Liverpool, the heart of U.K.’s independent scene
Innovative businesses are blossoming in the city, without any pretension
LIVERPOOL— There’s no denying Liverpool One has everything you could want in a city. Liverpool’s massive retail and entertainment complex has bars full of soccer players celebrating bulging pay packets, glossy department stores and nightclubs filled with beautiful models dancing until dawn.
But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a blossoming independent scene. It’s one which is less pretentious than similar scenes in other U.K. cities, with less bearded, full-sleeved hipsters and a shout-it-out-loud passion for independent, grassroots enterprise.
And it’s a scene which owes its success to friends David Williams and Oliver Press.
“The fourth Tesco and third Costa Coffee had opened within a square mile of where we lived,” recalls Williams, a 25-year-old born-and-bred Liverpudlian. “We had to do something.”
The pair started a blog about Liverpool’s independent businesses, and, in 2013, they launched Independent Liverpool.
The concept is simple. A £15 ($25.50 Canadian) Independent Liverpool card provides access to discounts at 100 (and growing) local, independent businesses and there’s an app and a website to help users track down the ones offering the best discounts to members.
“What we love about Liverpool’s independent scene is that it’s not pretentious,” Williams explains.
“It’s exploded in the last five years and every week there’s something innovative happening. It’s always been a city of rulebreakers and risk takers, and this creates the perfect environment for an independent-scene to thrive.” I’ve been told that the Baltic Triangle, a region close to the city centre, is Liverpool’s most-up-and-coming ar- ea. In reality I’d describe the Baltic Triangle as “still coming up.”
It’s a strange place, but there’s a sense that those pushing its transformation have rested on their laurels before the job’s finished.
Hipster-filled cafés squeeze alongside grimy warehouses (and I mean warehouses in the true sense — not ones converted into nightclubs or bars or coffee shops). But I found a few gems, including the Hobo Kiosk. I noticed this tiny second-hand store because of the wooden chair attached to the outside wall, metres off the ground.
Inside, I found haphazardly-stacked piles of rare teen annuals dating back to the ’60s, lovingly polished vintage sweet tins and fantastically kitsch homeware.
Unlike the Baltic Triangle, the nearby Ropewalks area’s ascension to coolness is definitely complete.
“The Ropewalks is Liverpool’s independent mecca,” Williams tells me. “It represents Liverpool’s past, present and future and radiates the buzz of the city.”
So called because it was once home to the ropemakers whose main business came from the ships calling in at Liverpool’s docks, the area comprises several long, straight streets adjacent to each other. Legend states they were designed this way because the tradesmen needed to lay out their lengths of rope.
The streets are filled with independent businesses: galleries, bookshops and record stores. One of my favourites is Leaf on Bold Street. Inside the spacious, airy café, a huge light installation declares: “Where there’s tea there’s hope.”
It’s incredibly homely, with frilly lampshades, enormous sofas and a menu listing 60 types of tea. Home- made cakes are displayed under ornate glass lids.
Other Ropewalks favourites include Rennie’s Arts and Crafts, a 40year-old art store where staff still tote up customers’ bills on calculators, and Lucha Libre, a Mexican street-food restaurant where the food is authentic and delicious.
But Liverpool’s love of defying convention doesn’t just extend to its businesses. Even the street art is unique.
One afternoon, I take a shortcut and find myself staring at an enormous mural — a smiling woman rising up out of a fish-filled expanse of water. It covers the entire side of a building which faces a car park.
But my companion points out another piece of street art. Every single one of the car parking spaces has been personalized, with names — Earl, Betty, Bob and Iris, to name a few — painted in bright white paint.
And while other city centres are all too often filled with identikit restaurants and bars, in Liverpool, even the pubs owned by larger companies have an independent streak.
One of the newest restaurants is the Old Blind School. The gastropub is owned by the New Moon Co., which operates several local pubs and restaurants.
The building, which dates back to 1791, once housed one of the U.K.’s first schools for the blind. Beyond the weathered stone façade is a beautiful wrought iron staircase, artfully exposed brickwork and sculptures of hands acting out sign language.
It’s the perfect place to line my stomach prior to my last hurrah — a night at the famous Cavern Club, a Liverpool institution and the birthplace of the Beatles.
The subterranean venue is hot and cramped, but the vibe is fantastic and the Rolling Stones tribute act is going down a storm. The lead singer, who prances across the stage — head jutting, limbs flailing — has obviously spent a huge amount of time studying Mick Jagger.
At the end of his set, he spends five minutes doing star jumps on the spot. I don’t remember this being one of Jagger’s trademark moves, but then again, in Liverpool, things are rarely done by the book. Tamara Hinson is a U.K.-based writer. Her trip was sponsored by Marketing Liverpool.