When the smoking ban came into effect, the pubs along Edge Lane started to feel the strain.
“It hit the area hard,” says Jugesh Mehta, who runs the Electrical Lighting Superstore, situated halfway along the busy dual carriageway which cuts through the city. The business has been situated in the area for 21 years, originally based around the corner from where it currently stands.
Today the shop can be found inside the former Wellington pub, one of those which eventually shut down as footfall in the area dropped off. The old pub sign sits high above the entrance.
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“For three to four years it was very derelict around here,” says Jugesh, noting how the original plans were to open a restaurant in the vacant structure. Across the road a range of manufacturing and industrial units used to be packed with workers, but they too began to drop in number as businesses on Edge Lane started to run out of steam.
Now things are looking up, and Jugesh isn’t the only one looking to repurpose some of the iconic, albeit left behind buildings in the area. Hidden just behind parts of a brand new retail park, you can make out the tower of the former Littlewoods building, home to the businesses’ enormous pools operation for more than half a century.
At the top of the tower, damage from a fire in 2018 can still be seen around its iconic clock, but soon this could be rectified. After years of discussions and visualisations, money has now been signed off which could kickstart the development of an £80m film studio space built in and around the art deco structure.
For the best part of a year, leaseholders and developers Capital & Centric, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Liverpool City Council have been in the process of signing agreements which will release the first £8m of funding.
This money will be used to remediate and repair the building as well as producing the further designs, preparing it for the second phase which hopes to see the film studio ambition realised. But it’s not a process that will happen overnight.
“In the next six months we'll start to get people on site,” says Adam Higgins, co-founder of Capital & Centric. From there it will take “six or seven months to clean it all up and get it ready for the next phase”, says Adam.
But despite the prospective timeline which wouldn’t see a completed film studio until around the end of 2025 or early 2026 - the actual studio build would take between 18 months and two years - Adam says it's important to at least “get something happening.”
He added: “The building has been sitting empty for the best part of a quarter of a century so to see works going on there it will be very important for the project, but also Liverpool. People coming in on the M62 are seeing an eyesore at the moment, so it will be really good and hopefully encourage other people and investment into the city.”
For people like Jugesh, the news will be another positive development for his corner of Edge Lane. He says the new retail parks along the road have led to a resurgence in footfall, and while this brings competition from brands like B&Q, he believes it’s proof Edge Lane has emerged from its slump.
Asked how he views the potential of the Littlewoods project, he replies: "I think it will improve the area. With all the other development going on it’s going to be the place to be. A new community of people will be coming in which means it will be more footfall. "
But with more amenities has come a rise in rental prices. However Jugesh says this is still far lower than those in the city centre, meaning there’s still potential for people to move out to this part of L7 to live or for business.
One door down on the high street there’s similar optimism. Quinn Cycles has been a mainstay of Edge Lane for half 50 years, selling a range of bikes and cycling accessories.
Steve Webster has worked at the shop for the last 40 years and been a co-owner of the business for the last seven. He told the ECHO: "A few years ago it all went down the nick. Lots of buildings were left derelict as all the manufacturing was moved out.”
In the land facing across, model company Meccano used to have a premises, alongside a range of other manufacturing trades. "On the high street there used to be a sandwich shop," says Steve, illustrating the hustle and bustle that used to swarm through the area, “there’d be a queue down the street every lunch time as workers would be coming in.”
But similar to Jugesh, Steve is confident that this part of Edge Lane is “coming back”. “It’ll make a big difference to the local community,” he says of the plans to get the Littlewoods project moving, “it’s vitally important.”
He added: “This is the main thoroughfare into the city. People don’t want to see the building [how it currently is]. It should look good down here and not a show.”
But further up Edge Lane towards Kensington, there’s a slightly different mood. Inside Patsy’s Place, a workshop and emporium filled to the brim with salvaged and upcycled products, Dianne Green is finishing up for the day.
The office space in the building is set below a dance academy next door, which thunders down from the roof above. All around is salvaged wood and collectables, as though a film set waiting to be whisked into shape.
But there’s a sense the Littlewoods vision isn’t going to be the saviour for this part of Kensington. “If it’s going to bring jobs and local opportunities then it will be a good thing," says Dianne, owner of Patsy’s Place, "but how will it help those who really need the help right now?”
Dianne lived in Kensington for 55 years and recalls how the uniform terrace streets used to be “fabulous”, with a thriving high street running alongside. But similar to other parts of the city, ‘the Victorian Quarter’ has lost some of its sheen as it’s grappled with a growth in Houses of Multiple Occupation and a less anchored population.
The workshop sits on the corner of Botanic Road, which shares its name with the park facing across. At the back of the greenspace the Littlewoods Building fills the backdrop of the landscape.
"Will it mean they finally put some money into the park?" says Dianne, lamenting the changes to the area she once held so dear. “It used to be blooming with flowers.”
On Littlewoods as a potential film studio, she adds: "It will be good to see something happening. But it doesn’t help people from the bottom - people need jobs now.”
At the front of the workshop, Dianne’s husband Michael Green is working on a refurbished table. Stepping away from the tools for a moment, he says he isn’t hugely confident the film studios bring salvation to the area.
“We’ve been hearing this for 10 years now,” says Michael, when asked if he’s excited funding has now been signed off, “we’ve been hearing the same thing since we moved in here.”
He added: “When we took over this space, the landlord said [the Littlewoods project] would have been a selling point. It was said we could maybe be making props and we would get some business. 10 years later it’s not even getting built.”
“I won’t be holding my breath, but nobody is. We aren’t thinking about it anymore.”
Asked if the likely three year wait to see the studios built will mean valuable time lost as other cities bolster the film and TV offer, Adam Higgins from Capital and Centric believes the demand will still be there - with Liverpool still one of main attractions for production companies.
He told the ECHO: "There’s still a huge demand from film producers to make films in the UK and Liverpool is top of the list. Demand is always going to be there, and The Depot [the pop up studios on Edge Lane] are doing a good job in the interim.”
On the changes the film studio can bring to Kensington and the neighbourhoods around Edge Lane, Adam believes it will bring valuable social regeneration, not simply the redevelopment of one of the city’s most iconic buildings.
He added: "It can't just be physical regeneration, it has to be social regeneration as well. And we’ll be getting social regeneration started well in advance of that.
“Because it is not regeneration if it's only going to provide jobs for the people who would have got jobs anyway. It's only true regeneration if it allows people in that locality and younger school leavers to get involved in a project and excited about a project they would never have known existed. I think that's an exciting prospect.”
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