Bluegreen Liverpool: Bold Street to the Baltic by reShaped Landscape

DART

Collective

reShaped

Communications and Presentation Award : CP1443 Bluegreen Liverpool, reShaped

Bluegreen Liverpool: Bold Street to the Baltic

The Mersey Forest will shortly publish their research that shows Liverpool is one of the least-green cities in England. They have found that parts of our city centre have more concrete and less green than anywhere else in the UK. A partnership between Dart Collective, Bluegreen Liverpool project and reShaped Landscape Architects seeks to address this issue by creating a network of growing spaces on vacant and underused land between Bold Street and the Baltic. In so doing:

Potential growing space along Park Lane

Looking for landowners of this plot on Duke Street

• Increase links and ease of moment through this area; • Green the grey places in our city; • Reduce the maintenance burden of mowing undevelopable grass verges; • Enable and empower residents, social enterprises, schools, organisations and food-based start up businesses to regenerate their city and make use of undevelopable land; • Integrate and align the diverse aspirations of these groups into one greenspace strategy and use as a basis for discussions with developers, landowners and LCC. Just imagine if there was somewhere to really relax in within our city centre, somewhere to meet our neighbours, take a breath and relieve the stress of busy day, if we could walk between home and work foraging for wild strawberries & raspberries, lie on the grass

watching butterflies and bees flitting between flowers or eat freshly laid chickens eggs with wild garlic pesto and organic mushrooms grown in the Rope Walks. Twenty-three potential growing spaces have been identified, which vary from empty planters, unattractive paved squares, difficult to develop land and grass verges. Potential projects that Bluegreen Liverpool’s members have identified for these spaces include: • Planting fruit trees • Constructing Horticultural Therapy growing spaces for The Brink Liverpool CIC; • Providing the Polish community and Liverpool city centre residents with a place to dig; • Creating an allotment for the Chinese community to teach their younger generation about growing Chinese vegetables; • Greening Rope Walks Square with FACT & Liverpool BID; • Supporting food based social enterprises and startups such as MY:CO CIC organic mushroom growers, Green Gym and Nuts about Milk; • Transforming Liverpool City College’s grass verges into a kitchen garden; • Greening Liverpool city centre squares with hanging gardens, climbers, sunflowers, strawberries and edible bulbs in grass verges.

Bluegreen Liverpool: Bold Street to the Baltic

The first phase of which has has been built, including: • Planting an orchard with St Vincent de Paul Primary School so that children can pick fruit on their way to school. The children will use any left over produce to start fruit-based business within their ‘Tenner’ Enterprise classes; • Designing and building planters for East Village courtyard and Cornwallis Street with construction students from Liverpool City College; and • Introducing herbs to the Brink’s courtyard. The exact form of the second phase of works will be influenced by the people, landowners, funders and organisations that join us. Please email elaine@bluegreenliverpool.org.uk if you need help turning an idea for your street corner into reality, have land that you would like someone else to maintain, want to increase greenspace in your development or desire a growing space of your own.

Site 1: Main Allotment Site for Residents

Brief Description of Project: Allotment site 1 will eventually be the main allotment site for residents who want growing space and for organisations who have outgrown their initial growing space.

Foraging From Edible Hedges

Horticultural Therapy

Our inspiration is the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden in London, which descibes itself as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;....a green sanctuary in a built up part of Hackney. In among the Birch & Alder trees, we grow herbs, salads, fruit & veg and lots of lovely flowers for the bees & butterflies. Plants & Nature inspire art & events all year round.â&#x20AC;? http://dalstongarden.org/about-2/ This aspiration for the site will be developed when it is needed. In the meantime, we hope to use the site as a base, plant nursery, provide water, tool and materials storage, shelter and hold one off events and workshops.

Potential Allotment Site

Growing Spaces

Site 2: Orchard and Wildlife Garden for St Vincent de Paul Primary School - Part Completed

Experience Nature

Orchard Produce Enterprise

Healthy Eating

Brief Description of Project: St Vincent de Paul Primary School is located within central Liverpool. Children typically enter the school with exceptionally low social and emotional development, literacy, language and numary. Thanks to the outstanding teaching, they have largely caught up with others of their age group by the time they have left Reception. (Ofsted) The staff want to provide their children and young people with ‘Breathing Spaces’ outdoors, where they can encounter nature, play in a beautiful environment, learn where their food comes from and improve their nutrition. The first phase of the project will be to plant an orchard both onsite and on adjacent vacant land so that the children can pick fruit on their way to school. The children will use any left over produce to start fruit-based business within their ‘Tenner’ Enterprise classes. The fruit trees were planted in February 2017. They will include: Apple Kidd’s Orange, Worcester Pearmain and Conferance Pear.

Potential Orchard Site

Play in a Beautiful Environment

Site 3: Rope Walks Square

Playful landscape

Painted wall

Bug Hotels

Brief Description of Project: FACT view Rope Walks Square as their threshold and opportunity to extend their presence onto Bold Street. In the medium term, they aim to create an outdoor cinema space. They are keen to explore short term interventions which would increase use and vibrancy. Bluegreen Liverpool are currently developing a growing project with FACT on Rope Walks Square, details of which will be provided soon.

Environmental improvements to Rope Walks Square

Brightly coloured zig -zag bench

Site 4: St Peters Square

Brief Description of Project: St Peters is one of our favourite city centre squares. We particularly like the new grass verge that is covered in people on warm sunny days. The Square is fairly dark due to the heavy canopy of trees and lacks vibrancy when people are not using it.

Parthenocissus grown over metal screen

Bluegreen Liverpool proposes to plant Parthenocissus against the existing metal screen to provide seasonality and colour to the space. Works will be carried out and funded by ourselves in collaboration with the city. This plant requires very little maintenance even during the establishment period. It is very robust and is ideal for this location.

Site 5: The Brink - Completed

Brief Description of Project: The Brink is a dry bar and recovery social enterprise located in central Liverpool. The bar profits are reinvested into supporting those who have suffered through alcoholism and addiction. (http:// thebrinkliverpool.com/support.php) The Brink wish to expand their existing support service to provide social and horticultural therapy to their clients. Benefits of this type of therapy include: • Increasing feelings of self-worth and confidence; • Better physical and mental health; • Learning to connect with others, reducing feelings of isolation and exclusion; • Acquiring new skills; and • Feeling better for being outside and in contact with nature. Lloyds Bank Give and Gain Team, reShaped, Mens Sheds and Brink Volunteers constructed this scheme in June 2016.

Site 6: My:Co Organic Mushroom Growers

Brief Description of Project: My:Co are looking for land to host their start up social enterprise. The require land near to Bold Street for a container organic Mushroom farm and planters for community workshops. About My:Co My:Co are a start-up company on a quest to set new standards for environmental consciousness. Their focus is on socially inclusive projects and local empowerment of food production and distribution. Their aim is to nestle within the heart of urban communities, inspiring an ecological connection to food through deeper engagement and learning, explored through the incredible potential and fascination of fungi. Their urban mushroom farms produce fresh and nutritious gourmet mushrooms right in the city centre. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re rethinking the way our cities utilise waste by creating networks to circulate otherwise wasted biological nutrient back into the urban food cycle. They will facilitate workshops around the farms activities and create socially inclusive initiatives to empower the community, generating new local economies that are fit for urban futures. They aim to encourage more informed choices and awareness about how to obtain real, fresh and organic nutrition for healthier lifestyles with a greater appreciation and engagement with food cultivation.

Site to be confirmed (Ideally Kent Street)

Site 7: East Village (Iliad)

Best resident window box competition

Raised grass areas

Green Wall

Brief Description of Project: Iliad have been focused on greening their estate within the Bold Street and Baltic areas for the last few years. They are especially interested in investigating opportunities above their carpark in East Village and on the vertical surfaces of the building. Bluegreen Liverpool are currently developing a growing project with Iliad, both for East Village and for their future development on Cornwallis Street. Details of which will be provided soon.

East Village Square greening

Raised sitting edges

Site 8: Grow Cornwallis (City of Liverpool College) - Completed

Brief Description of Project: City of Liverpool College wish to develop their unmaintainable verges into growing spaces for use by their kitchens, their students and the surrounding community.

Verge planting

The benches and paving were constructed through a collaboration between City of Liverpool College bricklaying and catering staff and students, industrial design students from Burg Giebichenstein University in Hanover and local professional makers and designers.. The majority of materials used were waste products from local construction projects, kindly donated by Liverpool City Council and Make Liverpool, Grow COLC and Bluegreen Liverpool will be running a number of free training courses from the site, the first one of which is traditional willow hedge laying.

Site 9: Great George Square - Chinese History Museum

Brief Description of Project: The Sound Agents and Bluegreen Liverpool have secured Planning Permission for a pop-up museum dedicated to Liverpool’s Chinatown.

Verge planting

The project aims to highlight the need for a dedicated museum or community space in the area as well as preserve the heritage of the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Moira Kenny explains: “The idea came from members of the Chinese community who have wanted and needed a Chinatown heritage centre in Liverpool for over 40 years. Back

The Sound Agents have promised to create “dynamic exhibitions” for the pop-up museum and have invited international photographers to showcase their work there.

ARE YOU RE HE

In addition to the museum the Growing up in Chinatown project will see a growing space for Chinese vegetables created beside the shipping container.

Side

Site 10: The Baltic Green - Community.Arts.Environment

The Baltic Green is the main community green space within the Baltic Triangle. The Baltic Green CIC wish to transform it into a community hub and improve the Baltic Triangle environment. Their vision is to:

Indicative future building on carpark. Views of St Johns Tower should be retained

Reduce air pollution (1) One side of square pedestrianised to reduce fumes; (2) Bridgewater Street narrowed, made one way with parallel parking on one side; (3) Pedestrian footpaths brought into park to create green buffer between pedestrians and cars; (4) Dense birch & alder with occasional holm oak /scots pine with understory shrubs planted to filter wind & reduce road noise; and (5) Paving specified to absorb nox gases.

1&14

19 4&18

16&17

Reduce the effects of urban heat island (6) Light paving specified to reflect radiation; and (7) Soft landscape surface area increased. Reduce flooding risk (8) Soft landscape area and vegetation increased; and (9) Sustainable drainage measures implemented including planted swales and cross falls to soft landscape area.

15 9

Decrease resource use (10) Majority planting robust and low maintenance; (11) Long grass/ meadow areas increased to reduce mowing Potential Allotment Site frequency; Growing Spaces (12) Low maintenance grass and perennial seed mixes specified to reduce cutting, soil importation and watering during drought. Foraging From Edible Hedges

(cont)

Site 10: The Baltic Green - Community.Arts.Environment

Raised grass areas

(9) Planted Swales

(4) Birch Alder Woodlet

Best resident window box competition

Green Wall

Install green sculptures (21) Kinetic wind sculpture installed to transform wind into art.

(18) Natural Play Features

Increase community access and use (13) The number of lit footpaths through site increased to encourage year round use; (14) One side of the Baltic Green pedestrianised to support development of cafe culture and informal surveillance; (15) Flexible hard paved space created onto Jamaica street for markets and basking in sun; (16) Large open green retained and used flexibly, particularly for sunbathing and events; (17) Picnic benches installed to encourage lunchtime, meetings and weekend use; (18) Natural play features designed-in throughout site, especially within birch alder woodlet; (19) Fireproof-stage area created to withstand annual informal community bonfire; and (20) Storage provided on Tarmac area on far side of St James Street.

(13) Footpaths through site

Art & Play Structure

(21) Kinetic wind sculpture

Site 11: Baltic Creative - Jamaica St

Brief Description of Project: Baltic Creative CIC was established in 2009 to offer a new development model, investing in diverse work spaces to support and develop Liverpool’s booming creative and digital sector. Baltic Creative were keen to support the Bluegreen Liverpool project and offered funding and staff time to develop their two planters.

Verge planting

Bluegreen Liverpool carried out a number of workshops and designed a planting scheme that met the aspiration of their members. Key features of which were: • To feel and see the seasons; • A sunny sheltered breathing space to escape from the stresses of the day and watch the world go by; • To pick salads and garnishes for their lunchtime; • Joyful colour and wildlife oasis; and • Low maintenance. Our consultation ‘moving minutes’ can be found at http:// reshaped.uk.com/wordpress/baltic-triangle-outdoorspace-design/

Pavement side planters

Site 12: Northern Lights/ Cains