Georgian terraces and shellshuits (Liverpool)

Member Name: Bel Ludovic

Product:	Liverpool
Date:	08/05/02 (257 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great architecture, famous landmarks, occupies a unique place - for good or for ill - in the national psyche

Disadvantages: Quite run down in areas, the shrill and whiny accent, stubborn attachment to late-1980s sports fashion

I went to Liverpool yesterday. It's a weird place, I tell you. It is undoubtedly the most architecturally splendid major city outside London, with a surprisingly large swathe of the city resembling London's more famous Georgian districts such as Belgravia - all Georgian terraces and formality. The city centre itself begins unevenly outside Lime Street station with the juxtaposition of St Georges Hall and similarly impressive civic buildings with the typical retail mish-mash that characterises so many British cities. But it improves the closer you get to the riverside, with magnificent buildings and streetscapes that speak volumes of Liverpool's former wealth and power. The Cavern Quarter was uncannily redolent of parts of Covent Garden. And in Aigburth (I think that's the name) Liverpool has a suburb that rivals Birmingham's Edgbaston for leafy splendour. What makes it all so very Liverpool is the fact that the landscape is pockmarked with legendary landmarks: both cathedrals, the Liver buildings, the Radio City tower...

But you can tell that Liverpool's fallen on hard times, that there's not much cash about. Some of it may look like Belgravia, but with a down-at-heel air instead of the patina of wealth that one might expect to surround such handsome buildings. Instead, there are huge blocks of derelict, gutted Georgian buildings. Amazing. And just off great avenues like Princes Street, dodgy estates prevail.

For me the most interesting part of Liverpool is the Bold Street area, which is in the process of being regenerated in large part by the wonderful developer Urban Splash. The Mancunian apartments-and-bars formula is being meted out on its neighbour. Civic pride continues to manifest itself in Liverpool - not just in its huge and magnificent new Chinese arch in Chinatown but in the banner on a neighbouring derelict landmark building condemning the lack of effort made in finding a new use for it.

Getting aro
und is easy: walk! It's a delight to do so. Otherwise there are four underground stations - a riot of Seventies beige and yellow melanine and formica - that form part of the Merseyrail network. And if you're staying the night, you could do worse that stay at the Campanile, a French affordable hotel chain usually found on the outskirts of cities but in Liverpool located within stumbling distance of the famous (and somewhat overrated) Albert Dock.

The bad points: the local accent is, shall we say, "not for everyone." Indeed, it wound me up from the moment I arrived, and matters got worse from there. Furthermore, I was surprised to find the fashion stereotype amusingly true: scousers really do wear shellsuits - I was there for eight hours and counted eleven shellsuit-wearers, which is quite a lot given that it's, like, 2002. And there is a uniquely Liverpudlian fashion of tucking your shellsuit trousers INSIDE YOUR SOCKS. Oh my God. Why...

But Liverpool's definitely on the up: as well as the new apartments and bars springing up, there are some fine new public spaces too. Liverpool is a sleeping giant. It probably won't catch up with neighbouring rival Manchester because Liverpool has lacked Manchester's tremendous good fortune. It's a shame: if there was more money in Liverpool, I am in no doubt that Liverpool would be the absolute king of England's provincial cities. There's so much potential - potential that will probably never be fully exploited. But it doesn't matter - scousers will always have a fierce and boundless love and pride for the place, and if the average visitor gives Liverpool a chance, they might, too.

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