Liverpool

Extract from The New Travel Book -
North of Watford Gap - John Brown

I wanted to see just how far Liverpool had come, and there seemed no better place to start than down by the Mersey. The central area of the city has managed to pull off that delicate balancing act of keeping the best of the old while shoe-horning in the latest facilities. I'm not so sure about the much acclaimed 'Liverpool One' complex (another of Gerald Grosvenor's joint interests). I can see what they are trying to achieve by creating street precincts rather than the usual central block system of the 1970s, only time will tell if their efforts have hit the mark, but all in all the place looked very spick-and-span. Crossing the wide dual carriageway that sadly separates the city from her waterfront, I arrived at probably Liverpool's most iconic landmark – The Liver Building, an impressive structure, and more widely referred to as one of ' The Three Graces' (sounds like a female pop group). Designed in 1908 by Walter A. Thomas and completed in 1911 for the Royal Liver Friendly Society, it was one of the first buildings in the country to use reinforced concrete on such a major scale. This 'new fangled construction' obviously worked, because it still looks as bright as a new pin, with its twin towers, topped by the Mythical Liver Birds. The birds are modelled on a cross between an eagle and a cormorant, made of copper, they are 18ft tall and have a massive wingspan of 24ft. Local legend has it, 'if they fly away, Liverpool will cease to exist'. Personally, I think if these these birds fly south, we’re all stuffed.