Blackstock Street revised to ‘retain heritage’

A scheme that would have brought 560 apartments to Liverpool has been reduced to 452 units following discussions between the developer and Liverpool City Council.

The changes have been made to “stay true to the heritage” of the site, according to the architect Falconer Chester Hall.

Caro Developments submitted an application in October for an 11-storey stepped building on a 1.21-acre brownfield site in the Vauxhall area of the city centre.

However, that application never went to committee and council planners instead asked the developer to tweak its scheme to reflect the characteristics of former, now-demolished, buildings on the site that were smaller and more varied in height. Caro has now put forward a revised application.

Rob Brym, associate director at Falconer Chester Hall, which designed the proposals, said: “The scheme was considered too high for the area, and the planning department wanted us to increase variety in the blocks to look like a group of buildings rather than one block. This was in order to stay true to the heritage of the site.”

This latest scheme is now stepped between storeys, and is 10-storeys at its highest and seven-storeys at its lowest.

The apartment offer comprises 230 studios, 162 one-bedroom and 60 two-bedroom apartments. A commercial element has also been introduced at ground floor level, split between two units of 1,300 sq ft each.

An electric vehicle scheme has also been introduced, with tenants able to book from the ground floor car park.

Zerum is the planning consultant and Thomas Consulting is the structural engineer.