There was anger and sadness when Bixteth Street Gardens was taken away from people nearly six years ago and today all that is left is a muddy patch of land. But could there be new hope around the corner?
For many people, Bixteth Street Gardens was a little green oasis in the middle of a bustling city centre, a place where you could escape from the stress of work and soak up some rare summer sun for an hour or two.
It wasn’t exactly Sefton Park, but with green space hard to come by in Liverpool city centre, the land, which lies between Bixteth Street in the heart of the city’s business district was treasured by those who regularly used it, before it was suddenly and controversially taken away from them.
It was during the blisteringly hot summer of 2018, when hundreds of office workers and city centre residents were flocking each day to Bixteth Street Gardens that news first arrived of plans to redevelop the area.
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The city council, which by this point owned the land, announced plans for a £200m commercial office and residential scheme known initially as Pall Mall Exchange. The project would be a joint venture partnership between the local authority and developers CTP and Kier Property. The scheme pledged to build 400,000 sq ft of Grade A office space on the land where the park was based.
Naturally there were concerns about what this would mean for one of the only green spaces in the city centre. The council promised that as well as creating what it said was sorely needed new office space in the city, the redevelopment would include a ‘more animated, usable and attractive public green space, which could be fully utilised at all times.’
Cllr Nick Small, at the time a backbench councillor representing the area in question, was not totally convinced. He told the ECHO in that summer of 2018 that he was not opposed to new office, residential and commercial space being created but was concerned that the park would be replaced by a much smaller green space. He added: “If we want to get more people living and working here and we want it to be a real destination – then I think we need more open space, we need to enhance what we have and do more with it.”
Opposition to the scheme continued to grow over the following months, with 1750 people signing a petition in objection. The row reached a climax at a tense council planning meeting in January of 2019. Shouts of ‘shame’ were aimed at members of the committee after they approved the first part of the Pall Mall scheme.
Speaking after the decision, then Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said the project was of ‘huge importance’ to the development of the commercial district, arguing that new Grade A office space was required to attract ‘companies and highly skilled jobs to the city.’
The permission meant that fencing was erected around Bixteth Street Gardens, immediately restricting access to the space that had been enjoyed by so many. Work then quickly began to prepare the land for construction. The anger amongst campaigners only intensified as the park’s trees started to be chopped down a few weeks later.
Speaking at the time, the Save Bixteth Gardens campaign group described how a ‘park was being destroyed in the blink of an eye’ and said they had been unable to pursue a Judicial Review to try and halt the council’s plans for the area. A spokesperson said: “We now have to accept that we will lose this, one of the last remaining green spaces in our city centre.”
If those campaigners were angry then, they will be dismayed to see that nearly six years after the work first started, the park they once loved remains a desolate wasteland with no sign of the promised development having ever materialised. Hoardings remain in place around the site, restricting access to what now is a muddy and barren space where the popular green space once stood.
On one of the hoardings, there is a notice stuck down explaining that a premises licence has been agreed for a new hotel on the site – the Leonardo Liverpool Pall Mall Hotel – but there is no sign of any such hotel being built. When the ECHO contacted Jurys Inn, the company behind Leonardo Hotels, they confirmed there is no longer any agreement in place for this development.
So what went wrong? The Pall Mall scheme ran into major problems at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The entire office development had been contingent on a pre-let agreement with BT, which had agreed to take on 80,000 sq ft of the planned buildings to rehome its Liverpool headquarters. The covid crisis made the telecoms giant think again and the deal was shelved.
All this means that nearly six years on from one of the city centre’s only green spaces being closed off and destroyed, there is no immediate sign of progress in the scheme that was planned to replace it, but could that be about to change? Council bosses insist they have been working hard in the ensuring years to try and secure the pre-lets that remain crucial to kickstarting the stalled scheme and there could be an announcement soon.
Speaking to the ECHO this week, Cllr Nick Small, now the council’s cabinet member for growth and economy, told the ECHO this week that: “Pall Mall is a really important scheme for the city. We need more good quality office space and there’s a huge opportunity here to do something that reflects changing working patterns post-lockdown – a place that people chose to come into the office to work.
“Having a eco-friendly building and locking in quality public realm will be vital. The council is actively exploring a robust financial package and securing pre-lets to bring development forward. I’m hopeful there will be something positive to report very soon.”
For the city’s Green leader Tom Crone, the fact Bixteth Street was taken away still stings. He insists any forthcoming plans for the land must replicate what that much-loved park offered to people and to the city centre environment.
He said: “Losing much needed Green Space in the city centre, especially one as well used and cherished as Bixteth Street Gardens, is always very sad. Climate change means we need to start viewing Green Spaces as essential amenities, for their cooling effect and their biodiversity benefits. Green Spaces can attract new businesses into Liverpool, which was the original aim of the Pall Mall Project. Any future development at this location must include high quality green space to make Liverpool City Centre as attractive and healthy as possible.”
Kier did not respond to a request for comment.
