West Tower, Brook Street, Liverpool, by E Pollock via Geograph

We’ve moved a step closer to Peel’s vision of ‘Liverpool Waters’ with funding being secured for the 54 storey Richmond Properties/Y1 tower towards the north docks, at the junction of the Strand and Leeds Street. It’s 25m taller than the current tallest tower, Tower West, but has been redesigned (again) after a failed attempt at getting planning permission in 2007.

Having failed to get the sleek design past the Council planning committee, it seems that the architects have thrown a bucket of Sticklebricks at the south side, to see what sticks (check out the third pic in the slideshow via the link above). Comments in the Architect’s Journal include the terms ‘pig ugly’, ‘hubris’ and ‘shoebox’ (though the third of these is a Wayne Colquhoun comment, so pinches of salt all round).

CABE criticise Pathfinder scheme

Further criticism for Liverpool’s attempts at regeneration come from Colquhoun’s arch enemies, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). The commission has hit out at the New Heartlands Housing Market Renewal scheme, particularly parking courts and the quality of housing. SAVE’s Will Palin added to the judgment, claiming that “swathes of good Victorian terraced housing been emptied and left to rot”, to be replaced by inferior buildings.

New Pictorial History of Liverpool

OK, enough about planning for now. Adrian McEwen (via Twitter) pointed out the new Streets of Liverpool website.

This blog brings you views of Liverpool from across the 19th and 20th Centuries, with a paragraph or two about what you can see in the photos. The February 8th post is all about Lost Churches of Liverpool, which is a kind of post-script to the 2001 book The Churches of Liverpool by David Lewis, which was published by the blog author.

It’s great to see some little admissions of what the publisher would have liked to have done better in the book (an index, for example), but to make up for this (perhaps!) future blog posts will give us photos of the greatest losses to the city, starting with St George’s Church, which stood where Liverpool Castle once was, and where now we find the Victoria Monument.

The most recent post as of this writing does a similar service to other lost Liverpool buildings, including arguably the most-missed: the Customs House, which was needlessly demolished in the post-Blitz redevelopment.

Make sure you keep an eye on this new blog – it promises to be a good one!

Liver Building 2, by gloskeith (Creative Commons via Flickr)

I’d like to start this post with a kind of ‘metablog’. I would have liked to have made that word up myself, but a quick Google proves otherwise. Either way, the Liverpool Blogs blog is a blog about blogs. Try saying that after a Cains or two. I’ve only just discovered this site, and not had time to explore fully, but if you ever want to read more about Liverpool, then it’s the place to start.

The latest post as of this writing is a profile of the Scandinavian Church on Park Lane, which blogs at Save the Scandinavian Church in Liverpool. This site charts the events held at the church, and the ongoing efforts to keep this church in Liverpool. Apparently the mother church in Uppsala, Sweden wants to move the church to somewhere else in the world! The blog also posts in Swedish, so is certainly the real deal in terms of Scandinavian culture on Merseyside. Certainly a site of interest to readers of Liverpool Landscapes.

As for Liverpool Blogs, I’d recommend having a search through their links. If you’re a Liverpool blogger yourself, get in touch with them. I’ve no doubt I’ll be linking to this site in the future, and keeping an eye on it for new and interesting blogs!

Of interest to us Landscapophiles (a word I definitely just invented) is the Liverpool Echo’s Love Where You Live photo competition. The Echo is looking for images that demonstrate why you love where you live, but also illustrate the importance of caring for the environment. Two shots from Flickr have been uploaded as examples. There is also a secondary category for shots of people “who make a difference”.

The Feeling Listless blog discusses a new exhibition, Building Merseyside: A Contemporary Interpretation of the Architecture of Liverpool and the Surrounding Area, taking place at St. George’s Hall. The exhibition includes photography, sculpture and painting. The author, Stuart Ian Burns (the only Stuart Ian Burns around), makes a few good side notes on the fun of looking up at the buildings you might only ever consider to be shop fronts for HMV, Bhs or Dixons if you kept your eyes to ground level.

Finally, if you’re historically minded and you still haven’t looked at the Liverpool History Society Quetions blog, then do yourself a favour and go and have a look. Recently there have been three interesting posts about Liverpool’s urban archaeology: Botanic Gardens Wavertree, Martin’s Bank and St James Cemetary (sic) Tunnel.

In case you’re wondering, the Martin who asked the question is not me. And neither is the Martin of Martin’s Bank. Never mind.