New Look Bluecoat Arts Centre

By Colin Serjent

Bluecoat Arts Centre, the oldest building in Liverpool city centre, will be undergoing major renovation work leading up to the 800th birthday of the city in 2007, and the European Capital of Culture programme of events taking place there a year later.

This Grade One listed building, which was originally a school, before being converted into an arts centre, is in a poor state of maintenance, due to the lack of finance required to carry out repairs to the leaking roof, rotting windows, decaying brickwork, etc.

"Although the Bluecoat has received funding from the Arts Council and Liverpool City Council during the past 20 years, to enable the centre to be run as a proper business, " said Director Bryan Biggs, "we have still not had sufficient finance to implement the restoration of the building."

It was bombed during the May Blitz in 1940 during the Second World War, and although they received financial help from the Government at the time to restore the building to its former condition, the support proved to be only piecemeal, and the group of enthusiasts who ran the centre were unable to achieve this aim.

"The rebuilding programme at the Bluecoat is not related to the Paradise Street Development initiative" emphasised Biggs, "although the building will be surrounded on three sides by new buildings of that project."

Work to be carried out include the construction of a new wing, where the original wing was based before it was bombed, which will house live performance spaces on the first and second floors. It will also be used for rehearsal space, conferences, meetings, etc.

"The new wing will be very much an 'arts wing', added Biggs, "and it will make the Bluecoat look complete again."

Other changes involve improving the quality of all the rooms and providing better access to and inside the building.

The gallery space, which will be double the size of the existing area used for exhibitions, is to be sited on the ground floor.

Despite fears that the much loved gardens at the back of the building will be changed beyond recognition, Biggs allayed such fears.

"I can assure the public that the gardens will retain its structure and present character - they will not be ruined," he stated .

"The only changes will be the uprooting of a willow tree because its roots are situated under the building, and the performance space will be levelled to the floor, with a temporary stage instead being used."

The Bluecoat will be closed from January 2005, which will lead to the current tenants of the building having to locate elsewhere, with Biggs hoping that, if all goes to plan, it will re-open its doors again in the summer of 2006.

"We will decide on a case-by-case basis which of the tenants, including retail outlets, will be asked to come back after the renovation has finished," added Biggs, "but the Craft Centre will definitely be asked to return."

In total the redevelopment of the Bluecoat will cost £9-10 million, which will include £2.75 million from the Arts Council, a £1.5 million bid for funding has been submitted to the Heritage Lottery, together with bids being submitted to the EDF (European Development Fund), the NWDA (North West Development Agency), with the rest of the money coming from public campaigning, for example, receiving financial support from companies.

"We will become a more robust organisation, with us being able to stage bigger and better events," said Biggs. "The building is going to be rebranded but without losing the true essence of the Bluecoat."

When asked for his views on the imminent renovation of the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Paul McCue, owner of the prestigious bookshop currently based within the building, but scheduled, along with a number of other retailers there, to move to Gostins building in Hanover Street at the end of this year, said, "We knew about our fate two years ago when we went to a meeting, in which it was made clear that the plans for the future of the Bluecoat would be focused on the arts centre rather than anything else.

"In the meantime we expected to be consulted as to what we wanted," McCue added, "and we ended up being offered space, which we have been offered twice before, which we rejected because it would not work within the Bluecoat.”

"They have consulted us by telling us what they are going to do," he stated, which they can count as consultations.

"But I don't feel bitter any more - I think we are moving to a better site, with a lot more space. I believe we are better away from here than staying at the Bluecoat.”

Meanwhile, the extensive renovation work to be carried out at the Bluecoat will cause "… in the short-term a lot of stresses and strains for us." said Maureen Bampton, Director of the Bluecoat Display Centre, which is sited at the back of the Centre gardens, "but if everything runs to schedule, then the changes taking place should be beneficial to us.”

"We are hoping to stay open, with access to College Lane, during the period that the work is taking place, but it is going to be difficult to avoid the upheaval caused by the renovation of the building.”

"We are fully behind the plans of the Bluecoat, "she commented, "but it is important that the building retains its present character. My only concern is that it does not become an extension of a commercial shopping arcade."