The Pool Project was conceived out of the Private Sector, working in partnership with the Public Sector, recognising the need to create a unique and transformational project that reaches far beyond Liverpool’s own cultural heritage.
The journey and conversations can be tracked all the way back to MIPIM 2019, talking about all things Liverpool and why culture matters and the fact that it supports communities to deliver shared experiences, break down barriers and bring people together as a catalyst for much broader regeneration. Culture and music have always been in the City’s DNA, it is part of our identity, the heartbeat of the City. Liverpool has been designated a UNESCO City of Music since 2015 as part of a thriving global music city, most notably as the birthplace of the Beatles, empowering a place of music makers.
The UK has lost a huge amount of both music and cultural venues in the aftermath of the Pandemic. Despite this, they still contribute billions of pounds to the UK economy, yet they are currently not high priorities in planning decisions, eroding the cultural fabric and heritage of many of our cities. This is reducing not just live music and the arts, but also the potential for educational, recreational, and community uses. Providing a shared environment for creative fusion and development, with support for learning new skills and technology, can serve as a vessel for experimentation and spark creative collisions that explore the future.
The Pool represents a once in a generation opportunity to deliver an outstanding destination in the heart of Liverpool, a meeting place and a home to celebrate the creativity of its people, by using music and culture as the rocket fuel for regeneration. It is about inspiring the next generation of music makers and creating an eco-system for people and neighbourhoods to come together to create, share, discover and perform, enabling makers to maximise their impact.
When I’m 64 choir singing at the Pier head as part of the Sgt Pepper at 50 celebrations.
Images by Gareth Jones
The strategy is to pioneer a new type of arts organisation, managed by and for the community, committed to social justice, community health, wellness and pride. By using and embedding music, art, culture and expression at the very inception of the brief these core principles sit alongside design, viability, construction, operational models and the user experience.
The project will prioritise user experience over commerciality, so that the development thinks more holistically about its cultural impact and ensures a long-term strategy for the city. It will be financially self-sustaining through control over the entire development, including significant mixed-use components, to create a culturally resilient, environmentally and financially sustainable model, curated and managed in line with a well-defined vision and tangible outcomes. Development could be funded by future tax levies, by understanding the economic value cultural developments can have for a community, and by engaging with Local Authorities, Combined Authorities, Mayors, and Businesses to approve a tax on all cultural events to support a future funding model for a Cultural Mayoral Development Corporation.
The Pool project secured £2m funding from Central Government back in 2021, to allow the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) to develop a business case for the attraction, this transformative project in the heart of the city centre will create a world-class cultural and visitor destination, acting as a catalyst for economic, social and environmental change.
