Exemplary conservation led projects demonstrating the collaborative approach to conservation that focuses on actively managing change
- Bayshill House
- Blencowe Hall
- Clore Learning Centre
- Cooper's Studios
- Crystal Palace
- Gorton Monastery
- Graylingwell Hospital
- King's Cross Central
- Lake Shore Development
- Midland Hotel
- Molineux Hotel
- Park Hill
- Princesshay
- Regent Palace Hotel
- Roundhouse
- Royal Clarence Yard
- Royal Shakespeare Theatre
- Snape Maltings
- The Bluecoat
- West Front
The Bluecoat
The Bluecoat, Liverpool. © Biq
Developer
The Bluecoat
Architects
Biq with Austin-Smith: Lord and Donald Insall Associates
Lead Partners
- Arts Council
- BIFFA
- Northwest Regional Development Agency
- Duke of Westminster
- E Rex Makin
- European Regional Development Fund
- Garfield Weston Foundation
- Heritage Lottery Fund
- Leverhulme Trust
- Liverpool City Council
- PH Holt Charitable Trust
- The Monument Trust
The redevelopment of the Bluecoat was a complex project that needed to be achieved with absolute sensitivity to the heritage of this extraordinary place. With English Heritage’s support we have achieved something unique, managing to create one of Liverpool’s finest 21st -century buildings whilst respecting and preserving one of its most iconic historical venues.
Alastair Upton, Chief Executive, Bluecoat
Liverpool’s elegant grade I listed Bluecoat Chambers is the earliest surviving building in Liverpool city centre. Built in 1717 as a school for poor children, it became an arts centre in 1911, and hosted the first ever UK exhibition outside London of works by Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and Van Gogh.
The Bluecoat has undergone an imaginative £12.5 million conservation programme, reopening as part of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008. Some demolition was involved, as well as the construction of a new rear wing.
English Heritage collaborated with Liverpool City Council, the Bluecoat, Dutch architects Biq, executive architects Austin-Smith: Lord, and conservation architects Donald Insall Associates, to solve the delicate problem of integrating the new parts with the 18th-century building. A key part of our role was to identify those less significant parts of the building that could best accommodate the major interventions necessary to house the new activities. One area, for example, had been rebuilt after bomb damage in the Second World War.
Demolition, expansion and conservation have all been successfully completed. The historic dome, the Queen Anne façade and a rambling series of 18th-century rooms have been conserved to the highest standards, along with what may be the oldest stone representation of a Liver Bird in the city. The venue has gained a 200-seat performance space, shops and eating places, four galleries, and 26 studios for artists and workers in the creative industries. A progressive institution of the 18th century has been successfully transformed into an equally forward-looking one for the 21st.
