There are lots of empty shops but there is hope that a revival could be on its way
10:58, 06 Jul 2025Updated 10:58, 06 Jul 2025
Cavern Walks shopping centre in May 2025(Image: Liverpool Echo)
It’s another busy day on Mathew Street. It may be a Wednesday afternoon but the street’s pubs are packed with drinkers while tourists smile while taking pictures outside the Cavern Club.
But it’s a different story inside the Cavern Walks shopping centre. It’s mostly deserted, with just a handful of customers and several shut-down shops. Many use it as a shortcut to Lord Street on the other side of the building It wasn’t always like this. The luxury development opened back in 1984 with hanging plants, candy pink lamp posts, and the wall-climber lift linking two shopping levels. It’s built by the old Cavern night club and there is a statue inside of the Fab Four.
Fast-forward to the 00s, Cavern Walks became a place where you could catch a glimpse of WAGs Coleen Rooney and Alex Gerrard. Filled with high-end brands such as Cricket and Vivienne Westwood, it saw some well-heeled customers pass through the doors.
Now, the high-end brands are gone and the upper level is closed completely. It’s hoped a new 150-bed Beatles themed hotel on the upper level will revive its fortunes and a free Mathew Street Tribute festival is due to take place this year.
Cavern Walks was bought in 2022 by JSM Company Group and Greenwood Developments. JSM has told the ECHO the shopping centre is approaching a “new era” thanks to the new hotel and shops.
Meanwhile, business owners who spoke to the ECHO are generally optimistic, despite admitting to the struggles they are facing currently. Adam Williams, 64, who lives in Bootle, runs the Rojeans vape shop. He said the shopping centre has suffered due to competition from similar venues and the pandemic.
He told the ECHO: “This place was at its peak before the Metquarter and Liverpool ONE came along. It was buzzing.
“I used to be based on Hanover Street but had to move. I moved in here in 2017 on instinct and it was a good instinct. But as covid struck, we had to close. In the meantime, convenience stores were allowed to stay open and sucked in a lot of the business.
Adam Williams, owner of Rojeans vape shop in Cavern Walks(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“Fortunately for me, I’ve got quite a lot of loyal customers and that’s kept me afloat. But it’s not making me an amount of money that I can live on, so I’m looking at retirement. It’s still too quiet in here. It needs publicity. It needs to be regenerated.”
Adam sees further problems down the line with increased government taxes on vapes. He’d also like the shopping centre to be promoted more by JSM. But he predicts the hotel, as well as a new record shop, could help turn its fortunes around.
He said: “The record shop is coming and that would do well for us. The coffee shop will do well when the hotel’s built as the hotel won’t be serving breakfast.
“We need some more niche shops where people are going to come to. This is a destination shop and we need more of them to make it a unique shopping experience.”
The interior of Cavern Walks on July 27 1993(Image: Mirrorpix)
The sentiment is echoed by Chris Waters who runs Christopher James jewellers. The firm was one of the first to move into the shopping centre 40 years ago.
He said: “There are plans for the hotel. Cavern Walks looks terrible now but it doesn’t have to stay that way. It’s about being upbeat.
“This area of town has a lot of attractions with The Beatles. Yes it can have problems with drinking and occasional violence but that applies to every part of town.
“I think the plan is for Cavern Walks to be full of local businesses – not like Liverpool ONE which has lots of multinationals. There are plans for a vinyl record store in the middle of the ground floor too.”
The people behind that store, Mathew Street Records, are Peter Wilson, 40, from Lancashire, and Tom Waite, 28, from Middleton in Manchester. The pair have been running pop-up record fairs for several years but this venture will be their first physical shop. They are hoping to open later this year.
Peter said: “We were contacted by JSM last year after running the Liverpool Record Fair. At first we thought, no way. We thought we didn’t need a physical store.
There are several empty shops inside the shopping centre now(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“This place didn’t really have an active social media presence either. But we thought about it more. We have quite a bit of admin to do and this can be our base for that. It should attract people too with this place’s connections to The Beatles. You do get people coming in to see the statue.”
Nina McCormick, 64, runs the Chantilly Beatles Cafe. Founded in 1993, it has survived decades longer than the band which inspired its name, and forms an important part of Liverpool’s famous Cavern Quarter, keeping the legacy of the Fab Four alive in the heart of their hometown.
It serves everything you would expect from an English café – jacket potatoes, cheese toasties, salads, beef burgers with chunky chips and onion rings, pasta bakes, and “the cheapest all-day breakfast in Liverpool” (sausage, bacon, black pudding, beans, egg and toast for £4.50).
Nina told the ECHO last month: “The Cavern Walks was so full of life back in 1984. It was two floors, Cricket upstairs, the ‘kids cavern’, card shops, so many different kinds of shops on two levels.
“It was one of the first shopping centres in Liverpool alongside St Johns, so we didn’t have the Met Quarter, we didn’t have Liverpool ONE. It was the main place to be.”
Nina said: “I think when the hotel appears there will be a big change. The hotel will be above us and we might be more busy. The Cavern Walks needs to be noticed again.
“It was noticed from 1984 all the way until lockdown. After that, most of the shops moved out, because it was two years of no-trade because we’re indoors. I’d like to see the area more lively.
Nina McCormick, owner of The Chantilly Beatles Cafe in Cavern Walks(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“People come from all over the world, Australia, America, Canada, everywhere. I don’t know how many different notes and currencies we have seen.
“There’s less people coming in these days because there’s less shops. When we had shoppers coming in they’d spot us – the more shops the more footfall.
“I think when the hotel appears there will be a big change. The hotel will be above us and we might be more busy. The Cavern Walks needs to be noticed again.”
A statement from JSM said: “Since JSM acquired Cavern Walks, we’ve always had big plans for it and now plans are finalised, work will start on a 157 bed hotel above the shopping centre in the next few weeks.
“New tenants are moving in also – among them a new record shop. The footfall from the hotel and the newly opened units will benefit everyone and really take Cavern Walks into a new era.”
Greenwood Developments was also approached for comment about Cavern Walks.