Hope Street, Liverpool, England.
It stretches from the city's Roman Catholic cathedral, past the Anglican cathedral to Upper Parliament Street and it is the local high street of the Canning Georgian Quarter. It contains various restaurants, hotels and bars and is one of Liverpool's official 'Great Streets' and was also awarded 'The Great Street Award' in the 2012 Urbanism Awards, judging it to be the best street in the country. The road runs parallel to Rodney Street (the Harley Street of the north). Together with Gambier Terrace and Rodney Street it forms the Rodney Street conservation area. The years immediately after the Millennium saw the public realm of Hope Street enhanced and the Hope Street area has sometimes been referred to as the Hope Street Quarter.
The street is named after William Hope, a merchant whose house stood on the site now occupied by the Philharmonic Hall.
Hope Street was voted as the best street in the UK and Ireland by The Academy of Urbanism, who awarded it The Great Street 2013.
The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street,
The building was constructed as Hope Hall, a dissenters' chapel built in 1837. In 1841 it became a church dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. This became a public concert hall in 1853. In 1912 the hall was turned into Hope Hall Cinema, which continued serving this purpose until it closed in 1963. Prior to its closure the hall had become a meeting place for local artists, poets, folk musicians, and sculptors, including Arthur Dooley, Roger McGough, and Adrian Henri, forming what became known as the Liverpool Scene. This group decided that the building would be suitable for use as a theatre and in September 1964 the Everyman Theatre was opened by Martin Jenkins, Pete James and Terry Hands.
In 1975 the theatre closed and was rebuilt, its work being continued as a touring company until it re-opened in September 1977. During the 1970s and the 1980s works of Liverpool playwrights, including Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale, received debuts in the theatre: these included Shirley Valentine and John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. In addition to plays, the theatre has produced musicals, concerts, and an annual rock-n-roll panto each Christmas.During its time the theatre has been involved with the careers of Julie Walters, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Pryce, Pete Postlethwaite, Antony Sher, Bill Nighy, Barbara Dickson, Matthew Kelly, and Cathy Tyson.
More recently the Everyman programme has ranged from classics such as Pete Postlethwaite’s King Lear, Jonathan Pryce in The Caretaker and David Morrissey’s Macbeth to world premières of plays by a new generation of Liverpool writers such as Robert Farquhar, Jonathan Larkin, Nick Leather, Michael McLean, Chloe Moss, Lizzie Nunnery, Stephen Sharkey, Esther Wilson and Laurence Wilson.
The theatre is managed together with Liverpool Playhouse by Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust. Since 2004 The two theatres have worked to an integrated programme run by their artistic director and their executive director. Together they are registered as a charity known as Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust Limited.
Liverpool’a Everyman theatre, designed by Haworth Tompkins architects, has won the Stirling prize for the best building of the year.
Awarded by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the landmark theatre beat off the bookies’ favourite of the LSE’s student centre in Aldwych, as well as the Shard and the Olympic aquatics centre in London.
““The project is a remarkable achievement, doing that rare thing for a new building, of feeling like it’s always been there.”
Almost 10 years in the making, the building replaced a theatre on the same site, which opened in 1964 in a converted 19th-century chapel. It had become a much-loved institution, having launched the careers of local heroes like Roger McGough and the Liverpool poets, and the playwright Willy Russell.
With a limited budget of £28m, the architects were charged to make a building that “shouldn’t feel too posh”, in the words of the theatre’s artistic director Gemma Bodinetz, with the “warmth, earthiness and democratic humanity” of the old theatre
Liverpool City Centre Spring 2014
