New bakery opens in St George’s Hall 4&5 Liverpool celebrates the year of the Tiger

Homebaked are famous for their award-winning pies

New home for beloved bakery

Anfield’s Homebaked Bakery have fired up the ovens at their new St George’s

The story of award-winning Liverpool bakery, Homebaked, has almost become woven into the city’s folklore. Anfield Hall Café. BETH LINDOP finds out all about their new city centre base. residents’ dogged fight to transform a derelict bakery into a thriving community hub even inspired a musical, which garnered rave reviews at the Royal Court Theatre last year.

Now, in addition to its iconic home in Oakfield Road, Homebaked has set up shop in St George’s Hall, where customers can expect to encounter the same spirit, camaraderie and, of course, seriously good pies, that have made the business a household name on Merseyside.

“It’s really touching that after all the work that went into saving the building in Oakfield Road – and all the effort and money that has been put in – we’re up to the standard to be able to go into St George’s Hall,” said Angela McKay, Homebaked Bakery’s operations manager.

“It’s like a feather in our cap, and we’re really proud that we were selected because we had to put a proposal together and go up against other people that were interested in the café space.”

It would have been impossible to predict the profound impact and ever-burgeoning success of the bakery when it opened its doors in 2013.

Back in 2002, Anfield was labelled as a ‘market failure’ and designated as a Housing Market Renewal area, with 1,800 residential and commercial properties set to be demolished.

Local landmark, Mitchell’s Bakery, was one of those properties, despite the fact that a community bakery had occupied the site on 197-199 Oakfield Road since 1903.

Out of despair for the area’s gradual decline and a faint sense of optimism for its future, two organisations were born: Homebaked Bakery Co-operative and Homebaked Community Land Trust. Whilst the latter strives to deliver housing and other community facilities at permanently affordable levels for local people, the bakery has established a reputation for producing some of the best baked goods in the city as well as constantly working to give back to the local community. “It’s been blood, sweat and tears for a number of years,” Angela told Mersey News Live. “We didn’t have a lot of money behind us to start with, and there was no one backing us so everything we’ve done we’ve learnt from, and it’s been trial and error.” Despite having established itself as an Anfield mainstay, Homebaked has endured a difficult couple of years owing to the Coronavirus pandemic. Whilst the bakery prefers not to be labelled as ‘Red’ or ‘Blue’, the Oakfield Road shop sits in the shadow of Liverpool’s famous Kop, and the return of matchday revenue has provided the business with a much-welcomed boost. “It’s great to see fans back because

‘It’s been blood, sweat and tears for a number of

years ’ Liverpool Football Club is a big part of living in Anfield; whether you’re annoyed because you can’t get in to park your car or whether you’re a supporter,” Angela said. “It’s lovely to see a bit of life back along that road as well after two years of having no one around. It’s a nice feeling to be getting back to some normality.” And Homebaked’s “new normal” involves baking up a storm at their St George’s Hall café, which opened at the end of January. The menu is packed with a whole host of homemade and locally sourced treats, including the bakery’s award-winning Scouse Pies, vegan pies, and a range of freshly crafted cakes and scones.

Homebaked’s shops in Oakfield Road and St Geroge’s Hall (above) and some of the treats on offer (left) Photos: Homebaked Bakery

In addition to the baked goods on offer, customers can get involved with the Fans Supporting helping each other in any way that they can.” When Homebaked first opened its Foodbanks initiative, which supplies a quarter of all North Liverpool foodbanks’ donations. Those wishing to contribute to the cause can either take items to one of Homebaked’s stores or scan a code on-site to donate online. “Fans Supporting Foodbanks is something that we’ve always supported and it’s great to work with them,” Angela told Mersey News Live. “We know that Anfield is classed as a deprived ward so anything that we can do to help combat food poverty is really great. “They do their stuff and we do ours and we help each other which is what communities are all about; doors almost a decade ago, the team aimed to fulfill three key objectives: community employment, good quality food and training. And Angela believes that their new home in the heart of the city is evidence that the bakery has stayed true to those fundamental principles. She said: “After the last two years with covid, getting the opportunity to go into St George’s Hall has been validation that what we’re sticking to what we set out to do.”

• Customers can visit Homebaked’s new bakery at St George’s Hall every Tuesday through till Saturday, from 9am to 4pm.

Lunar New Year in Liverpool. Photos: Zoe Wheeler

Year of the Tiger comes in with aROAR

Dancing dragons and unicorns paraded through Liverpool’s Chinatown, whilst fire performances, traditional Chinese dance groups and even a 3D projection were all part of the celebrations for the Year of the Tiger. ZOE WHEELER went along to see the celebrations

Enormous crowds gathered in Liverpool’s Chinatown at the weekend to take part and witness the myriad of performances exploding with colour that were put in place to roar in the Lunar New Year. After last year’s Lunar New Year celebrations were moved online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers, Culture Liverpool, made sure the celebrations came back with a bang. The weekend of celebrations started at St Luke’s bombed out Church on Friday, where a 3D animated tiger prowled around the Church. The event was commissioned by Culture Liverpool and was a collaboration between Focal Studios, Scenegraph Studios and the Bombed Out Church to bring the story of the tiger to life. Mersey News Live spoke to Dennis Outten, the Creative Director of the project and Focal Studios, and David Tully, Co-Director of Scenegraph Studios, about the event and how it came to be. The event, which was held over three evenings, 4th-6th February, racked up over 2000 visitors which Dennis described as “outstanding.” He said: “We are quite literally over the moon with how well it has turned out, and pleased that our hard work, planning and organisation has paid off. We thrive on collaboration and the fact we could coordinate the combined efforts of three companies in such a short turnaround has been a great achievement.” David said: “The reaction has been great to be honest. Great feedback from the council, local Chinese community who have been involved since the start, and Culture Liverpool.” Focal Studios and Scenegraph Studios worked together to create a project which paired the 3D animation of a tiger seeking to restore peace and harmony to the heavens with 200 3D lanterns designed by the local Chinese community and primary schools in Liverpool. Dennis said: “We have a fantastic relationship with St Lukes (BoC) and both companies wanted to involve the schools and Chinese community in a way that would engage them with the site and its heritage.” The Merseyside studios then set to work to make the vision come to life. David said: “We worked closely with Focal Studios to brainstorm some ideas, create a concept article to present to all parties, who gave feedback and suggestions to make the concept even better.” The actual process of getting the projection onto the Church was a lot more technical and included Focal Studios following a similar process to their snowflake projection which took place at the Church last Christmas. Dennis said: “We took over 360 still images of the tower using our drone in a process called Photogrammetry, which we then supplied to Scenegraph Studios as a 3D mesh for physics and water simulations.” The unpredictability of Covid-19 and uncertainty as to whether the project would go ahead, David, Dennis and the team were left with a shorter than ideal timescale. David said: “A project of this scope should in all honesty take three to six months. But due to Covid and uncertainty, we got the green light three weeks ago. Yep, a three-month project in three weeks.” Despite the speed in which the project was put together, David said: “It is amazing to see how well all teams worked together for a goal and smash it out the park. Hats off to all parties, but a special mention to Focal Studios who managed everything. A special mention to Chris Howard for the bespoke audio (FOLEY) accompanying the visuals.” Dennis added: “We couldn’t be happier with the result - there were hundreds of happy families in attendance, queues around the street and people made their way to the event in the most wintery weather conditions.”

Following the event at the Bombed Out Church, Sunday saw the main celebrations take place across the city. Chinatown was buzzing with crowds of people whilst a myriad of dance performances, Tai Chi tutorials, and fire performances took place.

‘We are quite literally over the moon with how well it has turned out ’

The celebrations began at 11 and carried on into the evening with a fire performance finale at 5pm. Chinatown and its surrounding area were full of funfair rides, food stands and art workshops welcoming in the Lunar New Year. The highlight from the day was the dragon and unicorn parades through Chinatown and saw some of the largest crowds of the day gathering to catch a glimpse of the parade and what it had to offer. Dance company Movema also put together a spectacular contemporary dance routine telling the story of the Water Tiger which was met with great applause and appreciation from the crowd watching at Great George Square. A new mural, courtesy of Zap Graffiti, is underway at Great George Square. The mural is bringing together local young people with Tang Shou, an award-winning Beijing artist, to signify with the Year of the Tiger means to them. Liverpool’s Chinese Arch is the tallest of its kind inf Europe standing at a staggering 13.5 metres high. The arch features 200, hand carved dragons and it is believed to protect Chinatown from evil. The Chinese Zodiac cycles through animals and elemental types which is why this year of the tiger is a Water Tiger. The Tiger is a symbol of strength and braveness, and water tigers are believed to be family orientated. As smoke filled the air and the music faded, the crowd’s dispersed after a day of fun filled celebrations. Lunar New Year celebrations usually last up to 16 days and the ending of the celebrations is signified with the Lantern Festival which falls on 15th February. The Lantern Festival signifies family reunions and society.