Author Archives: Hilary
Carols Round The Christmas Tree At Sudley House, 2007
Sunday 23 December 2007 was the date for an occasion to remember: Carols Round the Christmas Tree at Sudley House, the historic home of a Victorian Mayor of Liverpool. The free singalong afternoon concert saw almost three hundred people came to enjoy the company and the carolling with Live-A-Music and the Children’s Choir.
This event was supported by the National Museums Liverpool and offered a warm welcome to everyone. The musicians (Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage, John Peace, Richard Gordon-Smith and Hilary Burrage) were all members of Live-A-Music, a group also known as Elegant Music. The children’s choir of Mossley Hill Parish Church also performed.
Sudley House has an excellent tearoom for refreshments throughout the afternoon, and provides full disabled access. It is set in peaceful parkland and offers spectacular views across the River Mersey to the Wirral and beyond, to Moel Famau in Wales.
Visitor information and location and travel advice for Sudley House is available here.
See also:
Sudley House: Victorian Home Of A Mayor Of Liverpool
Liverpool’s Ancient Chapel Of Toxteth, Dingle Gaumont Cinema, The Turner Nursing Home & Dingle Overhead Railway Station
Autumn Glory In Sefton Park
Sefton Park, Liverpool: Winter Solstice 2006
For more articles please visit History of Liverpool and The Music.
Sudley House: Victorian Home Of A Mayor Of Liverpool
Aigburth is a long-established residential area within sight of Liverpool Cathedral. Amongst the many surprises in this enduring part of the city is the National Museum Liverpool’s newly refurbished Sudley House, tucked away behind Rose Lane, Carnatic Halls and Mossley Hill Church. Bequeathed to the City by Emma Holt, daughter of a Victorian merchant, it offers a major art collection.
Sudley House contains works by artists such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Landseer and Turner. This is the only surviving Victorian merchant art collection in Britain still hanging in its original location.
The earliest resident of the house was Nicholas Robinson, a rich corn merchant, who bought the land and built the original house somewhere between 1811 and 1823. The architect may have been Thomas Harrison. Robinson was Mayor of Liverpool in 1828-9. He lived in the house until his death in 1854, and his two daughters continued to live there until their own deaths in 1883.
Sudley was then sold to George Holt, a ship owner and merchant, who made many alterations to the property. He acquired the art collection which remains in the house, which, with its contents, was in 1944 bequeathed to the City of Liverpool by his daughter Emma.
See also: History of Liverpool
Carols Round The Christmas Tree At Sudley House
Liverpool’s Ancient Chapel Of Toxteth, Dingle Gaumont Cinema, The Turner Nursing Home & Dingle Overhead Railway Station
Autumn Glory In Sefton Park
Sefton Park, Liverpool: Winter Solstice 2006
Please see additional photographs at Camera & Calendar
More information on Sudley House and visitor arrangements is available here.
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Amongst the more interesting modes of transport in Liverpool city centre last Christmas (2006) was this traditional vehicle, with its delighted passengers and good humoured driver. People waiting at the bus stop must have felt that somehow they were missing something rather special.
For more photographs please see also Camera & Calendar
For information on things to do in Liverpool click here.
Liverpool Fringe! Trustees Sign Up
This evening (Wednesday 28 November 2007) saw another big step in establishing Liverpool Fringe! when the Fringe’s six Trustees got together to sign papers formalising arrangements.
With this step completed, we are well on our way to securing the support we need for 2008 events.
Meet the new Founding Trustees….
[L-R] Peter Worthington, Antony Mantova*, Dawn Stewart, Hilary Burrage*, Andrew Chambers and Bisakha Sanker:
[* Trustees until end of 2008]
For day-by-day information on events as they are confirmed, click here.
Liverpool Fringe! Is Launched Today
Today is the beginning of a new era for community-led arts in Liverpool. The launch of Liverpool Fringe!, organised by the Liverpool Community Network Arts and Culture Steering Group, was a packed occasion, with artists and performers from across the city congregating in the Rex Makin Lecture Theatre to show their enthusiasm for this exciting grassroots festival initiative.
Not a seat in the Rex Makin Lecture Theatre of the Walker Art Gallery was unoccupied this afternoon, Wednesday 21 November 2007, for the first Liverpool Fringe! Open Meeting.
Keynote talk on the Edinburgh Fringe
The event, organised by Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services (LCVS)’s Liverpool Community Network (LCN) Arts and Culture Network Steering Group, featured a keynote talk by Claire Daly of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Claire gave a fascinating account of how the Fringe in that great city has developed, and the opportunities and challenges of that growth.
Discussion groups
There was also much discussion in groups and between individuals, who were invited in a ‘speed networking’ session to find three people from different groups, and ask them to share ideas about how to progress. The buzz told us all we needed to know about the appetite to make Liverpool Fringe! work.
Next steps
Katie Beales, as the LCVS Arts and Culture Development Officer, had a huge hand alongside the Steering Group members in arranging this Fringe event; and now she has an equally big task ahead, working through all the ideas which participants have already submitted and this afternoon recorded on their questionnaires.
In the meantime, as Andrew Chambers of the Arts and Culture Steering Group reported, the new Trustees of Liverpool Fringe! will be meeting very soon to confirm dates and arrangements for 2008.
[Later: Confirmed as August.]
For day-by-day information on events as they are confirmed, click here.
Why not share your own enthusiasm about Liverpool Fringe! in the Comments box below? We look forward to hearing from you!
Liverpool Fringe! Back Story
Liverpool Community Network Arts and Culture Steering Group has been working to establish Liverpool Fringe! for many months; the idea first arose early in 2006. Here Katie Beales, the LCN’s new Arts and Culture Development Officer, gives a brief rundown of what has been achieved by the Arts and Culture Steering Group so far.
Katie Beales of Liverpool Community Network writes:
The Liverpool Community Network Arts and Culture Network (for which I am now Development Officer) has been active in preparation for a Liverpool Fringe Festival for almost two years.
Work to achieve this aim has been undertaken by the LCN Arts and Culture Steering Group, in collaboration also with other officers of Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services (LCVS) and LCN.
Milestones to date
The Arts and Culture Network Steering Group has:
– Set up a Fringe Working Group separate to the Network but accountable to it, to progress working towards the Fringe happening in Summer 08.
– Secured the Liverpool Fringe! website domains (as you see here).
– Applied for funding.
– Sent out a call to partners and had initial discussions with organisations such as BDE Dance Fringe, HOPES: The Hope Street Association and Liverpool Film Festival amongst others.
– Developed relationship with Edinburgh Fringe, and undertaken a planning trip to Edinburgh to visit Fringe staff team, and met with strategic people connected to the Edinburgh Fringe.
– In discussion with partners such as the North West Regional Assembly and the NW TUC, considered joint working to deliver the Fringe.
– Developed a good working relationship with the Liverpool Culture Company, who are supportive. (However, it should be noted that the Liverpool Fringe Festival are not approaching the Culture Company for financial backing in order to maintain the integrity of the festival as a fully ‘Fringe’ event.)
What we are looking for now
We welcome all individuals or groups who are interested in being involved! And by all we mean all!
You may have a play you want to see performed in the city next year, or a venue which you would like to be filled with an arts event… you may be a business or media group looking to offer sponsorship financially or in kind… We particularly want to hear from people who are interested in doing something really creative and exciting in our City.
To get involved, please contact us:
Fringe hotline ~ 07528 295012
Email ~ Liverpool Fringe! Festival
Liverpool Fringe! The Vision
Liverpool Fringe! is about ‘Celebrating People Celebrating Culture’. Intentionally and fundamentally grassroots, it arose from an idea by community-based artists who themselves live in the city. Liverpool Fringe!’s mode will be festive, but its underlying vision is serious: to engage and develop local people’s creative talent.
The inaugural Liverpool Fringe! will take place in the Summer of 2008. The Fringe will particularly encourage grassroots, community and voluntary, arts organisations to be fully involved in both the planning and delivery of an exciting, dynamic and innovative festival. It has arisen from ideas developed by the Liverpool Community Network Arts and Culture Network Steering Group.
Liverpool Fringe! will focus on extending the access to and participation with arts and cultural activities within communities at a local level, and aims to make a demonstrable impact on increasing the skill and confidence of smaller organisations.
Structuring Liverpool Fringe
The Arts and Culture Network have discussed at length a structural model for a Liverpool Fringe that facilitates these aims and have decided to replicate elements of the Edinburgh Fringe model; i.e. existing as an umbrella for a large number of different organisations cultural activities. The structure will be designed to benefit as many organisations as possible with effective PR, marketing and information.
Liverpool Fringe! will not be a programming or funding body but rather set up as a shared-risk venture (as Edinburgh Fringe is) in partnership with the artists, community and arts organisations participating, in order to facilitate maximum community and voluntary sector involvement.
Community involvement is core
We believe the Liverpool Fringe! festival is essential because many community, voluntary & grass-roots organisations represented by the Network desire to participate in their own unique ways in the City’s celebrations in 2008 and beyond.
There is a real need for people within Liverpool to feel a part of something in 2008. Liverpool Fringe! will provide an avenue for local residents to contribute to 2008 whilst many of the ‘main events’ may not capture some of the smaller (and larger) community group actions.
Objectives of the Fringe
– Celebrate real people and real experiences
– Inclusive in the widest sense
– Provide a platform for diverse art forms
– Of Liverpool for the world
– Promoting the local, regionally, nationally and internationally
– Pride in Liverpool and it’s achievements past and present
– Bringing different communities together
– Appreciating cultural diversity, and valuing creativity
Festive atmosphere; serious purpose
The Fringe will have a festival atmosphere – with multi-disciplinary events (both large and small) having the opportunity to be showcased and promoted to a wider audience. It will promote culture and diversity as a regional asset, highlighting the benefits that this sort of program can have in developing the economy and building ‘Social Capital’.
However the main focus will be engaging, promoting and supporting the wealth of creative talent in Liverpool.
LCN Arts and Culture Network involvement
There are advantages in the Arts and Culture Network working to facilitate the Liverpool Fringe:
1. The Network is an inclusive, accountable and transparent body.
2. It has a diverse membership and can bring many different thematic and geographic partners to the table, through relationships with the wider Liverpool Community Network, Liverpool First and other strategic bodies such as the Police.
3. Liverpool Arts & Culture Network is a not-for-profit group; all representatives put their time in free of charge which means money spent on the festival, goes on the festival!
Welcome To Liverpool Fringe! Website
This is the original website of Liverpool Fringe!, which was formally launched on 21st November 2007.
The website carries News, Views and information about Liverpool Fringe Events, as well as Fringe! backstories.
For day-by-day information on events as they are confirmed, click here.
You can find more back-stories on the links below:
Liverpool Fringe Events
Liverpool Fringe News
Liverpool Fringe: The Formals
Then, when you’ve read the Fringe! news, please do post your ideas and views in the (moderated) Comments box below each piece.
To read more please click on the links as indicated (e.g. Liverpool Fringe News).
Translating Public Policy Into Action
Evidence-based policy is central to much contemporary governmental thinking. But how the different phases of policy delivery can best engage ‘real people’ is not always clear. This is true whether the intended policy concerns health, the knowledge economy, or even global sustainability. There is still much to be done in understanding human agency and interaction in policy development and delivery.
In many aspects of public policy, from health through life-long learning and the economy to global sustainability, it is not simply the science or knowledge base which is important. Of equal, or sometimes greater, importance is an understanding of how to apply the established evidence which informs policy.
Phases in public policy development
There are, or should be, a number of phases in developing public policy.
The first phase is to derive as much consensus as possible about the necessary evidence base (both scientific and contextual) and the second is to consider how this ‘translates’ – an exercise which is currently being taken forward overtly by the government in relation to scientific knowledge, industry and business.
Securing public agreement or at least encouraging constructive and informed public debate is another phase which must run alongside these first two phases.
This ‘third’ phase is at risk when the established modes of policy development continue.
Public debate
The government has now gone some way to seek proper public debate on issues around science, technology, health and so forth. It is not as yet clear however that the corollary of this emphasis has been absorbed by the wider knowledge-related industries or even by some whose task is to deliver policy for real.
We all know that fundamental research and the intricacies of, say, applied medical knowledge are critical for the future. What is less well understood is that there remain huge gaps in our understandings of how such knowledge becomes operational in the real world.
People are what makes things happen. How they do so, in the contexts of such enormous challenges as global warming, the diseases of contemporary societies and the rapidly changing communities we all live in, has yet to be made clear.
Making things happen depends on people
Despite all our problems, many of us in the western world live in the best conditions human beings have ever known. Ensuring this continues and is shared even more widely is very largely a task for policy makers informed by a social rather than natural scientific knowledge base.
Fundamental science certainly needs to remain at the centre of knowledge creation; but, whether in health, industry or the environment, it must be matched by an equally well researched knowledge of the social world, if there is to be any real hope of public policies to sustain all our futures.
King’s Cross: Community And Colossal Opportunity Combined
The renewal of King’s Cross – St Pancras and all that surrounds it is long overdue, but it looks to be a spectaclar project worth the wait. The final moves to achieve success in terms of the local community will however require those who should, to put their heads above the parapet so that everything comes together to make the best possible result. This project will ‘work’ for everyone as long as people really try to collaborate to get it right.
Having travelled on the bus past King’s Cross – St. Pancras on very many occasions, I can only say my heart lifted when, at last, evidence of its renaissance began to materialise.
Community links and challenges
It’s surely a unique and exciting challenge to put together a project as enormous and impactful as this. The project hits many buttons – strategic place, infrastructure, heritage, economic benefit; we could go on… King’s Cross is in anyone’s books a very spectacular and special piece of real estate.
Of course there’s still a possibility that King’s Cross will somehow miss on that vital community connection; but only if people on all sides of the equation let it. This is where civic and corporate leadership have such a critical part to play, right from day one.
Different from, say, Canary Wharf?
Given the common emphasis on transport hubs, there have been comparisons, but Canary Wharf is different. Just for a start, Canary Wharf is not at the heart of what’s to become the most important international ‘green’ hub connecting the UK and mainland Europe, and for another thing the Wharf is a glass and concrete creation with not too much reference to a long and glorious heritage.
King’s Cross is a genuine opportunity to build on a very high profile USP with enormous promise for all stakeholders.
Doubters and objectors
There are always people who oppose what’s happening. The financial and other costs of the debate with them may well be high, but in the end everyone has to be heard for progress to be made in a well-founded way. The line must be drawn somewhere, but the views of those with reservations are valuable because they help to pinpoint potential hazards further down that line.
But it’s up to everyone to make sure that in the end King’s Cross really works. This is a programme with serious commonality of interest between developers, the wider economic infrastructure and real people on whom the project impacts day by day.
Delivering success
Having seen examples elsewhere of exiting programmes based with various degrees of success in challenging locations, I’d say everyone, but everyone, involved has to ask, what more might I need to be doing to make King’s Cross fulfil its whole potential?
Of all the ‘Rules of Regeneration’, the first rule here must be: listen, seek to understand and where possible accommodate all stakeholders. And the second rule is, always remember someone has to be brave and take the lead, accountably and visibly.
Realistically forward-facing
This is not a time for pursuing plans regardless or for heads-in-the-sand-style denial of problems; but nor, most certainly, is it a time for standing back. King’s Cross is an <opportunity which comes only very rarely…. Here we have a genuinely future-facing adventure which everyone in town can share and actually see taking shape.
I watch from my bus as things come together week by week and I wish all involved the very best.
A version of this article was published on the New Start blog of 8 November 2007.
Dreaming Realist 