The revitalising of an historic town centre

With its towering medieval church, timber framed buildings and well-preserved Georgian and Victorian architecture, Prescot is one of Merseyside’s most historic towns. Famed for its watchmaking during the 18th and 19th centuries, Prescot’s varied industrial past includes coal mining, pottery and toolmaking.

After a decline of many years we are now seeing the regeneration of the town centre taking place as millions of pounds are being invested.

The Challenge talked to John Flaherty, Executive Director of Place at Knowsley Council, a man who is at the forefront of the scheme and who is clearly passionate about the Prescot masterplan. This is what John had to say:

TC: What are your plans for Prescot?
JF: For a number of years members of the council have seen the opportunity that was available to bring the renaissance back to Prescot town centre, we have to remember Prescot was, in it’s day a very busy town, but then through the decades the economic cycle impacted on Prescot, just like many other retail centres.

A lot of people said the centre suffered due to the retail development and blame them from draining the footfall from the town centre, so what the council members wanted to do was to come up with a ‘master plan’ which was launched in 2016, what we wanted to do was to reconnect the town.

We wanted to reconnect the retail park through Kemble Street into Eccleston Street and up into the High Street and beyond to the bypass and ultimately to the safari park.

Our vision for Prescot is to become a weekend destination and the catalyst for that is absolutely, the Shakespeare North Theatre.

TC: What other schemes do you have in place?
JF: We have a £9.3million bid in to the combined authority to improve the railway station, this will mean new improvements including access, lifts and an improvement in the car parking and relating to this there will be a Shakespearian trail from the railway station, through the residential area opposite, past the new Shakespearian hotel, around the retail park and up Sewell Street and into the theatre.

As people arrive off the cruise liners in Liverpool they will travel into Prescot via the new station, then follow the Shakespearian trail into the heart of Prescot.

We also aim to replace the whole of the public realm of Eccleston Street and make it vehicular proof.

TC: Any other plans?
JF: We are also going to look at bringing our arts strategy into place, which will be based on illumination and animation. This will fit in with the THI schemes, which are changing the face of retail in Prescot with the new buildings, and new frontages that we are putting in.

This will light up, as part of that £9.3million bid, the church and theatre and lighting up Eccleston Street.

In addition to all this we will have the new 27 bed boutique Shakespearian themed hotel which will be a great addition alongside Prescot Park, the former BICC factory, we have the last of the four developers coming into place. This will mean all 700 hundred new properties will be on site.

TC: What is happening to the Market Place?
JF: We will also have the market place which we will have half a million pounds of development going into that space which will see the La Rocca family, manage the outdoor market and café that will be included and the performance activities that will take place there.

We want the market place to be the heartbeat of Prescot town centre, which I believe is a really exciting addition.

Our aim at the moment, through the THIA project is to bring back as many of the beautiful frontages of the shops in the centre, which will lead to some real commercial interest.

The Red Lion pub has just been bought and will be, potentially have a restaurant on the ground floor and apartments above.

We are also in discussion with Gary Usher, the owner of Wreckfish in Liverpool city centre to open a restaurant on Eccleston Street, these plans are well in advance and will be a huge addition to the town centre.

TC: What about the local businesses?
JF: We recognise the independent businesses that we have in Prescot and we want these small businesses to be a big part of Prescot, we don’t want the nationals there, we want local entrepreneurs and local independent businesses to really establish themselves here.

We are also currently trying to acquire 48-50 Kemble Street and the old picture house because we want to try and influence the future development on that site, in all truth some of the area has been an eyesore, we want to make sure that no-one buys those buildings and sits on them.

These buildings are in a real key position facing out onto the theatre; we want it to fit with the market place and the theatre and to connect with the church. You can see the connection between the woodlands, the market place, the theatre and the outdoor Shakesperian performances that MATE Productions who have been putting on recently.

TC: How will the theatre work with the community?
JF: The whole vision of Shakespeare North is around a community and education led model.

We will have master degree students in the theatre practising and performing the Shakespearian language and Shakespeare’s plays, which will lead to a significant number of plays throughout the year involving all those touring troupes.

Actors will come and spend a couple of weeks on site during their performances and also working with students, community group and the schools to share their experiences and their expertise, this will lead to a series of high quality performances. We see it as a receiving house rather than a production house.

There will be a tight relationship between the Globe, the RUS and Shakespeare North and we see it as key to the future success.

The important thing to us is that this is owned, loved and used by the local community, it will not be a theatre that is visited by people outside the area, the community will lead it.

The whole success of this model is that our children, schools from across the city region will have access to these programmes. We have seen our local schools perform at the as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival which was held at the Huyton leisure centre and they were absolutely stunning, we now want all of those schools to be able to perform at the theatre.

This we hope will lead to more of our schools being able to participate in the festival and to actually deliver those performances at the theatre.

I want Prescot to be a thriving, busy High Street and with more high quality, independent cafes, restaurants, bars, a cinema and theatre.

The more we have going on in the town centre will lead to more activity and footfall, we will also see the local community benefit.

We are trying to make that link of connectivity between leisure, evening and social activities, a mix of food retailing and bars, we want the local businesses to thrive.

We want people to visit Prescot and to dwell, spend time there, we want to take the two million visitors to the retail park to come and have some ‘dwell time’ in the town centre not just to visit the retail park area driving in and driving out again, we have to give them a reason to enjoy what Prescot has got to offer them.

TC: What is your vision for Prescot in say ten years time?
JF: What I want to see is that in ten years Prescot will be a thriving mix of leisure, retail and social activity that is based on its heritage.

I can absolutely see a renaissance for the town and from Knowsley’s point of view Prescot will be the jewel in the crown.

If you look at all the development that is happening around Prescot you can see, with a huge degree of certainty, that what Prescot has been promised in terms of new investment, new delivery, new housing, new jobs and better retail growth, better leisure activities, we absolutely see that that is going to happen in Prescot.

We are confident that the residents of Prescot will have a great place to live with lots of choice, and I want to see people from the cruise liner terminal in Liverpool come to Prescot, stay the weekend, go to the theatre, to the safari park, go to see Prescot Cables play, and spend all their money in the town centre.

We want a really thriving, exciting future for Prescot, but to do that we have all got to work together.