My Favourite Building: Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds, director at GVA Grimley, reflects on his favourite building in the North West.
What’s your favourite building?
The Port of Liverpool building, one of Liverpool’s ‘Three Graces’, sitting pretty alongside its uglier sisters, the Liver Building and Cunard Building on the Pier Head.
When was it built?
It was commissioned in 1900 and completed in 1907, it is evocative of an era that started in the late 1700s and culminated some 200+ years later, when the North West was, arguably, the powerhouse of the British Empire, using riches from its Industrial Revolution to fuel global domination and trade.
Why was it built?
It was one of the first major regional corporate headquarters buildings, owned and occupied by the then Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. An architectural competition with a dozen of designs and a competitive building contract involving over 30 builders ensured a well-planned and priced scheme. Somewhat ironically, it was built by a Manchester contractor.
How was it built?
The first nine months of construction went down rather than up, with 40 foot deep foundations; with upper levels constructed from reinforced concrete and clad with Portland stone, it was strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a Luftwaffe bomb in 1941. Its design, likened to a Renaissance palace, includes a dome that was taken from an unutilised design for the city’s Anglican cathedral.
What do you like about it?
It is the interior that brings home the scale of the reach that the North West of 
England had across the globe. In the central octagonal atrium at ceiling height are the words, ‘They that do go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters see the works of the Lord and his wonders of the deep’. With myriad nautical images and sculptures you are left in no doubt of Liverpool’s status as the world’s largest port, but it is the stained glass depictions of the coats of arms of the states that it traded with, that really impress.
How is it used?
The building could have become as obsolete as the British Empire, had not local property developer, George Downing, like his Edwardian and Victoria forefathers, turned philanthropist. Downing bought the building in 2001, after nearly 100 years of ownership by MDHB. After a sensitive restoration and upgrade costing 40 times more than the original build price, this iconic building still plies its trade, albeit somewhat more locally these days.
