Liverpool: James St walkways
commentary.
So some of the city’s biggest developments of the time, including the ECHO building and Royal Insurance headquarters, were built with walkways through and around them and bridges across roads.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, trying to force skyways into the fabric of a historic city never really worked.
The isolated walkways were unpopular and the scheme was soon abandoned. The bridges were pulled down and walkways closed off or forgotten. But its legacy lives on. The walkways are why you have to go UP to down into the underground station at Moorfelds, and why there are so many odd balconies around the St Johns Centre.
And if you look up, there’s more of the system left than you’d think, from street signs three floors up to city centre “streets” like Queen Anne Parade that most people have never even heard of, let alone visited.
And there’s still one complete bridge over a street that you can cross if you want to get into the spirit of the 60s. 24 DEC 2017 liverpoolecho.co.uk 82060918
2019 RBC Solutions | Toronto, Canada | photographed: 1982 June