{"id":230992,"date":"2025-07-02T03:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/230992\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T03:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:45:13","slug":"story-behind-unusual-landmark-that-thousands-pass-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/230992\/","title":{"rendered":"Story behind unusual landmark that thousands pass every day"},"content":{"rendered":"

On most days, thousands of drivers and pedestrians go past a striking brown wall in the heart of Liverpool without giving it a second thought. That changed slightly this week when the top of Old Hall Street was partially closed because of the wall, which has been deemed \u201cunsafe\u201d as it is leaning at a \u201cconcerning angle<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to Old Hall Street on Monday morning after receiving a report from the building managers of Beetham Tower, the tallest building in the city, about the structure, which is officially called Connections \u2013 Face of Liverpool.<\/p>\n

The monument consists of a brown metal wall with diagonal lines and a circle on one side, with a small garden area and low concrete walls surrounding it. It is next to the Radisson Blu hotel<\/a> and faces both Old Hall Street and the junction of Leeds Street and The Strand.<\/p>\n

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Berkeley Shaw, the building manager for Beetham Tower, told the ECHO<\/a> that the structure is within its estate and work has begun today to fix the issue.<\/a> It is not physically connected to the building and therefore does not pose a risk to its integrity.<\/p>\n

It was the first time that many office workers on Old Hall Street had fully taken notice of the monument. One man at the scene yesterday told the ECHO: \u201cI don\u2019t even know what it is. I tried searching but couldn\u2019t find anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others had long-held curiosities about it. Another man said: \u201cI remember when it was put up years ago, all shiny and new. Even then I thought it was leaning. But it does look like it\u2019s bevelled a bit. Maybe it\u2019s due to the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The structure sits in the shadow of Beetham Tower, Liverpool’s tallest building -Credit:Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo<\/p>\n

The structure was commissioned by Beetham Organisation and was completed in 2006 at the same time as the tower. According to Broadbent Studio\u2019s website<\/a>, a design studio led by artist Stephen Broadbent, the aim was to \u201ccreate an integrated art and architecture solution, on a site at the threshold of historic, national and international trade connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broadbent worked on the project along with artists and designers from BCA and Smiling Wolf to mark the structure\u2019s unique position in the city between the waterfront and the business district. It also aims to showcase Liverpool\u2019s history of trade and migration.<\/p>\n

The structure gets its name due to a series of glass portholes on the floor of the garden, which contain 32 faces of people who have made Liverpool their adopted home.<\/p>\n

Broadbent said: \u201cThroughout the whole scheme subtle intersecting lines, etched, cast, blasted, and illuminated, within walls and floor scape, link glass discs that identify the Liverpool around the world, and portray Liverpool faces of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSet within the floor and walls are illuminated glass portholes. Contemporary faces of people that reflect the diversity of Liverpool\u2019s culture, are etched into 32 of these glass portholes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 32 faces represent, in some part, Liverpool\u2019s diverse gene pool, pioneers, traders, travellers, migrant people, throughout history from all over the world, that have made Liverpool their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese faces were sought out with the help of Leapfrog PR company and their story of immigration recorded. Their portraits were photographed by Guy Woodland and their image screen-printed onto the blue glass discs, with a short sentence engraved into the stainless steel edge identifying their name and place of origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cA curved wall with the inscription, in morse code, \u2018 Permission to Come Alongside\u2019, greets travellers along King Edward Street, and helps to frame another unique space \u2018The Tower Plaza\u2019. Sheltered from the heavy traffic this becomes another livable space with unique sculptural seating and feature lighting.”<\/p>\n

\"Morse<\/p>\n

Morse code on the Connections – Face of Liverpool structure -Credit:Liverpool Echo<\/p>\n

A quote on the side of the wall facing the main road says: \u201cLiverpool – threshold to the ends of the earth.\u201d This was said by writer Michael O\u2019Mahoney in 1931 and fits with the theme of Liverpool as a global melting pot.<\/p>\n

As part of the project, separate panels brown panels with blue rectangles were added outside the entrance of Radisson Blu to illustrate the history of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.<\/p>\n

Commenting on its work in the project, Smiling Wolf said: \u201cPart urban landscape, part public artwork, the \u00a31.4m project includes \u2018Face of Liverpool\u2019 \u2013 a wonderful installation that gave Liverpool residents the chance to have their portrait set into the scheme\u2019s structure and help celebrate the city\u2019s rich ethnic and cultural diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

BCA added: \u201cBuilding on the site’s international links the team encouraged input from people whose family had travelled from other parts of the world and made Liverpool their home \u2013 pioneers, traders, travellers and migrant people that continue to help define Liverpool\u2019s diverse gene pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir faces and details have been etched in coloured glass within the walls of the finished scheme and their full fascinating stories told in a hardback book \u2013 \u2018Connections\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the structure needs repairing, it is hoped that the work will restore the structure to its former glory. Peter Whalley, the head of block management at Berkeley Shaw, told the ECHO yesterday: \u201cIt\u2019s a great piece of sculpture with a famous old quote about Liverpool and the public will want to see it back at its best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On most days, thousands of drivers and pedestrians go past a striking brown wall in the heart of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[72784,748,393,4884,179,90743,33726,90744,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-230992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-beetham-tower","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-stephen-broadbent","14":"tag-structure","15":"tag-tallest-building","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114781587009583213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}