Blog Archives
Liverpool’s Hope Street ‘Suitcases’: A Case History
The Hope Street ‘Suitcases’, installed by John King in 1998, are at the junction with Mount Street, by LIPA (the old ‘Liverpool Institute’) and Liverpool School of Art, opposite Blackburne House Centre for Women. The labelled suitcases ‘belong’ to many of Hope Street Quarter’s most illustrious names and organisations.
Sefton Park Renovations Have Begun
Mid-winter, and the rawest, sorest part of the oh-so necessary works on Liverpool’s Sefton Park has begun. Here lies the pink ribbon of protest an anonymous tree-lover tied on this felled tree. And here (below) lies scattered the still fresh sawdust of the vigorous cull of trees around the upper lake. Soon, we are assured, these voids will be host to new and vibrant growth. Soon, our park will be even more lovely than before.
More information on Sefton Park is available here.
Photographs of Sefton Park on this website include:
Liverpool’s Sefton Park Trees Under Threat – Unnecessarily? (Photo of the subsequently removed Willow tree in the Cherry Blossom / central lake)
and
Cherry Blossom For May Day In Sefton Park, Liverpool.
For more photographs please see here.
Snowstorm And Magic In Prague At Night
The first months of the year offer a drama all of their own in great Central European cities such as Prague. But the people and the life of the city carry on, whatever. It took just one day for the snow in that enchanting city to transform Prague into the frozen wonderland seen here.
See also:
Camera And Calendar
Prague Old Town, Celetna Street
Impressions Of Prague
Carbon-Neutral Villages, British And Czech Alike
Liverpool 4, 11 & 12 January 2008: The Euro-Year Begins!
Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture Year is finally launched.
First, we went to the pre-launch of the Liverpool Echo Arena on Friday 4 January.
Then we went to St George’s Plateau for the ‘People’s Opening’ on Friday 11 January, where after much frenetic construction all day Ringo Starr sang from a box on the roof of the Hall and we saw some fireworks and lights.
And finally we found ourselves in the Echo Arena again on Saturday 12 January for the formal opening of that venue and Liverpool’s 2008 events. The Arena ceremony offered a colourful performance of Liverpool – The Musical by artists ranging from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko (who all played valiantly throughout the show) to performers such as Gary Christian, The Farm, Sense of Sound, Ringo Starr, The Welsh Choral Union and The Wombats.
And so began our city’s European Year of Culture….
Everyone worked very hard to make it all happen. The preparations were no doubt complicated and frantic, the general mood was convivial and fun, and the outcome was by and large convincing and festive.
This was certainly not the weekend to be negative; though it has to be said that there is a lot still to do. Watch this space….
(But after this posting we shall, I promise, begin once again to acknowledge the world outside Liverpool 2008.)
For more photographs please see also Camera And Calendar.
How Many Science And Technology Graduates In Liverpool And Merseyside?
Summary: The Liverpool city region (Merseyside) looks on available evidence to have only about half the number of scientists which might be expected on the basis of the overall national statistics.
So by what indicators might Merseyside measure progress in the retention and development of graduate scientists and technologists?
Why do Liverpool and Merseyside stay so near the bottom of the national economic stakes?
A complete version of this article can be found on Hilary’s professional website, here.
Queen Victoria Celebrates Liverpool’s European Year
This is the Victoria Monument in the heart of Liverpool’s commercial quarter. However special the occasion, one can only imagine what Queen Victoria might have thought about being festooned by Christmas lights in preparation for the Liverpool European Capital of Culture in 2008; but for passers by on a very chilly evening this festive sight is one to raise a cheery little smile. Perhaps Queen Victoria would not have been amused, but in a different age we can surely innocently enjoy.
Liverpool At Christmas
The few weeks as 2007 ended and became 2008 saw much festive activity in Liverpool. Here, the set for the BBC’s special production of the ‘Liverpool Nativity’ was surrounded by excited onlookers well before the performance started, but alongside all the high technology Saint George’s Hall stood serene, just as it has for the past 150 years.
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.
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.
Dreaming Realist 