Liverpool's Resurgence - Capital of Culture & Tourism Venture

Royal Albert Dock

To quote Charles Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Liverpool in the 1980s felt like the front line of a war zone, a class war where a working class city stood up to a manifestly unfair and provocative Conservative government and fought for its survival, with Militant in the ascendancy. The city was scarred by football tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough in the second half of the 1980s, wounds that still haven't healed today. However the seeds of change were in the air - A wasteland site on the waterfront was redeveloped in the 1980s to host the 1984 International Garden Festival which turned the attention of the world to Liverpool when the Queen came to formally open it on May 2. The 100 acre former landfill site at Otterspool welcomed millions of visitors over the course of a single summer. One of Liverpool's famous sons, John Lennon, had died in December 1980, but such a sad event would see the beginning of tourism with people from far and wide coming to the city to explore his roots. This resulted in the beginning of Cavern City Tours under the guidance of local fans and entrepreneurs and it has been claimed that through tourism the Beatles bring £20 million per year to Liverpool and Merseyside. The city turned the Albert Dock area into a cultural tourist attraction, with numerous museums, shops and restaurants along the bank of the Mersey River and The Beatles Story museum was launched there in 1990. The Merseyside Maritime Museum also opened in the Albert Dock complex in 1980 and the Tate Gallery followed suite when opened to the public in May 1988. In 2018 Peter Woods, High Sheriff of Merseyside, handed over official notice of its Royal status.

In 1994, Liverpool received Objective One status from Europe, which resulted in a windfall over £1 billion over the next decade as the city's economic indicators had dropped so low that it qualified for the Objective One status and money. This money helped transform the city's transport system, and boosted skills across the region. Paul McCartney funded £3m of his own money as he co-founded the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in January 1996 to provide training for young people hoping to work in show business. Situated in Liverpool's Georgian Quarter on the corner of Mount Street and Hope Street, opposite the Grade 11 listed Blackburne House, LIPA is housed in the school Paul attended as a boy.

On the 4th of June 2003, Liverpool was announced as the European Capital of Culture for 2008. The award represented an opportunity for urban regeneration, as well as a revival of the cultural, social and economic image of the city. Also in 2003 the Duke of Westminster decided to fund Liverpool ONE which provided the city centre with a new and dazzling shopping centre which reconnected the heart of the city to the waterfront and the Albert Dock complex in particular. Grosvenor's investment, then owned by the Duke of Westminster, matched the money from the EU and agreed to partner the Liverpool ONE project to transform the city centre. Signed off before bidding for Capital of Culture even began, and arguably the key piece in the jigsaw of renewal, the new development consisted of 30 new buildings, designed by 26 firms of architects, over 42 acres of land.

In 2004, Liverpool’s waterfront was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, reflecting the area's historic importance as a trading port. In celebration of the forthcoming year as Capital of Culture, in 2007 Tate Gallery Liverpool hosted the Turner Prize, the first time the competition was held outside London. Then one of the main components of Liverpool's increased appeal to tourists came in 2007 when the Liverpool Cruise Terminal was opened by the Duke of Kent as the QE2 berthed there. The 350 metre long floating structure would now enable large cruise ships to disembark their passengers virtually in the town itself instead of in the dock system further up river. This enabled the Three Queens coming to Liverpool in 2015, an event marking the 175th anniversary of the Cunard company with the event welcoming 1.2million visitors to both Liverpool and Wirral. 2018 welcomed more than 100,000 international passengers and crew and approximately 50,000 spectators to the waterfront during cruise ship visits, generating an economic impact of around £7 million.

It was in 2008 that we first glimpsed the work of French artist François Delarozière when a 50 foot arachnid finally came down from its perch on the side of a vacant office building next to Lime Street Station to wander around Liverpool city centre before some days later disappearing in a cloud of smoke into the Queensway Tunnel entrance. In 2012 Francoise enthralled Liverpool again with a little girl that had never had found her father who perished on the Titanic. The girl’s uncle, a deep-sea diver finds her father's letter in the wreckage, and searches the streets of Liverpool for the little girl . The letter was real, and now sits in the city’s Maritime Museum. The emotional finale was witnessed by thousands when the Little Girl Giant, with her dog Xolo reunited with the Diver at Kings Dock on the last day of the extravaganza. Ten years after appearing for the first time, 'Liverpool’s Dream' celebrated 10 years since Liverpool was named European Capital of Culture, a decade which had seen an arts and culture revolution grip the city, kick-starting a new chapter of Liverpool history. This time the Giants returned for their final visit with the Giant accompanied by a Little Boy Giant and the dog Xolo, This final visit broke previous records to bring in 1.3million visitors to the city and Wirral, and generated a massive £60.6m for the local economies.

The Giants visit the city

Much of the regeneration of the city centre has been led by Liverpool Vision, an urban regeneration company, which should get the recognition in bringing more and more visitors to the city. The whole of the Waterfront has now been regenerated for a second time and the Albert Dock has once again re-invented itself following the departure of a number of financial services and media companies. A multipurpose Arena and Convention Centre, ACC Liverpool, opened in 2008 on the former Kings Dock. At the Pier Head in 2009, where the Mersey Ferries depart, a £20m project, 1.4 miles in length, extended the Leeds-Liverpool canal link in front of the 3 Graces from its then current terminus at Stanley Dock through to the Albert Dock. Following this in 2011 we had the re-building of the Museum of Liverpool Life on the waterfront, at a cost of £10m, and was the largest newly-built national museum in the UK for more than 100 years.

By 2016 Peel Ports had invested £400 million over the previous three years constructing Liverpool2, to expand the UK's largest transatlantic port and create one of Europe's most advanced container terminals. It now claims Liverpool is one of the most operationally efficient and modern terminals in Northern Europe maintaing the importance of the docks to Liverpool but in a modern format.
There are four universities in Liverpool and the student body has grown massively in recent decades. Edge Hill University, for example, has increased in size eightfold, from 2000 students in 1993 to around 15,000 now. All this has a knock on effect – in terms of cafes, accommodation and nightlife which has also helped drive Liverpool’s growth. With Liverpool’s stunning waterfront and amazing architecture is more and more attracting the eye of location scouts for the biggest blockbusting movies, we often see cameras on location throughout the city. Everton FC's proposed stadium at Bramley Dock, which is a fundamental part of this region's growth plan, will be a key driver for much-needed economic development in North Liverpool and beyond. The Everton project it is estimated will generate a £1billion boost to the economy, create up to 15,000 jobs and attract a further 1.5million visitors to the city.

The latest figures from 2019 show Liverpool City Region's Visitor Economy is now worth over £4.9bn, last year we welcomed 67.3m visitors to the region to support over 57,000 jobs. Maybe all this is why Liverpool was recently voted number one tourist destination in the UK and number three in the world by the travel bible 'Rough Guide'. And long may it continue!

Go back to Part 1 - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/01/liverpools-birth-mr-smith-and-antelope.html