It’s still 24 hours before Liverpool take on Derby County in the League Cup and the streets around Anfield stadium are largely deserted.
Inside the Go Local corner shop on Walton Breck Road, Ali Alashishi has the time to restock shelves while returning to the counter to serve the odd customer. Between adding drinks to the fridge, he explains how it's generally “quiet” on days when Liverpool aren’t playing at home, adding that the business is reliant on home matches and the 50,000 or more people it brings into this corner of L4 - roughly every two weeks.
The Mo Salah posters in the shop window show support for the local club a matter of metres away, but it’s also a subtle nod to what helps the shop pay the bills. In the reflection is the Twelfth Man pub facing across.
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Come tomorrow night fans will be spilling out of the doors, but for now, in the mid afternoon, it remains shuttered up and closed - only opening in the evening like many of the other pubs in the area. Others don’t open altogether unless games are being played.
At the far end of the street, Homebaked Bakery is packing down after a busy lunch, with only a few pastries still on display. Next door shutters cover an entire block behind the Kop end, but for Georgie Porgy’s café.
It’s a similar story down much of Oakfield Road where the large majority of its takeaways remain closed until the evening. “There’s very little life around on some days” says Michelle Maxwell, taking a break from a morning of cutting hair inside Maxi’s Barbers toward the top end of the street.
'It's going to take a much bigger effort'
Change is gradually coming to Oakfield Road and the wider area, with a handful of new businesses opening, but efforts to regenerate Anfield are now nearly two decades in the making and remain only 60% complete, according to Liverpool City Council. The pace of change stands in stark contrast to the brand new £80m Anfield Road end expansion which is rapidly taking shape.
The scars of the abruptly ended Housing Market Renewal Initiative (HMRI) are still felt around the stadium, where tinned up houses pale in comparison to the warm hues emitted from Homebaked’s cafe. The scheme, started in 2004, looked to clear Anfield’s Victorian terraces and replace them with new homes, but the plug was pulled on the project in 2011 when incomplete.
The distinctive terrace on Oakfield Road adjoining the bakery may look dead, but life is soon set to return. After years of discussions with Liverpool Council, approval to transfer ownership to Your Housing Group was signed off in July.
The final legal agreements will be completed in the coming weeks and will enable the developers, partnering with Home Baked Community Land Trust (CLT), to convert the terrace into sustainable new homes. Commercial space for new start-ups and businesses will also be built, with Homebaked CLT becoming leaseholders once the full development is completed. The terrace was the subject of a £1 land transfer agreement, but will deliver social value to the area to the amount of £500,000 - according to council documents.
As one the seven ‘key sites’ to develop in the area, it could be one of the first to take shape, with Homebaked CLT’s coordinator Tom Murphy hopeful that work can begin early in the new year. Other sites, including the block of shops behind the Kop and ‘Anfield Square’ next to the stadium are still under review. Liverpool Council told the ECHO that it is aiming to provide an update in the new year “once a number of key decisions has been made.”
For Anfield residents, seeing the tinned up houses converted will be a symbolic moment. It will be hard proof that the local community was able to cling on against the odds as the HMRI tore through the area.
Tom Murphy is one of those local residents and is acutely aware of the impact the terrace can have in the reawakening of Anfield. But he knows it cannot lead a community-led revolution on its own.
He told the ECHO: “The terrace has got its part to play but as a CLT we know and appreciate it's going to take a much bigger effort than what we're trying to do in the footprint of our terraced houses.
“We understand there's lots of investors that are interested in coming to the area. It's whether they're a speculative investor that's just going to invest in a building and sit on it and wait. That's not going to bring the regeneration Anfield needs.”
Tom adds that the area needs investors who are “ready to put their money where their mouth is” and to “work with the community” to get the buildings open”, noting the importance of encouraging businesses that “serve the community's benefit first.” Sat in a small garden to the side of the tinned up terrace, Tom notes how the area is regularly filled with tourists viewing the growing number of LFC murals in the area, but often there’s a slim offer beyond the artworks outside of matchday.
In response the CLT have started a business network with the aim of bringing local businesses closer together, as well as running markets for people to road test ideas. The initiatives are making incremental improvements, but much of the main high street still feels hollowed out on days when the Anfield flood lights aren’t shining.
'Ghost town during the day'
Waking from Breck Road towards Anfield Stadium, Oakfield Road largely feels like a cemetery of shutters and abandoned buildings. Everything from a church, mixed martial arts gym and cobblers lies in wait for rescue, their only life coming from advertisements clinging to the exterior, or spray paint simply saying “for sale”.
Further down the road is a collection of gutted shop fronts, but similar to the Homebaked terrace, its current condition doesn’t speak for its future potential. Work is currently underway to convert it into the ‘King Kenny’ hotel and bar.
Kate Stewart is one of those involved in the project and tells the ECHO that the hotel should be ready to open seven months time - not long before Anfield’s new stand is completed and more fans can descend on the area. Since 2017, Kate has been the owner of the historic Sandon pub, birthplace of Liverpool football club, but decided to put the business up for sale toward the end of last year.
It’s about taking ownership of the local area, Kate tells the ECHO when asked about the decision to open a new premises on Oakfield Road. But she is not ignorant of the uphill battle the local community faces to pull it out of its current ritual of famine and feast when it comes to footfall and general life.
“There’s currently no point in businesses opening during the day around here,” Kate adds, “it’s a ghost town during the day.” The Sandon opens currently opens during daylight hours, but it is also starting a programme to offer warm spaces for the local community as the cost of living crisis worsens.
While seeds of change are being sowed in the local area, frustration remains at the speed change is being delivered. Kate draws reference to projects down the road in Everton to further highlight how Anfield is seemingly being left behind.
She told the ECHO: "If you look at Project Jennifer [the retail development between Scotland Road and Great Homer Street, there is so much that has been done, but there is so much more than needs to be done here.
“Twenty years ago there was talk of supermarkets and hotels going up. The land by the stadium was earmarked for that and nothing has happened.
"The ground is making money. But nothing is going into the surrounding area. You go to Tottenham, Manchester United, Manchester City, all of the areas around the grounds are up and coming.
“We have a business worth around £4bn in the local area. We need to start making it a place to invest.”
'It's all about balance'
Across the road from there the King Kenny hotel will one day stand is the Oakfield Coffee House. Opened in July 2021, it brought an additional daytime offer to the street, along with the nearby Go Taco which branched out from its Lodge Lane premises earlier this year.
Gareth Zeverona, co-owner of the coffee house is buoyant when talking about the impact of the café. He notes how there is increasing local interest with the business “becoming an established part of the road.”
But similar to Kate Stewart, there is a feeling that more needs to be done to ensure the lights are on in more units all along the high street. He explains he put his own offer of interest in for the vacant shops facing on to the Kop, but was not taken up by Liverpool Council - with its tendering process nearing two years in length.
Gareth told the ECHO: “If we can't do it then, at least someone should. It would be a massive help if other places weren’t just open on one occasion every few weeks.”
Asked what would help the area move forward, Gareth says that there needs to be more “pressure” on property owners to regenerate the buildings along the road, who instead leave them in their dilapidated condition - perhaps in wait for lucrative offers. Instead Gareth would like to see an emphasis on creating more ground floor retail opportunities to help achieve his dreams of seeing it as a destination road.
“There has been some movement along the road. It is livelier than it used to be, says local Labour councillor Tricia O’Brien, adding: “More shops and cafes are open in the days between games.”
However Cllr O’Brien sides with local residents that more needs to be done for those who call the area home all year round. She says residents deserve “a small supermarket at least, the kinds of things that were promised decades ago.”
But referencing the slower speed of change in Anfield compared with other areas, Cllr O’Brien says the economic draw of the stadium means a more careful approach is taken.
She told the ECHO: "There is considerable interest here from the huge stadium we recognise as an economic driver for the area. Therefore there is considerable development interest, but we’re having to balance that with social value and giving provisions for locals.”
As it stands the council is unable to confirm what could become of the remaining six sites it’s looking regenerate, including large plots outside of the stadium and to the side of The Park pub. A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: “The city council’s development team has been undertaking a huge amount of work alongside a number of community partners and key stakeholders in Anfield to progress with the next phase of the regeneration plans for the area.
“It is hoped that the council will be in a position to give a more fulsome update in the new year once a number of key decisions has been made.”
For those like Tom Murphy and Homebaked CLT, there is a hope that the gradual reclaiming of Anfield by its local community can’t be undone by the need to simply speed up development. "It's all about balance, says Tom, sitting in a community garden just off Oakfield Road, “and at the minute it's unbalanced. We're primarily serving the football traffic at the detriment of local people.”
Her added: “We need to demonstrate that there is an in-between to make money. Wouldn't make sense for businesses not to capitalise on the matchday footfall. That's one of the biggest selling points for businesses to come here. We're just saying don't forget the community the rest of the time.”
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