Liverpool Before and After - The Waterfront and famous landmarks in beautiful 'Then and Now' images
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- #Liverpool #ThenAndNow #Architecture
+++ In May 2021 AVZINE was rebranded to AidanEyewitness +++
For this video I've delved into my Liverpool photo archive in order to see how Liverpool has changed. I've selected about 10 locations and placed the 'before' and 'after' images on top of each other, alternating between them. Documenting change in cities is an important theme of mine. I produced my Eyewitness in Manchester website from 1997-2005 and also covered Liverpool. I started to photograph Liverpool with the intention of documenting locations that would change and seeing how they looked afterwards. I was commissioned to take the 'Now' photos from the book 'Liverpool Then and Now. I was proud to see it on the shelf in the Walker Art Gallery bookshop, next to the biography of Paul McCartney.
I've discovered that 'Now' photos soon turn into 'Then' photos so I prefer to use the title 'Before and After'. These are all archive images and after the pandemic, I'll be out and about taking more photos and videoclips for future videos. Some 'Before and After' images don't match up exactly. Some people are obsessive about this, like my editor for the book "Liverpool Then and Now' but as long as they roughly match up, I'm happy. Some of the images match up almost exactly.
The views are beautiful from the other side of the river . I live in newcastle and love my visits to liverpool it really as changed over the yrs I think for the better .
Newcastle has nice views along the River Tyne but I like the views across the Mersey best of all in the whole country. Many thanks for your comment!
Liverpool is the finest city on the face of the planet
Yes, Liverpool is a fantastic city, a unique place with a unique atmosphere and a lot of very fine buildings.
@@AidanEyewitness there would have been a lot more but for the city planners in the late 60's and the may blitz in WW2
Only someone who has not traveled widely would make such an unbelievable comment.
Great video. The beautiful buildings of Liverpool only marred by the monstrous carbuncle called Mann Island Buildings. How the city planners allowed this ugly box to dominate the area baffles me. They have a lot to answer for!
I know what you mean, but trying to stay neutral, the 3 buildings are of architectural merit, just in the wrong place. The dilemma is that the site is of high value and needs to be exploited - that means higher floors, but it's right next to the most famous buildings in Liverpool. But I agree, I hate it when the view of great buildings is blocked. Many thanks.
Thanks for this, good to see Liverpool how I first remembered when a student in 2003
Many thanks, yes Liverpool has changed quite a bit since then, I think mostly for the better!
With regards to my last comment on your UNESCO video, it's good to see you being more objective here! Yes, that large tower block removed from next to the railway station is objectively better. And the view of the Graces through that arch has been totally spoilt by that black monstrosity!
I'll try to watch as many of your videos as I can over the coming weeks/months and I have subscribed to your channel.
Thanks very much for watching and for subscribing. Always great to hear your responses.
amazing contrast of before and after. keep doing this because I feel more changes are coming
Many thanks for your comment. I definitely will. I have another Liverpool Before and After in planning.
Excellent photographs, thank you. I left Liverpool around 1970 for work. In the late '60s I worked at George Henry Lees selling very expensive overcoats. I used to get the 74D or 75 bus to and from work from Eaton Road near Alder Road. I returned to Liverpool for the day with my brother and it had so completely changed in the centre where I used to get off the bus for work, the only thing I recognised was the tax office! Broard Green by the Rocket has completely changed with a motor way going over the shops.
The M62 was completed in the 1970s and first ended near Tarbock before being extended to Queens Drive. Many buildings were demolished. I found an interesting page with some old photos. memoriamea.blogspot.com/2008/02/rocket.html Many thanks for your comment, I'm always interested in hearing people's reminiscences! I can also recommend the Facebook group Liverpool History Back in the Day facebook.com/groups/538132282903355/
I really enjoyed this video, I love Liverpool and try to visit several times each year, I haven't managed it yet this year but next month I'll be there, looking forward to it. Thanks again for the video
Thank you very much indeed for your comment, it means a lot that you enjoyed my video. Glad you’ll be able to spend time in the great city. I love it there too!
Great video, thanks
I appreciate your positive words!
Another beautifully done video that’s helped me visualize a city I haven’t seen but would like to visit. You’re right about the “after” for the train station. It’s great to see instances where the town planners get it right. Also love seeing old buildings cleaned and looking like the day they were completed. It’s nice to think with the improvements in transportation and air quality these buildings will likely look good for many years to come.
Many thanks again for your comments. One of my most vivid childhood memories was visiting Liverpool with my mother and seeing a building on the Liverpool waterfront after cleaning. Nearly all buildings were grimy and soot-blackened, but this building looked like something out of a fairy tale. It seem like it was made out of icing sugar. That building is the Port of Liverpool building, one of the Three Graces, on the right. The benefit of clean air!
Marvellous video, thanks for sharing.👍
Many thanks! Plenty more where that came from!
@@AidanEyewitness
Subscribed...👍
Brilliant video. Liverpool has improved a lot and will continue to do so
Thanks! Very glad to have your words of encouragement. Life can be tough for a young (well, mentally!) aspiring UA-camr like me!
An interesting Photo-Merseyology of Liverpool.
Please consider changes, if any, in the precincts of: Chinatown, Dingle, Knotty Ash, Kensington and Toxeth.
That's a great word! I think I'd like to do a degree in Photo-Merseyology - well, I suppose that's part of what my UA-cam channel is about. I will certainly keep those districts in mind, though I will need to find images by others as I photographed mainly the city centre. Many thanks!
Man island buildings are brutal
I konw what you mean. I would say the design is okay, but they block the view of the Three Graces. A low-rise building would have been better on this site. They were designed by an international firm of architects, Broadway Malyan, not that guarantees a building is going to be good! Many thanks for commenting.
As I can imagine, what will be changed for next another 10 years. I have experienced taken alot of photograph in Liverpool City so I can keep photograph for 10 years. Anyways, i like to know how Liverpool has been changed and your videos are historical (maybe)
Yes, it's always fascinating to take photos of places and then see how they've changed after 10 years. It's very important to me to document the changes in the city. Many thanks for your comment.
Very interesting
Thanks for your comment. :)
excellent.
Many thanks! :)
Is it time to go back. It 2022. It's changed a lot since this.
Yes, I produced that video during the lockdown when I wasn't able to go to Liverpool city centre. I used all archive images. You're right, things have changed - particularly the new road works around Lime St Station and St George's Hall - so I will return for a 2022 update at some point this year! Thanks for your comment.
A very interesting video.
Your statement at 1:48 that West Tower is now the tallest building in Liverpool reminded me that from the late 1960s I worked in the JMC (the John Moores Centre, now renamed The Plaza). It was built in two halves, the furthermost from the river first. On that section's completion, the "old building" as it was known, in Old Hall Street was demolished and the second half constructed. At the time, this was the tallest building near the waterfront being 16 stories tall, 14 occupied by office space and the upper section by .... who knows, we were never permitted up there, but we were told it was water and heating systems, etc.
The story at the time was that John Moores wanted the building to be much taller but the council (or whoever controls this) would not allow it as they wanted the traditional, easily recognisable skyline to remain, with no dominating structure. Then in the 1970s, the Echo Offices and the Merseyside County Council offices were erected on the opposite side of Old Hall Street and from then on ....
That’s fascinating. I love to hear the testimonies of people who have actually worked in some of the buildings I feature. On old photos of Liverpool, the John Moores building was one of the tallest around and clearly visible from New Brighton and Woodside. How times change! Many thanks for your comment. I hope to make another ‘Liverpool Before and After’ soon.
@@AidanEyewitness Concerning the two "halves" of the construction of the JMC, you can actually "see the join" if you stand outside by the middle entrance as the construction material is not exactly the same shade
@@anthonyphilips7171 I will definitely go and have a look the next time I'm around there! Many thanks for the tip! It seems often when buildings are extended, they often get the colour or materials wrong!
"Through the old archway near the Albert Dock" must be one of the most popular photographic locations on Merseyside. No one can fail to take a memorable photograph here. I remember wandering round the area in the 1980s and took this view then. I'll try to find it to see how much the view has changed since then.
Yes and that very view features in my next Liverpool video, which is being premiered tomorrow evening at 7:30 (Scouse time). The watch page is on the channel home page, top left!
The Beatles statue can't be far behind
Was Brother Anselm Keogh a teacher at De La Salle in Carr Lane East? I went there from '61 to '67 and we did have a Brother Anselm there, but no surname was ever mentioned
Yes, I believe that is where he taught. It’s a long time since I was in contact with him, but De La Salle definitely rings a bell. It must have been him. He was always a keen photographer.
I've always been bothered there isn't a modern 4th Grace to sit alongside the others. 3 just feels incomplete to me.
Well, graces generally come in threes - there are three very attractive ones int he sculpture hall of the Walker Art Gallery. The three on the Pier Head were built within a few years of each other, so anything built today would look out of place. You could say, the Mersey Tunnel Ventilation Building is the fourth grace. It was completed in the early 30s but looks as magniicent as its slighty older sisters!
Yes it was right to put them there.
Are you talking about the controversial Mann Island Buildings? Some say they should not have been built there and look ugly, blocking the view of the Three Graces. Others say the buildings are a good design and have been designed to allow a partial view of the Three Graces. Whoever is 'right' makes no difference. They are here to stay and so everyone will have to accept them!
vainglorious monstrosities! A Lancashire lass before the political construct called Merseyside. Aged 82
Many thanks for your comment!
God, they didn't have a clue in the 60s. How could they do that to Lime st station
That building was designed by one of the leading postwar architects, Richard Seifert. He also designed Gateway House ‘the lazy S’ next to Piccadilly Station, around the same time. What a difference!
Nice vid,but Liverpool always seems to lag behind cities like London,Manchester,Leeds. Their cities have more striking skylines,liverpool is lacking height in it's new buildings.
That's a fair point, but the height of the buildings depends on the level of the economy of the city. Also the Liverpool Waterfront is a UNESCO World Heritage site but there is a question mark over it due to planned tall buildings nearby. I find the Liverpool Waterfront very striking as it is! Many thanks for commenting!
Liverpool has the finest collection of buildings in this country they survived the blitz and the 60,s planners
@@lowerbullens It's amazing that the Three Graces and many others survived the Blitz, but some didn't - the Customs House and Goree Piazza - or more exactly, they were badly damaged in the Blitz, but the shell of the building was there. Sadly the post-war planners chose to demolish them. Despite all this, Liverpool is an architecturally magnificent city. Many thanks for your comments.
Liverpool is the finest city on the face of the planet, if you've never been it's your loss
@@lowerbullens you mean biggest shit hole on the planet.. if you've never been count yourself very lucky..
the 3 graces are beautiful, but it's embarrassing how many European cities and towns have buildings like that one after the other for miles....whereas our towns and cities have a few and then stop and much lower quality, ugly buildings take up most of our cities.
That's a fair point. The great cities of central Europe have lots of buildings as magnificent as the Three Graces, but in West Germany after wartime bombing, many bland, ugly new building were built. In East Germany, the old ones were left and after the war completely renovated. So city bandness isn't just found in the UK.
Lose the awful music, it's not a music video and adds no real value, just gets a voted down/thumbs down.
Background music is an integral part of most UA-cam videos. I choose the music myself from the UA-cam Audio Library which contains lots of great music, but my choice is not going to appeal to every taste. Currently, this video has 109 thumbs up and 3 thumbs down, so that's about average. Anyway, always glad to receive all feedback, so many thanks for your comment.
How sad that such ugly constructions as this black glass block and others are allowed.
You are referring to the Mann Island buildings by internationally renowned architects Broadway Malyan! I know what you mean, but they were given planning approval, while others weren't. I must try doing an interview with a planner!
@@AidanEyewitness Yes, those are renowned architects, but honestly, their works are far from being visually attractive. They show a lack of interest in the surroundings where they build. Traditional architecture should be reinterpreted, but instead, they create large glass buildings, pretentious shapes, and so on."