style.

He and his associates decorated houses for some of the most wealthy people including Andrew Carnegie Cornellius Vanderbilt II and the writer Mark Twain. He split with his associates in 1883 and was free to explore his own independent projects.

He loved old glass and the way minerals in the soil had effected the glass when buried for ages. Glass that dated back to 1450 BC from Egypt was often thought as the earliest and Syrian glass blowing using a hollow pipe was invented in the 1^st century B.C. Glass is mentioned alongside gold and precious stones in the bible as a precious commodity. 

In the mentioning these treasures, only glass is made by hand.

Tiffany would go on to form a reputation that has not been equalled.
This small bowl infused with blue and greens is only 5inches wide. But a object of exceptional beauty.

Part One: more to follow soon.

This piece is no longer available Sorry.

Is India Buildings About To Be Butchered by The HMRC.

UPDATE NOV 2022

At the time of updating November 2022 The building is closed and all the HMRC staff had been told not to come into work due to a massive leak. Which will have done great damage to the structure. This is what happens when greedy people who are only interested in money are in charge.

All the care and attention that was given to the building. The Architect of this historic structure Herbert Rowse will be definitely turning in his grave. What a complete and utter mess.

INDIA BUILDINGS HAS BEEN BUTCHERED BY LEGAL AND GENERAL (THE DEVELOPMENT ARM OF THE FAMOUS INSURERS).

THEY PURCHASED THE BUILDING FOR AROUND £120,000,000 FROM MARWEES LTD. A BRITISH VIRGIN ISLAND OFFSHORE BASED COMPANY WHO PURCHASED IT FOR £17,000,000. MAKING A MASSIVE PROFIT.......THAT THE TAXPAYER WILL ULTIMATELY PAY FOR! 

As soon as they purchased the building MARWEES set about evicting all the tenants in a disgraceful act of greed. 

People who had run businesses there were evicted as if they were dirt. Read More Here.

MARWEES  employed a pair of Henchmen. Father and son duo Brian and Mark Rabanowitz of Shelborn Asset Management.

They subsequently slid around, behaving like gangsters, ruining the lives of many of the tenants.......for the HMRC. Read More Here

 Despite there appearing to be some level of secrecy, I can confirm that the beautiful travertine marble arcade is to be butchered with holes whacked in it all over show. Maybe four of them.
There is a big risk to the architectural integrity Holts Arcade.

 Liverpool's famous architect, of repute, Herbert Rowse must be turning in his grave.

15 years ago I was so proud. I had found a bronze plaque, the original, with detailing that reflected India Buildings class. It was cast to commemorate the sacrifice of those that lost their lives in the Great War. That worked for Alfred Holt and Company. After lots of consternation and a word with the owners of India Buildings at the time the pedantic building manager agreed to erect it in the arcade.  Though it had originally been outside Holts Offices it now seemed the fitting place. And it was set on the marble.

I would cry every year at 11 o'clock on the 11^th November when the old Holts Line and Blue Funnel employees would gather and it would become a focal point. Not just to remember Holts employees but all those who fell so we could be free, so we could speak our mind. Be free.

They are now going to twat a hole right through where it hangs. There is no other way to say it. The HMRC, I overheard don't want it there. They want it lost, again. 

Unbelievable.

There is something magical about this arcade. The dimensions are just right. Its Classical perfection. 

It is as perfect as you can get.

Some years ago I asked the c20 Society if they would put their weight behind upgrading its listing status.
 Gavin Stamp one of the countries leading heritage fighters, who Liverpool will sadly miss, backed me.
He was a past Chairman of C20society and put his weight behind it. After a lot of work by Clare at C20society  English Heritage upgraded it from Grade II to Grade II*.
That seemed to be a protection jacket wrapped around it. To save its integrity for future generations.

Yet it now seems this wont stop it escaping the grubby paws of this current crop of unsophisticated developers and the HMRC.

You know it makes me sick to my back teeth when we do all that work to put it beyond ruination and then the place will still get wrecked

In many of my heritage battles I have often thought myself akin to David fighting Goliath and this bunch really are Philistines.

They say they have employed heritage experts. http://www.classicartdeco.co.uk/india-buildings.php 
Well they cant be that clever or experts if they are in on this grubby little deal. Some people don't have the integrity to call themselves experts if they don't understand what heritage means.

 They take the coin to do what they are paid for, not what should be done. 

And the architects are Falconer Chester Hall. It couldn't be worse. Well it could Stiles and Wood got the contract....after they put in the lowest price.

They were talking at one time about polishing all the bronze shopfronts.
To make them look like brass. Lose all the patina.

Money, money, money that's all this new lot seem to be interested in.

There are some things that just need to be left alone. One is Holts Arcade.

I fought the last lot, Green Property, (see Private Eye 1229 above) and their ideas to close part of the arcade.

But to no avail they had all the power and did nothing to make lettings happen. India Buildings went into further decline, they were letting the tenants leave the building with regular abandon.
They needed to empty it out. Mike Tapp of Green Property advised me that they see the future as a whole letting. Open offices and a call centre. That where the money was. John Lee from CBRE had told them so. 

So we watched its decline.

Like being strangled slowly every day they would let another tenant leave.

The building, they said was 75% let when they took it over after it was repossessed by the banks and the biggest fraudster in British history Achileas Kalakis did time.

So I was about to close up and a new lot bought the buildings. Things looked up. We would see a couple of people walking round and clung on a bit longer. Lawrence Kenwright was in the running for India Buildings and I have to say I did not think he had the skill to restore it. It was bought by a British Virgin Islands offshore company. Then the HMRC were interested. 

 Or was there a bit more to it than that? Then they began threatening me. bullying everyone, and they offered me a relocation terms and it was time to move.

Then they behaved like type and shafted everyone around me and I knew it was the wrong thing to do.

I could not have held on any longer, the centre of gravity of the business district had changed.

Then the Philistines shafted me.

But this now gives me a chance to go back. To carry out some unfinished business, because I always regretted not doing more to alert the public to the vandalism that was about to begin. 

I have to be honest I thought I had been abandoned by the public. 

My business is personal to me and I take all things personal. Its my life its not a business.

If I had of been doing it for money I would have gone back into property. I had packed that business in a long time ago, but was afraid I would end up, well like the Philistines that then owned me.

 I am ashamed I let them take me for a ride.

Come back Lawrence Kenwight all is forgiven.

This lot have now closed the beautiful arcade to the public and the Arcade will never open again, which is Grade II* listed in its own right, and the shops are to be offices.

And Liverpool City Council are complicit. Sort of partners in slime really.

The dodgy building manager used to go past shouting out, “All these are going to be offices” he would say and I just got angry inside.

But now its time to say it loud.

I am ashamed of myself that I did not put up more of a fight up.

I am also ashamed that I did not make more of arguing against it.

The local press had changed it seems all about twitter now and to be honest even though I was critical of the last lot of journalists they now seem great intelectuals compared to these new kids on the twitter feed block.

It was always easy to persuade Peter Elson as to the merits of history and heritage because he felt it too.

The city council planners have been given delegated planning powers over India Buildings.

A Grade II* listed building.

This means they can do virtually what they want.

The owners and there is now another company involved India Buildings Development Ltd, with a liability of £100. Check them out at Companies House. Theres a few characters there. That the HMRC are doing business with.  https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10844377

It stinks. So after they have shafted me I am now free to shout it from the 8^th Floor.

 This is the worst thing that could have happened to India Buildings.

I admit it I was wrong and I should have done something about it.

But where were all the people to help. To complain about the right of way being stubbed out, like The Ramblers. I phoned them once and this bloke just went on, and on and on, and on, so I put the phone down.

I cant do it alone is there anyone out there that cares about this amazing heritage asset. In the World Heritage Site. (will may lose the WHS status this June, when the UNESCO World Heritage committee meet).

The Friends Of India Buildings.

The HMRC unions are up in arms about this move.

The Bootle Strand will be decimated.

The area of Water Street will be re-invented. But will this be Plastic Town and not Liverpool the city that used to have character. That is until London, investors with no real links to the city were touted by Mr Anderson and smoothed along by the likes of Gary Millar and Nick Small.

It could be the usual David amongst The Philistines, but y'know I have a sling and I am going to have a fight. Better late than never. Its that time.

Please if anyone with genuine interests can help please don't hesitate to contact me.

Its time to fight them on the beaches.

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/india-buildings-liverpool-twenty-years.html

And I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls. No More. Holts Arcade Is About To Be Butchered.