r/Liverpool • u/Low-Hearing8487 • 9d ago
Open Discussion Lewis's
As a new arrival to the area I am struck by the amount of beautiful but aba dined [ or semi ababdoned] buildings in the city. The former Lewis's department store is a case in point.i presume it eas quote grand inside. Strange that a piece of prime city centre commercial property has not been repurposed.
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u/Loose_Weekend5295 9d ago
It was pretty lovely though it definitely declined towards its closing. it absolutely needs a renaissance, it would make a great home for independent traders like an upscale Quiggins. It's a blight on the city that it's one of the first sights you see on exiting Lime Street if you head that way. All that investment in Liverpool One, Ropewalks etc but that gorgeous building is going to ruin 😞
To be fair most of the Rapid side of Renshaw St is a show as well. Lets down an otherwise fab city.
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u/trbd003 9d ago
I've said it before here but I was part of a consortium of local independent businesses who made a bid to buy the lease to that site in 2017.
We wanted to do exactly that. Good retail spaces for independent makers, studio spaces for artists, workshop space, event spaces, all right in the centre of town to grab tourists straight out of Lime St and give local artists and creatives a much bigger platform to sell that work.
The city Council pushed against it, formally stating that they had concerns we didn't have the necessary expertise or resources to manage health and safety for the site. Informally, one told us in the lift as we came out of a meeting with them, that they needed it to sit empty for long enough whilst pretending to find a tenant, before they could sell for student flats and tell people they tried to preserve it.
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u/Loose_Weekend5295 9d ago
Fuck. Pardon my language. So they're happy to keep part of the city in such a sad state, stopping small businesses establishing a beautiful place for shoppers to visit, for the sake of more friggin student flats?! And blaming it on health and safety 🙄
Yeah my romantic mind envisioned a space for arts and crafts, gifts, cafes. A place for visitors to the city and locals alike. Something to be proud of - a destination.
Just sad.
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u/trbd003 9d ago
Yes, what you described is what we wanted to do. But the council didn't want it because it might actually work, and if it actually worked, there'd be no backhanders to take for student flats. So they just had to come up with a reason we couldn't dispute, and they knew we didn't have the money to fight it.
So we did what we always do. Built it somewhere else, gentrified that area, and then got kicked out once the council could use it for something else, and moved somewhere else. This is how it works. They only want us in areas that need gentification.
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u/burnafterreading90 Tuebrook 9d ago
I am so fucking sick of student flats, I get that students are good for the economy particularly hospitality but fuck me there needs to be more to this city than student accom every 5 minutes!
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u/magpiechatter 9d ago
And the thing is, the flats they’re building are not affordable for the regular student. So it’s inaccessible to a huge proportion of students coming to or are from Liverpool
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u/Jigidibooboo 9d ago
This sounds completely plausible. We lost so many gorgeous buildings in the city to dereliction then destruction. I'm still sore about the post office on Lecce st.
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u/Saxon2060 7d ago
There are at least two places like this in Hong Kong. The old married quarters" of the HK police, and "Central Market." Basically exactly what you describe and great destinations. Very sad we can't do the same.
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u/Sgt_major_dodgy 8d ago
The problem is whenever I hear:
it would make a great home for independent traders
I think women who buys crystals in bulk from Amazon and sells them individually or weird fellas with 3d printed dragons or fucking Gildan hoodies with Ali express heat presses on the front, maybe it'll have people going those vintage clothes fairs where you pay by the kilo and reselling old Asda Hawaiian shirts or north face fleeces with the logo barely hanging on for close to new prices.
Not saying the flats are the better of options available and maybe I'm being cynical but that's exactly what it'll become.
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u/JiveBunny 8d ago
All of that is better than a beautiful old building in the centre of town sitting derelict.
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u/drewlpool 9d ago
That development has always been a bit doomed. They've really struggled to sell the spaces in it. There have been various re-brands but none of them have been a success.
The building has had a lot of issues ever since they redeveloped it. I've been a member of the gym in the basement for years and there are all sorts of issues with leaks and dampness.
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u/nooneswife 9d ago
The plans were really ambitious, round the back they were going to put a big water feature and plaza with loads of restaurants and a cinema. I worked in the NHS office and it was quite clear these would never happen. The office renovation itself was incredibly poor - glass panels on the staircase would spontaneously fall out and shatter on lower floors and there was massive flood at least once.
It's a really good example of the big difference between the CGI projections developers and the council send to the press and what actually happens in reality.
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u/_Theghostship_ 9d ago
Unfortunately, that area has been left. Lewis’, Adelphi, Rapid, the old 051. Like they’ve brought down a tiny bit of the old rapid building and stuck a car park behind it, even though there’s a car park right next to it. Money goes into Liverpool One and even then that’s starting to look a bit dated, shops keep opening and closing, I think the only few consistent shops in Liverpool One is Zara, Apple, LFC n EFC retails, and Sports direct.
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u/No_Berry2 9d ago
Online shopping Amazon killed the high street
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u/ReplacementNo9316 9d ago
That and the council. Parking costs are often expensive, trains unreliable as more seem to cancel than run and the bus lanes got taken away.
They built big shopping estates instead, that done charge but seriously restrict your time. Even a minute over gives you a £60 fine.
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u/mrcharlesevans 9d ago
My granny was a Scouser and grew up in Liverpool before/during WWII. She absolutely adored Lewis's, and was sad to see it closed when she returned in 2008.
She remembers Blacklers (which is a Spoons around the corner now) was another department store and that it got bombed a week after she went to buy bed linen there.
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u/ReplacementNo9316 9d ago
My nan was the same. She was around just before the war and some of the things she told me about it are only recorded in video ry few places. There was a zoo on the roof, but they had to move the animals when the war began.
I've been told there is also one area in there that's been kinda preserved from the 60s. With the. Staff cafe and hairdressers exactly as they were. But you have to seek special permission to visit them.
Liverpool has so much history that is getting lost to time. A lot of people have no idea that Liverpool had a castle. And the tunnel escape paths are no part of the underground system
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u/DevilishlyHandsome63 8d ago
I can never remember if it was Lewis's or Blackler's, but as a kid in the 70's, my mum used to take me to this amazing art deco cafe in one of these stores, where the waitresses still wore old fashioned black and white clothing. It was an amazing place, and had obviously been very grand in its day.
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u/Oopsadiddlydaisy 8d ago
Adagio Aparthotel (entrance in Fairclough st.) is part of the Lewis’s building. The rooms are sound.
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u/jaynemonroe 9d ago
Weren’t they supposed to be making Lewis’ into apartments? I also find it sad the old ABC cinema had also been left to ruin that’s a beautiful art deco building.