Cains Brewery to be brought back to life in artist-led scheme
CAST your mind back to ten years ago when the Baltic Triangle in Liverpool was home to disused warehouses and a shadow of the city’s industrial age.
The area waited quietly whilst the likes of Liverpool One and the Albert Dock were completely transformed.
Nowadays, the Baltic Triangle is anything but quiet. The area has become a creative hub in recent years and the place to be for start-up companies and those with a prolific vision. Now, the former Cains Brewery, which was used to brew beer from 1768 until 2013, is joining in on the fun and is set to be brought back to life.
Baltic Creative Community Interest Company (CIC), commercial landlord for creative and digital industries, has announced a 10-year deal that will see 45,000 sq ft of disused warehouses at the Cains Brewery be transformed into an innovative space for artists, designers and the creative industries.
The scheme, which has been dubbed ‘Northern Lights’, will include artist studios, gallery spaces, workshop units and a log burning mezzanine studios. The quirky space will also have a café and a large event space, similar to its neighbours over the road in the likes of Camp and Furnace.
Businesses in Merseyside are already signing up to be part of the artist-led scheme. The Royal Standard, an artist-led gallery and studios will be relocating to the area from North Liverpool and commercial printers GoCre8 will also take residence at the scheme.
Mark Lawler, managing director of Baltic Creative CIC, said: “Working closely with our fantastic anchor tenants we will create a space we can be proud of and perhaps more importantly, a space we currently don’t have available in the Baltic Triangle.
“It’s an exciting time for the Baltic area as it continues to grow and emerge as a great place for Creative and Digital industry businesses. Northern Lights will add further to the fantastic momentum for change that the area is currently undergoing.”
Baltic Creative CIC has successfully secured £310,000 funding from Liverpool City Region Impact Fund, which is part financed by the Social Investment Business and the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007-13, in order to deliver the refurbishment.
Caroline Forster, director of investments at Social Investment Business, said: “Baltic Creative are a fantastic example of a local social enterprise working to regenerate Liverpool, create new jobs and support local businesses.
“They are precisely the type of organisation the Liverpool City Region Impact Fund was designed to support and we are happy that we can play a small part in helping them to grow.”
Works for the first phase of the Northern Light scheme are expected to commence in July 2016 and the first phase of works are due for completion in October 2016. Thanks to Northern Lights, the future of the Baltic Triangle is certainly bright.
