Pall Mall JV releases public realm image

Great scheme, right location and at a time of maximum market need as Liverpool’s office stock shrinks as a result of permitted development rights.

Put another way, get it built. Quick.

great scheme

The developers pretending that green space is important to them does not fool anyone. If it was, they would leave Bixteth Street Gardens, it’s mature trees, lush green grass and flourishing wildlife habitat alone. Plenty of other space on the site to stick up their high rise, if they must.

Lush green grass? Flourishing wildlife habitat? Come on, you’re kidding nobody. Quality over quantity!

Another mediocre development which sole purpose is to make money for developers with no benefit to the people of Liverpool. The designs are dull and lack innovation, there has been Grade A office space standing empty at 4 and 5 St. Paul’s for over 6 years and even if there was a necessity for it, there is insufficient infrastructure in that area to accommodate either workers or residents. The plan sees the knocking down of the NCP, when it services the entire area, there are no busses that go there and not everyone in Liverpool takes the train. The development is incredibly poor in so many aspects that it is extremely difficult to comment adequately.

And on top of all that, they want to demolish Bixteth Gardens which is not only a green space but a remarkably natural space. A pair of mistle thrushes nest there every year, there are rabbits, squirrels and dogs can have a run around safely – the proposed ‘green space’ will not accommodate any of that.

The truth of the matter is that that developers seek maximum profit, which is fine, but that avarice needs to be tempered. As with all green spaces, once it’s gone, it’s not coming back and why make developers rich at our loss?

One thing you haven’t mentioned is where will all the animals go to live ? You are destroying their homes planting new trees to be surrounded by concrete with very little natural light.
Joe Anderson is once again thinking of £££ For a resident of this area it is the only green space around

The land which has been rebranded as ‘Bixteth Street Gardens’ comprises a brownfield (former station) site with poorly laid out and underutilised greenspace.

Those campaigners seem to be a group of 10-15 local residents who are more worried about losing the view from their adjacent flats or not having anywhere to walk their dogs.

On completion of the overall scheme and future phases, including the development of the wider existing NCP surface car park, there will be better quality amenity and more greenspace than existing.

I am staggered that some local councillors are opposing this, solely because of their individual agendas within the Council. This is much needed office space that is essential for the growth of the Liverpool office market, inward investment, creating jobs and driving the economy forward. Those who suggest there is ample office space within the market, obviously haven’t done their research and are adopting a Donald Trump approach to the whole argument….

We need economic development but we need much more green space too! These need not be mutually exclusive. In fact the green space will accelerate economic development. Let’s see some plans for INCREASING the green space across the whole area and with a link to the Waterfront.

This is just the worst possible thing for the area, for the current workers and residents. There are already thousands of square feet of office space sitting there empty in Liverpool. Why do Liverpool City Council keep building more and then they are either left empty when the developers run out of money. If they can’t attract blue chip companies with the empty offices spaces they have now, how to they hope to attract companies by just building more!!!! It make no sense to anybody. Most people understand that this is all about money, and more people are completely losing faith and hope in the current Liverpool Council administration. As a resident of Bixteth Street, I moved here for the peace and quiet away from the noise of the city centre. That’s the beauty of the area. At weekends it’s a quiet oasis of green. The last thing we need is a cinema, markets and street entertainment!! All of that is and should be in the city centre – Liverpool One, The Strand, And why the hell does Liverpool need more hotels??? Why aren’t Liverpool city council sorting out the cracked paving stones all over the place? the pot holes everywhere? the homeless situation in the city centre? This building will also inhibit the natural light in the area. From our apartment we watch the wildlife, rabbits, squirrels, bats. You only know about these things if you live in the area, which we do. Another thing to consider is that our property prices will take a dive, as who wants to live in the middle of all that noise, more pollution and mess that will inevitability be left by “visitors”. This scheme has upset so many people, who live and work in the area. When you just come to the area for work and then go home to places outside the city centre, you do not now how the area works at the weekends and evenings, how peaceful and safe it is, and as a woman I feel completely safe walking back home to Bixteth Street on my own, as it’s quiet and nobody is around. It’s not rowdy and loud with loads of people wandering around, bright lights and noise. Please re-consider and leave this small oasis alone and use existing office spaces instead.

Pauline, you were naive if you moved there expecting it to stay quiet. This was once the heart of the CBD! In the 1970s when Exchange Station was closed the Moorfields underground was developed to facilitate the expansion of the CBD! Liverpool is at last getting back on its feet and much as I want to see green space maximised the CBD needs to expand and grow and where else but out from Old Hall Street towards Moorfields underground station. Large companies looking to relocate need large quality office blocks. Tesco considered Liverpool for its HQ but there wasn’t the space! If you want the country you should move to Formby. People need jobs and the economy has to grow to provide them.

I work in the building adjacent and am 100 percent opposed to this. A few spindly dead looking ‘trees’ embedded in concrete. Some landing strips of manicured astro turf under Gotham City style corporate profit boxes that will likely remain empty. No wildlife in sight. Soulless and depressing.

Sorry but are people not reading the part ‘double the number of trees, and three times more plants’! This will help to improve the overall biodiversity of the area which is great for an inner city location (which this area is). Just because the current area has trees, grass and plants does not mean it can not be enhanced!

Lets get it build, help our city grow and be also allow this green space to survive and develop into a great space!

A terrible existing space. Nick Small should hang his head in shame. As an Exchange Station office worker, to call this space anything but poor quality grass is an insult to the brain dead. Get this built

Jobs, high quality landscaped green space and brand new grade A offices that the city so drastically needs. This site has been brownfield since Exchange station was demolished and needs regenerating to a high standard. The city needs to get this built and move on!

Rabbits Squirrels and Bats Oh My, Pauline you never should have chosen to live in a Metropolis
eh just a guess. This is a growing City, Get it built.

I could have been an architect but I decided that it wasn’t for me. I do still like to draw bulidings in my bedsit in London though, and my uncle used to write for the Echo so he puts pressure on the children who now work there to publish my designs. Anyway, anyone who wants to save Bixteth Gardens is obviously lowlife scum. Talls for all, get it built, beer emoji, etc. If you disagree I’ll throw a tantrum.

Excellent and much needed development which promises to revive a sad and under-utilised area. The ‘green space’ here is actually grim and very little used. What we need in areas such as this is activity and wealth creation through more and better employment opportunities, more business, more spending by new workers in small businesses. That of course will increase the local tax base which in turn will increase budgets for improved green space opportunities. Let’s not be short-sighted!

The DESTRUCTION of Bixteth Gardens with its beauty and wildlife at the cost of further office space is a great mistake. There is plenty of empty office space around.

Terrible idea, why can’t you leave the one existing green area alone and make use of all the ugly abandoned/unused property? Folks don’t seem to be aware that in order to build this the whole area has to be leveled, wiping out all the existing plants and animals.
I urge you to reconsider and reject this so-called plan.

Build it quick, we need jobs more than a tatty old piece of grass. The clue is in Business District, you all should be glad to see some progression in this area after years of lack of investment, or former business buildings in the area being turned in to city centre apartments.

That local councillors are a part of this protest is both worrying and disturbing. Don’t they want to see this city prosper? Don’t they want to see the city grow and give our kids more opportunities to invest in their future. Lack of jobs drives down wages and leaves space for zero hour contracts, We need top class, cutting edge office space in this city so what exactly is their agenda? They should be welcoming this, especially the new green space.

Sadly this entire article thread has been flooded by the Bixteth ‘Gardens’ foot soldiers determined to derail this vital development of Grade A office space. Liverpool has the lowest supply of Grade A office space of all the core major cities resulting in much needed jobs going elsewhere. The real motivations of those opposed to this project are highly questionable but it has nothing to do with green spaces or the White Rhino that live on this patch of grass (that’s sarcasm btw). This ‘park’ that a few strange individuals, lead by a career hungry local councillor is a patch of grass behind a tired 1980’s office block. It will be comprehensively replaced with a much better, modern real green space that everyone can enjoy positioned in the centre of a brand new square featuring modern standard office blocks packed with well paid jobs, expanding Liverpool’s commercial district after years of stagnation. The abuse, lies, trolling and general campaigning of the small number of people opposed to this development has been abhorrent and is further indication of the desperate antics of a few to derail much needed investment and using ever more flimsy excuses for their continued protest. It’s embarrassing to read some of the comments below which are clearly written by paranoid, anti-progress, anti-everything individuals who have no grasp of the fact that Liverpool’s very existence is down to commercial investment and development and Liverpool is also one of the greenest cities in the UK with many fine victorian parks and not to mention one of the longest city waterfronts in the world only yards from this so called ‘green space’. This development has to happen, has been a long time coming and marks a shift in the right direction for central Liverpool and it’s economy. The whole site, including the NCP across the former Exchange Station site should also soon follow in development providing jobs and high density residential for a growing city – and yes, this will see more green space that will eventually appear across the entire site providing more public realm and greenery than ‘Bixteth hanging gardens of Babylon’ could ever have done. Bixteth ‘Gardens’ is a tatty waste of space, barely used even in a heat wave and more likely to be a space for homeless people to sleep. Guys, do your research, see the bigger picture for this city and stop whinging about something that is actually a positive for Liverpool. Want to find an axe to grind? pressurise your local leaders to sort of HS2.

Another mediocre development which sole purpose is to make money for developers with no benefit to the people of Liverpool – What absolute nonsense! It’s creating jobs, well paid jobs in badly needed grade A offices! As for saying the lush green grass and wildlife?! Do you mean the patch of grass and the drunken and homeless wildlife?! Get this built and built now, it’s a city centre and to boot the ‘financial district’! Plenty of places for green spaces, this ISNT one of them. It would of never been there in the first place if not for years of managed decline. People opposing this development need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Cannot be built quick enough, that area has been crying out for development since the mid-70s.

Concrete mess not needed where nearby buildings stand empty and unused. I truly hope this does not get built.

It looks slightly better than the depressing, arid, “public realm” designs with skinny trees in concrete . However, what it needs to be highlighted is that real green space is going to be lost. So any initiatives that involves losing REAL green space should not be supported as the City centre is an area where the lack of green is quite obvious.
Bixteth garden is one of the very few natural spaces with native trees, rabbits, squirrels in the heart of Liverpool and it should be preserved and actually expanded.

Why not a compromise, create a larger green space, where herds of “migrating(over to the far left) overweight nothing better to do but cause trouble” councillors,where the local birdwatchers and wildlife observers can go on safari at the weekends, and using a smaller but viable footprint build some 40-60 skyscrapers which hopefully will create some shade for the animals and hopefully for the moaning minnies so they don’t get overheated. This development is of strategic importantance for the CBD of the LCR region, get over it or move to the country, it’s up to you?

This development is something Liverpool has been crying out for. This is the heart of Liverpool’s business district and not the green in a leafy Cotswold village. Yes green space is vital to a fully functioning city, but Bixteth ‘gardens’ is brownfield land that needs to be landscaped and redeveloped within the context of a major city centre, on the rise where jobs and integral infrastructure must prevail. This plan offers that, and whilst it’s there must be built, otherwise companies will not come here! I’m very much for this.

Some of the comments on here are just ridiculous. This is the CBD right? So called bixteth gardens is a tatty mess that’s to be replaced with something of clearly higher standard, at the same time creating much needed grade A office space for growth and JOBS for the people of the city. I’m not sure what box some people are living in stating we don’t need more offices, or the person saying they work in exchange station and we don’t want any corporate boxes put up around them, nice to say from your likely corporate job looking out the window, pretty hypocritical. Liverpool needs this, get it built.

Are they going to murder the dozens of squirrels and rabbits before they start work or leave them to fend for themselves in the mud?

Do the rabbits and squirrels have valid visa’s to be there? Have they been in the UK for five years, if so they should be okay, under the Brexit plan, if not well perhaps the kind residents can take them in and house them till the new green space is ready for them to move into? Maybe a community Rabbit engagement facility under gobal examination eyes(Refugee) centre can be created for them to be relocated to whilst their new habitat is created. Will the foxes be allowed to tender for the removal of the squatters? These are all questions that need to asked.

As a Squirrel myself, I worry that once they build first on the gardens then the market dips, the scheme stalls, then we are left with one bland office building and the existing excuse for a car park and no green space. Where will I hoard my nuts then?

This scheme has already been stalled for a decade and the future green space been promised once before. Is this a back stop situation in disguise? Trapped again

Grey squirrels are a non-native pest species officially classified as vermin by the government and responsible for almost wiping out our native red squirrels. I, for one, will be pleased to see them eradicated from the area.

Rabbits, similarly, are pests and a danger to the community allotments in nearby Vauxhall. They, too, should be eradicated. Both rabbits and squirrels can be eaten and could form the basis of much-needed community cookery classes to fend off the scourge of obesity. They are, after all, free-range and low-fat. What’s not to like?

That just leaves the herds of roaming wilderbeast and zebra that, of course, one would expect to find in a central business district in a major city. Not sure what the solution is for those. I’m sure some of the contributors in favour of the Bixteth Street National Park campaign can enlighten us.

There is already a horrible open puddle strewn, pot holed infested car park there now, what more could you ask for.
This is just the start, stop project fear.

I get the feeling that the nature lovers commenting would be lost if confronted with anything more natural than an unkempt lawn and would be horrified by the lack of availability of barista coffee in even semi-mature woodland.
It is not just grey squirrels that are not native but also rabbit, brought over by the Normans the only native specials to the area is the nocturnal Scallius Scallius and during the day the Fagus Lunchinite.

From railway station to AONB in less than 40 years? Impressive!

Jumbo – then why not build upon ‘a horrible open puddle strewn, pot holed infested car park’ first leaving the gardens for a later stage?

Mikes mate – Because it’s easier to build on land that you own, the council do not own the adjacent car park. Later phases would have to be developed in co-operation with the current car park owner.

@Mikes Mate, they intend to I believe, once they have all their ducks in a row(oh no! there’s no migrating geese or ducks there are?) As I said this is just the start.

Looks so much more inviting as a green space than what’s there now plus the added benefit of jobs.

These gardens used to be lovely fields of wheat 500 years ago. I remember one time seeing Nick Small and Joe Anderson running through them naked holding hands. It was a sight to behold. I miss those days when no one had jobs but we saw the true beauty of life

Despite what some people are saying here’s there’s a huge shortage of quality office space in Liverpool, which is holding back the creaton of the essential jobs Liverpool needs for its people and to generate taxes for essential services. This is confirmed by numerous independent studies. This is the right scheme in the right place at the right time, bringing vibrancy back to this heart of the Central Business District, once a busy, dirty station and currently a poor quality patch of temporary landscaping from the 1980s that would have been built on years ago had the economy not collapsed and the city nearly died.

A handful of office workers who already have good jobs and some nimbys sitting pretty in city centre flats wondering why they don’t have green space like in the districts, the screams about property prices are telling…Guess that’s motivating you more than a few grey squirrels?

The clue is in the title: Central Business District. It belongs to everyone in the city and region as an economic centre for the jobs it needs, not just a hang out for a handful of overly loud people only concerned with their own interests. Just like flat dwellers in Ropewalks moaning about clubs, flat dwellers in Birkenhead docks moaning about seeing industrial ships… My word, don’t live in an urban place if you don’t want urban things.

Small and O Bryne are just backing this because they now want Anderson’s job after toeing his line loyally for years, not cos they care. Classic Tammany Hall machine politics. Just like Joe used to slag off Liverpool One, till he took power…..

Unless the city holds its nerve and builds this, a bleak future as a commuter suburb of Manchester beckons. Quality office space and good quality, vibrant public space. Build it!

SP “Huge shortage of quality office space” – is merely a false claim and I note you fail to cite any of these supposed indo studies.

Every day new deals are announced for new office take up space in our competitor cities( good luck to them), yet we do not have anything to say of in the pipe line except for Pall Mall, employment opportunities are going East away from Liverpool, yet one of the few chances for us to start to make an impression is being undermined by a few locals and a disgruntled politician. They are being thoroughly self centered in their opinons and would rather see a barren patch of ground which is prime development space instead of the opportunities for future growth and employment prospects for our younger generation,shame on them all.

Will cats be allowed to live in this new scheme? (Otherwise i wont be able to live with my owner).

Just another generic vessel for a mini Tesco’s or Sainbury’s and chain of coffee shop to fill being spun as Liverpool’s last great hope.

Shame a local architects practice has not been used for the master planning instead of one from London whose Liverpool address is conveniently the offices of the Royal Institute of British Architects at Mann Island.