Ropewalks conservation area Development

[Kev]

A CONTROVERSIAL development at the heart of Liverpool's Ropewalks conservation area looks set to get the go-ahead.

Developer Illiad wants to demolish the former catering college in Colquitt Street and build 100 luxury apartments.

A previous application was rejected after objections from English Heritage and Liverpool Urban Design and Conservation advisory panel to the height of the building.

English Heritage said: "The site is of crucial importance to Ropewalks as it occupies higher ground with the Duke Street conservation area. The scheme fails to take proper account of its context and is too high.

"English Heritage recommends it be refused."

The application proposed a on-nine-storey building with health and fitness centre and public swimming pool .

Other objections were lodged by conservation campaigners the Georgian Group and Save Our City, concerned it would dwarf the nearby Grade II listed Royal Institute building and other Georgian town houses.

To answer its critics, Iliad scrapped plans for a leisure complex, reduced the proposed building to seven or eight streys and amended the roof design so it stands out less against other buildings.

But English Heritage believes the revised plans still need further improvement, saying: "We remain concerned about some aspects of height."

Council planners now recommend the scheme be approved.

Their report concluded: "The reduction in height and cascading of the upper storeys is designed to offer a recessive appearance, which is a positive response to criticisms of scale.

"The scheme achieves the required balance between cservation and regeneration."

Florence Gerston, founder of Save Our City, said: "It is too much to hope, I suppose, we will see any development of just two or three storeys in line with the other houses in Colquitt Street."

[Kev]

The area stretching from Duke Street to Bold Street is known as Ropewalks and is the focus of a £70 million investment package. The streets, which contained one of the largest collection of redundant warehouses in the country, is the focus of The Liverpool Ropewalks Partnership and Liverpool Vision.

RopeWalks is also home to Europe's oldest Chinatown which sprung up in the 19th century as more Chinese seaman passed through Liverpool's busy port. The Chinese Arch that is placed at the entrance to Chinatown is the largest in Britain.


With many of the planned investment already underway many commentators believe that the area will one day become one of the most cosmopolitan and trendy areas of the city with a collection of bars, cafes, apartments and offices all complementing one another.

The are is also benefiting from Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) lottery funding which will be used to preserve some of the historic warehouses and maritime buildings in the area.