More than just a hard day’s night for Liverpool

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Liverpool was one of England’s premier cities. As a port on England’s north-west coast, it grew rich on the trade in goods which passed through its famous docks. From the start of the 20th century, the city wentinto decline as trade dried up and old industries closed down.

Whatever the cheery image of Liverpool projected by the Beatles and the optimism of 1960s Mersey Beat bands, by the 1980s the city’s name was associated with high unemployment, crime and urban riots.

But the city - selected alongside Stavanger, Norway, as a European Capital of Culture for 2008 - now has a special opportunity to prove that cities can exploit their cultural heritage and reputation to compensate for the impact of economic decline.

According to Neil Patterson of Liverpool Welcome, the organisation responsible for making the city’s 12 months as city of culture a success, "culture and football kept the city going" through the most difficult years. The international fame of the Beatles and the reputation of Liverpool FC have been crucial in maintaining a positive image for Liverpool.

But, as Patterson explains, Liverpool has a wider range of culture to draw on than just the Beatles or events at the Anfield football ground, including the Liverpool Philharmonic, Tate Liverpool contemporary art gallery and, at Albert Dock, the highest number of listed buildings afforded the strongest protection status in a single site in the UK. The city also has one of the largest ranges of museums outside London, including the Walker art gallery, the maritime history museum, a slavery museum and the Beatles museum. "2008 gives us a chance to show off Liverpool’s new cultural offer," Patterson says.

During the year the city is planning to give a further boost to cultural organisations by providing extra funds to help them stage ‘blockbuster’ events. The world renowned conductor, Simon Rattle, who was born in Liverpool and is director of the Berlin Philharmonic, will be guest conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic. The city will also host the launch of the annual Tall Ships sailing race in July.

After the loss of manufacturing and port service jobs since the 1970s, the city has been working hard to exploit its tourist potential as a means of drawing more visitors and their disposable income to the area and developing new sources of employment. Liverpool has already risen to be the sixth most visited city in the UK, from 16th.

Patterson says that the year of culture is expected to help raise the number of visitors by 1.7 million on top of the 12 million overnight stays the city currently receives. Hotel capacity is being expanded from 2,000 to 4,000 rooms including a Beatles-themed hotel, named with typical Scouse humour, one must assume, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. The city has also built a new arena and convention centre on the dockside with 10,600 seats for staging concerts and major conferences. Liverpool is also home to the largest retail development in northern Europe, Liverpool One. "The cultural and retail offer will be top class," says Liverpool Welcome’s Patterson.

Liverpool still faces considerable economic challenges. In 2007 its unemployment rate was 5.0% (3.7% for the Merseyside region) compared to the UK average of 2.1% and 2.4% for the north-west region as a whole. Other former industrial cities outside the south-east which were hit hard by deindustrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham have developed as regional centres for financial and legal services. But Liverpool has not been as successful in pursuing this path, partly because Manchester (50 kilometres away) has traditionally been the regional centre and has benefited from government offices being transferred out of London and the south-east to other parts of England.

Liverpool has the next 12 months to show the world that there is more to the city than Beatles nostalgia. But it is only after the media attention that comes from being European city of culture has moved elsewhere that it will be possible to judge the lasting benefits of tourism and retail-led development.In the 18th and 19th centuries, Liverpool was one of England’s premier cities. As a port on England’s north-west coast, it grew rich on the trade in goods which passed through its famous docks. From the start of the 20th century, the city wentinto decline as trade dried up and old industries closed down.