Normally, at this time of year we'd be joining in with the Heritage Open Days Festival, celebrating the wonderful history of The Old Library and our local area.

For Heritage Open Days back in 2018, we welcomed visitors inside the grounds for the first time since the library closed and shared our new designs for the building, gathering feedback on all the events & activities that our community would like to enjoy when The Old Library re-opens.

Fast forward to 2019 when construction work had started on site and we spent a whole weekend showing people some of the amazing heritage features of the building as it was stripped back to its bare bones - a rare chance to see real heritage restoration in progress.

This year, we had planned to be open and finally able to celebrate without the hard-hats and high vis jackets! But with all the challenges 2020 has thrown our way, we have to wait a little longer before we can welcome our community back inside the building.

Instead, we put together this little film which shows you some sneak peeks of The Old Library as we near completion and you can hear from some of our staff, local volunteers & contractors who have supported the project over the last 18 months.

Sorry that we’ve been a bit quiet over these last few months. It’s been a strange and busy time! We closed our childcare facilities back in March and most of our staff have been on furlough. With thanks to emergency funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a core team were able to keep working from home to keep The Old Library project running (along with our builders & design team on site).

Behind the scenes we’ve been working hard fundraising to overcome our recent financial challenges and source everything we need to move into The Old Library, as well as securing tenants for our new offices, sorting out all our IT & software needs, designing a new website, putting together contracts, recruiting new staff, working on our heritage interpretation, planning socially distanced community activities and finding new ways of working so we can keep everybody safe. We also moved some of our activities online – like virtual belly-dancing and sharing research by our local history volunteers – and have been keeping in touch with our community as much as possible on social media and through our newsletter.

We’re pleased to say that we were able to re-open our childcare facilities earlier this month and in terms of The Old Library, the finish line is in sight! We’re hoping to be able to move in soon and will share more information about opening as soon as we can. Remember that you can also sign up to our newsletter for monthly updates straight into your email inbox.

In the meantime, thank you for your continued support and watch this space…

Come and join us in The Old Library! Our lovingly refurbished building is due to open in September and Lister Steps are looking for tenants to move into our brand new office spaces.

Our tenancy agreements include key services such as housekeeping & maintenance, high-speed internet, reception services, accessible parking and access to catering services & childcare.

With discounted rates for venue hire at The Old Library, you can also take advantage of hosting in-house meetings & conferences in our newly restored facilities.

These secure spaces allow you the privacy to run your own business whilst benefiting from everything The Old Library has to offer, such as on-site café facilities and a range of in-house well-being activities throughout the working day.

Plus, by choosing The Old Library as a home for your business, you will join Lister Steps in a network of conscientious individuals and organisations working to build a vibrant business community in our city. 

For more information, please contact our Events Manager Laura at laura.richardson@listersteps.co.uk.

Happy Easter everyone!

We hope that you and your families are all keeping well at this difficult time. We're missing all our events and being able to meet up with our lovely friends & neighbours but finding lots of ways to keep busy online. Click the links below to head to our

pages and join in with our photography challenge, read the latest case studies from our local history volunteers, take part in an online belly-dancing class or share your lockdown knit & crochet projects!

We've also got some fabulous recipes for over the Easter weekend, put together for the Lister Steps team by our volunteer Chris who does an amazing job looking after our Instagram page and helping out with our social media. They are so good that we wanted to share them with all of you! You can download them below and hopefully they will give you some inspiration for how to enjoy the Easter period whilst staying safe at home.

Hi everyone,

Our Lister Steps childcare facilities are currently open as usual (18.03.2020) but it probably comes as no surprise that we have made the decision to pause all our upcoming community events & activities until the current COVID-19 situation improves. We want everyone in our community to stay safe & healthy and this seems the most sensible way to reduce any unnecessary risks. The following weekly groups are therefore cancelled until further notice:
 

• Knit & Natter (Monday mornings)
• Bellydancing (Thursday evenings)
• Researching Our Roots (Friday afternoons)

 
We are also postponing the following events until it’s appropriate to reschedule:
 

• Thursday 26th March: Liverpool’s Heritage: People, Places & Spaces. If you have already booked tickets through Eventbrite, you will be refunded from 31st March according to their policies. If you have any questions or concerns, please email our Events Manager (laura.richardson@listersteps.co.uk)

 

• Saturday 28th March: Litter pick in Newsham Park

 

• Wednesday 1st April: One Year on Site at St Cecilia’s Club

 
Although we’re disappointed that we won’t be able to enjoy these activities with you as planned, we’re looking forward to getting back together with all our fabulous friends & neighbours as soon as possible once the current situation improves. In the meantime, we’ll be keeping in touch as much as possible on social media so make sure you follow our @ListerStepsHub pages on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
 
Look after each other and we hope that everyone stays safe and happy in these unusual times.
 
Lister Steps & The Old Library project team x

Thanks to National Lottery Players & the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we've been able to offer two bursary placements on site at The Old Library with our builders H.H.Smith & Sons and the sub-contractors working on site.

Laurie & Paul have been working on site at The Old Library since last autumn. We caught up with them to hear about their experiences so far and you can watch the video below to find out what they've been up to during their time on the project.

Since then, we're thrilled to  announce that Paul has been offered a permanent position with J.D.Engineering and will be seeing The Old Library project to completion before moving on with his new job! Laurie is still working with us for another month and we're excited to see what opportunities will come his way by the time his placement is over.

We couldn't have asked for two better individuals to help us restore The Old Library and we're really pleased that the experience has started to open doors for Paul & Laurie. Thank you to the National Lottery for making it all possible!

So 2019, the year we started work on The Old Library, is coming to a close. There's been some exciting progress recently with 95% of the windows now glazed and plastering underway in the Boys & Girls reading room and Entrance Hall. All the roof truss repairs are now complete, which is brilliant news, along with the joists of the first floor gallery and the wooden panelling from the centre of the building has been removed to allow internal works to progress. Some of the replica cornices have been made and recently arrived on site (see the photo below). These will start to be installed once the final timber repairs to the frameworks that support the plaster ceilings are finished.

On the outside of the building, repairs to the external masonry & pointing are underway and restoration of the cupola (the tower over the main entrance) is now complete. The scaffolding has started to come down so the view from Green Lane is beginning to look quite impressive!

However, we're not out of the woods yet. Those who receive our monthly newsletter will know that the level of damp inside the building after standing empty for so long has caused serious rot across much of the wood inside the building, including that which supports the historic plaster ceilings. Sadly, this meant that we lost the Entrance Hall ceiling a few months ago after it collapsed and the dramatic central rooflight above what will become the cafe area is also at risk. We cannot afford to lose any more of this special building’s unique & historic character. Work is already underway to re-mould and recreate these beautiful structures over the next few months but the additional costs of this mean that we desperately need some extra help from our supporters.

We have set up a Just Giving page for anyone who would like to play their part in restoring these iconic elements of The Old Library. Your donations are vital in helping us raise the additional funds we need to complete these historic repairs in our beloved building and meet the shortfall we face after discovering the extent and severity of damage throughout The Old Library.  Any donation - no matter how big or small – will make a difference. It’s your way of putting something real back into the fabric of the building &continuing the legacy of The Old Library. 
 
Donate here to ensure that The Old Library remains a source of support, opportunity & inspiration for local people and can be enjoyed by our community for many years to come.

We had such a lovely evening at our community Christmas party here at Lister Steps. Over 50 people joined us to enjoy mulled wine and mince pies plus we had fantastic entertainment from the JLC Choir who serenaded us with Christmas classics and crowd pleasers.

It was a great way to say thank you to everyone for another year of support for Lister Steps & The Old Library project and to wish all our friends & neighbours a very Merry Christmas!

Despite the cold, we had a brilliant day on Saturday 9th November opening up The Old Library once again for over 200 people to come and see the latest progress. For the first time we were able to provide access to the first floor via our new staircase, something that most people had never been able to do, even when the library was open, as upstairs was out of bounds to everyone except staff!

If you missed it, check out the video below and join us for our next open day on Saturday 18th January, 10am - 3pm.

This final photo competition of the year was a little different to previous months...there was no theme but you only had one week to send photos in so we could start getting our 2020 calendar ready. However, we were not disappointed as we received so many amazing entries from across our beautiful city. Big congratulations to Chantelle Owen, who is our November winner with her wintery shot taken in Croxteth Park.

However, because this is the last photo competition of 2019, we've also selected two more winners from all the entries we've received throughout the year to make up the 12 months of our calendar. Congratulations are therefore also in order for Chris Scott, with his shot of the ADHD Foundation umbrellas installation in Church Alley, and Phil Longfoot, with his panoramic shot of the Royal Albert Dock. See the winning shots below as well a wonderful selection of others that were sent in this month - thanks to all who entered!

And now it's over to you! We're giving the top prize of a camera for one overall winner so we need you to vote for your favourite shot from the year. Head to our voting page to cast your vote by Sunday 1st December. The winner will be announced before the end of the year!