Plans to build a 1,000ft tower dubbed the 'Scousescraper' on Liverpool's world-famous waterfront would have seen the city become home to the tallest building in Europe .
Over the years, Liverpool has seen its fair share of fantastical schemes that didn't come to fruition. From the controversial "cloud" building dubbed the fourth grace to bringing Disneyland to the city, many plans have turned out to be little more than pipe-dreams.
However, that's not to say all of the most ambitious plans never left the drawing board. The foundations of the great cathedral, larger than St Paul's, were laid but building was interrupted by World War II, resulting in only part of the visionary design being completed in the form of Lutyens' Crypt.
READ MORE:
- 'Scary' Liverpool statue 'nobody recognised' before vandals forced makeover
- Lost Liverpool pub made famous in iconic 1980s television show
But perhaps one of the most whimsical ideas was for a supertall skyscraper that would have completely dominated the waterfront. Taller than the Eiffel Tower and Canary Wharf, plans were drawn up for an Otterspool Tower to be built on the former Festival Gardens site.
The improbable idea was first introduced in 1995 with an official proposal put forward in 1998. Dubbed the 'Scousescraper', the plans made the front page and were outlined in the Liverpool ECHO in February 1998.
The £750m scheme was for 1,000ft skyscraper with a futuristic pleasure park and shopping centre. Undoubtedly, it would have been one of the world's most spectacular developments.
Predominantly leisure based, the ECHO reported the proposed tower was to contain a theme park with "Disney-style" rides, a tropical jungle stretching up 30 floors and a gigantic waterfall. In addition, a five star hotel would be incorporated containing 2,500 bedrooms.
Oliver Iny, chief executive of the tower's developers, Wiggins Group, told a Liverpool news conference: "This is not a pie-in-the-sky scheme and we have no intention of leaving Liverpool with a white elephant. This development will be created on a partnership basis with financial backers."
The proposed plans for the 1,000ft tower would have made it the tallest building in Europe at that time. There were even fears its immense stature would have been a danger to aircraft, prompting Liverpool Airport boss at the time, Rod Hill, to dampen fears, saying: "The site is not on our flight path so it wouldn't be a problem in that respect as long as it is well illuminated."
He added: "On the whole I think a development of this nature can only be good for the city and the airport as it is likely to attract a lot of extra visitors."
The proposed 91-acre site had previously been transformed into the International Garden Festival site in the early 1980s. It was estimated that 10 million tons of rubbish was still buried under the site from its previous use as a landfill site in the 1930s.
Had the development gone ahead, the site would have needed to have been subject to a massive decontamination programme. Despite the excitement surrounding the ambitious scheme, not everyone was convinced.
The Liberal Democrat council came out against the proposals, with key Lib-Dem member and councillor for the area, Cllr Ron Gould, saying: "We will be opposing anything that would involve such a huge building. It would make it the largest in Europe and who would want to live next door to that?"
For more nostalgia stories, sign up to our Liverpool Echo newsletter here.
In the 'ECHO comment' section in the same edition that the story broke, we also took a sceptical view of the plans. It reads: "There is nothing wrong with ambition - some would argue Liverpool has had too little of it - but the response to today's announcement is bound to be tempered by incredulity.
"Is there really likely to be the demand for a project of such size and scale in Liverpool? Would the money really be made available to turn such a dream into reality?"
Does this story awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
And it was this sense of doubt that turned out to be well founded. In November 1999, the developers who unveiled the plans for the 'Scousescraper' admitted the idea had been scrapped. The ECHO reported the council had forced the group to withdraw their planning application for the 90-storey tower because they were considered unsuitable.
Join our Liverpool memories and history Facebook group here.
With the developer claiming the grand original plan was only ever to have been to "test the water", relations with the City Council broke down after plans for a third scheme, without the tower, were rejected in 2002. The site itself remained undeveloped until 2021, when remediation work began to remove the waste material of the former landfill for a large housing development.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
- Vanished city centre hotel loved by celebrities and tourists for over 30 years
- 22 photos show lost Liverpool factory and those who worked there
- 20 fascinating photos of Merseyside markets through the decades
- Liverpool's 'coolest' Chinese restaurant you may have forgotten existed
- Memories of 'crazy nights' at lost nightclub that was 'the place to go' in the 1990s
