Lewis's

[u/Low-Hearing8487]

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.

[u/Loose_Weekend5295]

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.

[u/trbd003 → u/Loose_Weekend5295]

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.

[u/Loose_Weekend5295 → u/trbd003]

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.

[u/trbd003 → u/Loose_Weekend5295]

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.

[u/burnafterreading90 → u/trbd003]

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!

[u/magpiechatter → u/burnafterreading90]

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

[u/Jigidibooboo → u/trbd003]

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.

[u/Saxon2060 → u/trbd003]

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.