Our collaborative project has a green light as we have contacted an interested artist from the Royal Standard.Full steam ahead. I did a preliminary web-trawl for Liverpool connections to some of the interests represented through my own practice. I was initially interested in the textile trade and later the devastating damage sustained during the Blitz. But two aspects immediately caught my eye. 1. the docks – construction, use, demise and remodelling. 2. the off-shore WW2 forts. With the forts, it was the architectural forms, wartime use and the gradual degradation or destruction of them. The Army needed Forts to break up heavy bomber formations using the Thames as a navigation aid to London’s Docklands. In the North of England, Liverpool was also seen as a target by the enemy. The Mersey Bay off Liverpool were to get 3 sets of Heavy Anti-Aircraft (AA) Army Forts constructed by the Cleeveden Bridge Company. A detailed site on many of the forts along our coast is:
http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/CityReunion/FortFanatics.html
However, I can just imagine the tricky logistics if we wanted at some future point to do a physical tour of structures way out at sea that may or may not still be there. An easier physical tour would be of land sited defences. There do seem to still be pill-box defences and the like surrounding Liverpool, but research so far has not revealed any still in Liverpool centre itself. Further research required. Dominique Rey
