Rt Hon Greg Clark MP 

 

My name is Jonathon Wild. Born and bred in our great city of Liverpool, I am a local historian within the city and run a portfolio under www.maelstromdesign.co.uk

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which I provide detailed and historical content both on the history of well-known districts within Liverpool as well as some of our noted buildings such as the history of St Luke’s Bombed Out Church.  

I also run a number of local history Facebook groups (10 in total) with over 27,000 members in total and again, these are localised history groups for different subjects. 

Further to this, I also run a number of campaigns for our listed and yet ‘abandoned’ buildings in Liverpool and wanted to provide a brief update on my work so far so I can set the scene for my reasons to contact you. All of the below campaigns can be found on the website link above.  

 

1 – Sandfield Tower, West Derby, Liverpool. (Grade 2). A twenty-two-year campaign to have this building recognised and restored to its former glory. A former private villa built in 1854 and a Church for 50 years, the building is privately owned and is now little more than a folly. I have researched the complete history of this building, written a website, formed a Facebook campaign group and also authored a book on the history of the building. To date, in the twenty-two years I have campaigned for this building, nothing has been done to safeguard this building. It has been subject to vandalism and fire damage and despite repeated attempts to contact the City Council, the City Council have not issued any urgent works notice on the owner (who is locally known) in recent years and it is sitting there rotting away on the main inner ring road at the entrance to West Derby. I can provide 22 years’ worth of e-mail’s in correspondence with the City Council over this building. I am in contact with Historic England and Save Britain’s Heritage, and this was featured as Save Britain’s Heritage ‘building of the month’ back in 2021. (www.sandfieldtower.co.uk) 

 

2 – Eddesbury, West Derby, Liverpool. (Grade 2). A two-year campaign to have this most important building recognised and restored to its former glory. Built in 1884 by the noted architect James Francis Doyle (White Star Line HQ/Royal Insurance Building), this is one of the last surviving original buildings that Doyle designed. Originally for the Latham family, it was sold to the City Council who ran it as the Margaret Beaven School until 2016 when it was sold into private hands (without tender). Since then, the building has been at the mercy of numerous break-ins and vandalism to this original listed building. I begged the City Council on numerous occasions to step in and issue an Urgent Works Notice to the owners. I asked the local councillors to step in and to help to secure this property. A local developer has recently submitted a planning application to turn this building in to apartments, but sadly, only last month, the building was near gutted by a serious fire which resulted in most of the buildings upper floors being lost. Again, the City Council have not acted on this building to put any pressure on the preservation on this building and as such, we have lost one of the most complete James Francis Doyle’s original works. (www.eddesbury.co.uk)

 

3 – Woolton Hall, Woolton, Liverpool (Grade 1). Another frustrating campaign on the hugely historic Woolton Hall in Liverpool. ‘Noted as one of the finest buildings in the North of England – a Robert Adams special’. Built in the same year as the first part of Buckingham Palace in the early 1700’s, this Grade ONE listed building is again in private hands and has been subject to numerous break-ins over many successive nights. The caretaker has informed the police on multiple occasions, and I have then e-mailed the City Council and councillors on multiple occasions to highlight this issue. The building is now a ‘free for all’ and children are getting access into the building and there have been reports of fires trying to be started in the property. I have littered the City Council with e-mail’s begging them to serve an urgent works notice on the property to have this properly secured. The response from Tony Reeves was ‘must advise that, as a council we must use our resources wisely and, should you make further contact about issues we cannot assist with we will note your comments but may not respond.’ And this was a response to repeated break-ins!  

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The reason for contacting the Chief Executive was that my last eight e-mail’s on abandoned buildings to our present Mayor of Liverpool have been ignored! 

I recently wrote again to the City Council after the fire at Eddesbury begging them to speak to the owners of Woolton Hall to secure the property and received this response, ‘In response to your enquiry received on 4 July 2022, we would like to reiterate our previous response and advise that Liverpool City Council do not have any funds available to maintain privately owned properties. You should forward any concerns about listed building to Historic England.’ 

That was a frustrating response seeing I was a, not asking them to maintain private buildings and b, I was the one who through my campaign and with the help of some good people on my group, had Woolton Hall successfully added to Historic England At Risk Register! 

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The reason for my e-mail is simple. I am well aware that the City Council are in financial dire straits. The report announced today is a shocking read. I speak in no capacity apart from being a local historian, born and bred in this city, yet I need to pose the question. 

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If the City Council is in such a bad way, what is going to happen to our heritage in Liverpool?  

As you know, private individuals do not have to legally ‘upkeep’ their listed properties although if the building is in a poor state, the City Council can serve an Urgent Works Notice to the owners as per the standard procedure by Historic England. If we now don’t have the budget in the City Council to do this, what happens next? Are we now going to enter a new phase in Liverpool City Council where any listed and abandoned buildings will just be left to rot? The owners will see this as a green light and just wait for the buildings to become fired so they can demolish the buildings on safety reasons and then sell the land for housing.  

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Historic England are well aware of my campaigns, as are Save Britain’s Heritage. I very much understand that there will be countless more urgent subjects that will need money to be spent on within Liverpool, especially after Covid. But if no one cares for our heritage then what happens? Do we abandon all of the above because nothing will get done and sit by and watch our Grade 1 and 2 listed buildings fall apart?  

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What is the next chapter for our Historic Buildings in Liverpool?  

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I would like to finish on a verse written on Recollections of a Nonagenarian in 1863 who have summed up Liverpool in its present times:  

Could we draw aside the thick veil that hides the future from us, we might perhaps behold our great seaport swelling into a metropolis, in size and importance, its suburbs creeping out to an undreamt-of distance from its centre; or we might, reversing the picture, behold Liverpool by some unthought-of calamity—some fatal, unforeseen mischance, some concatenation of calamities—dwindled down to its former insignificance: its docks shipless, its warehouses in ruins, its streets moss-grown, and in its decay like some bye-gone cities of the east, that once sent out their vessels laden with “cloth of blue, and red barbaric gold.”  Under which of these two fates will Liverpool find its lot some centuries hence? Which of these two pictures will it then present?