Liverpool has a lot of quarters; no I have not lost my mind, though our children may disagree. Let me list some of them, there is the: -
Georgian Quarter,
Maritime Quarter,
Cultural Quarter,
Chinese Quarter
Met Quarter,
Cavern Quarter,
Quarry Quarter
Quarters: the costume jewellers fit for a Queen.
The Quarter, a Sefton Street residential development.
Now the City Council, following the lead of Manchester and pressure from the Gay community is intending to turn the area around Stanley Street into a Gay Village. This makes good business sense as the Pink Pound is worth a great deal and brings in lots of visitors.
But why does this involve closing off various streets? Stanley Street, Cumberland Street will be closed to traffic Thursday to Sunday from 10pm to 6am, while Eberle Street will be closed to traffic permanently.
Representatives, which means the owners, of the pubs and bars, say this is not enough create the "café culture" of a Gay Village and want the streets closed off 7 pm till 6 am. This is so that smokers can sit outside and have a drag... this has nothing to do with "café society".
This will also mean that dozens of parking spaces are lost in a city that has outlawed the motorist. Treat Gays the way motorists have been treated and you would be charged with 'motorphobia'.
The area suited them once, why not now? And who is to say that in the future the bars and clubs in the area will survive? The Lisbon has been a popular gay pub for years and it is only the poorly thought out legislation that now has smokers polluting the streets, that the owners want to put tables and chairs outside. I find it very amusing when it is cold and wet seeing the afflicted indulging in their vice.
Has anyone considered that this Gay Village is in the wrong place? Would it not be better in the area around Queens Square which was home to the Magic Clock pub presided-over by the famous bartender Sadie. There was also the Wheel of Fortune.
The surrounding area Williamson Square, Richmond Street is already pedestrianised and we would not have to spend over quarter of a million pounds of our money, blocking off the roads to traffic.
Mathew Street works because you are not blocking-off through roads in a business district. I cannot see the point in blocking-off roads to create a false atmosphere and cause, yet more, traffic congestion.
A little known or used aspect, of Liverpool's musical heritage is that Freddie Mercury got the name for Queen from The Queen Building on Dale Street, just across from the Town Hall. He thought it was funny to call a building Queen and that’s were the name came from. Don't believe me? Pop into John Moores University; ask to see the Vice Chancellor Dr. Brian May and he will confirm it.
I once took a group from The Freddie Mercury Appreciation Society on a tour of Liverpool. We walked from a city centre hotel to The Cavern, Freddie played the original Cavern. You have to be very sure of your own sexuality walking through Liverpool with a group of men dressed in Basques, fish net stocking, high heels and wigs all singing “We are the Champions” a la Freddie, while at the same time wearing a pink shirt.
Freddie also lived for a while in Dovedale Towers on Penny Lane and sang in The Sink on Renshaw Street with the band Ibex. So endeth the music history lesson.
I am not a smoker, as you may have guessed, nor am I a drinker, but I am a motorist and I object to what the Looney Dems and their partners The Greens have done to our city and the sooner a bout of common sense breaks out, the better.
If you are going to please one group, you are going to upset another. In this case it is the Motorists of Merseyside, who now have to endure, after the City Centre Constipation Strategy has spent 50 million pounds of public money, the most congested city centre outside of London, according to the AA.
Thank you Christine Wray, (Traffic Mismanagement Person) whom I imagine is a cycling, vegetarian, fully-qualified busybody. A person who hates the car and the motorist and just wants to close the entire city to vehicles apart from the bike, the bus and the pogo stick.
I started this blog by listing the Quarters in the city. So, we are to have a Gay Village that The Scouser, with his usual irreverent eloquence is already referring to as: The Queer Quarter.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
(Thu 02/12)
TURN IT DOWN.
(Thu 11/11)
Do we need another Beatles book.
(Mon 11/10)
President or Pope, who is most welcome?
(Mon 16/08)
