On the far side of The Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, the entrance to a high-rise block of flats is adjoined by the doors entering a bookmakers.
When the shopping centre first opened in 1968 it was at the height of modernity and reflected the ambitions of a town ready to step out of the shadow of central Liverpool.
Nearly 60 years later, the entrance to the Strand House highrise is reflective of a town where the odds have been stacked against it.
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Opportunity and optimism thinned as the town faced harsh cuts in the last decade, giving way to little more than chance.
“Some people see bookies as a necessary evil,” Eddy Flynn tells the ECHO a few metres away inside The Strand, “but if I never saw one again I'd be made up.
“Why can’t we have something constructive there, something that brings something to the area?”
Once through the doors to The Strand however, a new, positive picture of Bootle is already taking shape.
Mr Flynn runs Bootle Tool Shed, a community craft workshop aimed at tackling social isolation.
It’s recently branched out to open a bike workshop next door and neighbours a stretch of social enterprises now based on the bottom floor of the shopping centre.
These include The Big Onion Project, a social hub and incubator space for aspiring entrepreneurs, Kingsley & Co, a children’s bookshop and learning space and Strand By Me, a community health services shop.
The cluster of initiatives paint a picture of a human and quietly ambitious Bootle - one that’s trying to level up and regenerate in its own way given it doesn’t appear to fit the Government's mould for funding and support.
'Destination Bootle'
To the side of the Strand Shopping centre, space has been cleared along the Leeds Liverpool Canal.
Sefton Council is aiming to transform the site into a multipurpose events space which, in the view of council leader Ian Maher, will “kickstart the regeneration of Bootle town centre”.
The space has so far hosted two events but more development is needed at the site.
While the project has received partial funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Bootle missed out on millions of pounds of Government funds when its levelling up bid was rejected last October - despite being seen as one of the higher priority areas for support, and one which meets the government’s characteristics of being in the need of ‘levelling up’ when its grand vision was announced by Michael Gove a few weeks back.
The money would have been a significant boost to the plans and so a business case is now being made in a bid to realise it via other means.
It’s an outcome that did little to shift a prevailing sense of neglect, deepened by Southport’s own significant regeneration being backed by £37.5m from the Government.
However, according to Sefton's cabinet member for regeneration, Cllr Marion Atkinson, the council will be "looking at all angles to get the money" to complete the project.
Cllr Atkinson added: "Our ambition when we bought The Strand was to regenerate it and see a knock on effect in the outer areas as well.
"We're not leaving anyone behind in that sense.
"We've given opportunities to the voluntary and third sector in The Strand and there's some fantastic work going on.
"That is going to be part and parcel of the regeneration of The Strand and Bootle. We know that we need a diverse offer, but it also needs hard investment too from investors, developers and predominantly government."
The canal side is also the proposed centre of Safe Regeneration’s ‘destination Bootle’ neighbourhood, which aims to build one of the largest social housing projects in the UK.
Submitted plans were however rejected by Sefton Council’s planning committee in March 2021.
But there’s hope they can still materialise and see a new community mushroom out from the grounds of the Lock & Quay pub - opened by Safe Regeneration and the UK’s only community run pub which reinvests all its profits into local projects.
'Bootle is as good a place as any to start'
Much like the ambitions of Destination Bootle, inside The Strand there is a similar level of community self determination on show.
The wider shopping centre may wear the unavoidable strains of highstreet decline, with a number of units empty and some of its biggest brands now departed - compounded by figures stating Sefton Council faces losing over £3m on the centre in the next three years following its purchase in 2017.
But where the financial outlook may appear bleak, there is a richness in social value being led by the people of Bootle on the ground floor.
The Big Onion Project was started by Merseyside Expanding Horizons and offers retail and employment support for people looking to start their own business or gain work.
It offers 19 traders units, a cafe and barbers, and provides space for training and employability help.
The flexible rents start from £49 a week and it allows for “an opportunity for people to come back onto the highstreet, but in an environment where we could incubate them”, according Chris Lewis who oversees the project.
He told the ECHO: “We wanted to create an environment where people had an opportunity to grow and get back to some kind of economic independence. Bootle is as good a place as any to start.
“There's some real creative talent here that hasn’t been given an opportunity before.”
Mr Lewis admits there is a fair amount of “cynicism” regarding levelling up and regeneration and that people have “heard it all before” in terms of promises, but he believes the highstreet is somewhere that can be reclaimed and reimagined to provide people with the skills and opportunities they need to ‘level up’ their local area.
He added: “Previous town deals and high street task force funding has been spent in the same way trying to prop up something that needs to change.
“The highstreet needs to be redesigned, it needs to look different. We can't rely on the ever shrinking number of large businesses to prop up the highstreets.”
'It’s not going to be an overnight thing'
Eddie Holmes grew up in Bootle and has worked in The Strand over the last eight years.
“I've met every type of person who comes into the centre,” he told the ECHO over a coffee inside The Big Onion.
When Mr Holmes lost his previous job in the centre he started working with Mr Lewis and is now the manager overseeing The Big Onion, or the ‘Bootle Bazaar’.
He said: “I never saw this coming. This is something Bootle needed. There was a lot of negativity around the area.
“As the years have gone on Bootle got worse, but us trying to do something like this is the point, really.
“Giving people something to own and making their own way makes a huge difference, and might just revitalise the area in its own way.
“It’s not going to be an overnight thing. It’s going to be a challenge, but a good challenge to bring life back into the area.”
Away from the traders, the Onion’s employability manager Bryan Walsh explains how the project tries to undo negative perceptions of employment in the area and perceived lack of opportunity.
He told the ECHO: “You won't be surprised to hear that people in their early 20s have already decided that they don't have anything to offer.
“They don't believe they do. A lot of the time we're trying to undo that.
“Hopefully this is more sustainable than a big splash of cash and wondering how the community is getting behind it. The community is driving this rather than anyone else.”
'Bootle is an artistic place'
The traders inside range from a guitar repair shop to stalls selling artwork and photography prints.
Philip Copeland explains how he’s had the opportunity to learn four different sets of retail skills in his time working across a range of stalls.
Philip currently works on a photography stall with Abby Ready, a photography student who also runs the 'Pickety Witch' stall, who says the diversity and offer of the Onion is trying to show “Bootle in a better light.”
This view is shared by James Wainwright and Amy Mayes who run a micro art gallery platforming local artists.
Ms Mayes told the ECHO: “There's a lot of art in the area, you just wouldn't know it at first. I think Bootle is an artistic place.
“This offers an opportunity to someone who didn't think an opportunity was there.”
John Cass, 19, has run his own clothing stall for the last two months and has been supported by the employability staff.
He told the ECHO: “I’ve always lived around these ways and there's something different about this that’s very positive.
“Something like this negates the reason for a lot of Council services in a good way.
“There's a lot of strain on social services and supporting accommodation. I only know because I've been through them all. I've had more help in my life in the two months I've been here than I've had in the 10 years.
“I'm very confident that Bootle can change for the better, but that change has to start with something like this. There is an unfortunate truth that people of my age bracket and younger get a perception built of what Bootle is.
“It is neglected Bootle, but everywhere there is potential. No matter what you've got, what space you've got, there's potential for anything if you want to put the work in.”
'Bootle absolutely is worth it'
Across from the Onion a rainforest installation is being set up by staff from The Strand and Kingsley & Co, a children’s bookshop and learning space.
The bookshop was set up by YKids, a children’s charity which has been operating in South Sefton since 2004.
It has since taken over the former library on Linacre Lane where it runs children's groups and a community pantry and last year staged Bootle Children’s literacy festival.
Its Kingsley & Co bookshop has been made permanent in The Strand with the help of Sefton Council and is looking ahead to staging rainforest themed workshops over the course of half term.
YKids founder and CEO, Claire Morgan, explains how the bookshop was realised to address poor children’s literacy rates in the Bootle area and to inspire and support children in some of the most deprived areas of the county.
Ms Morgan told the ECHO: “People are often down on children and people are often down on Bootle. And yet it's an amazing place full of amazing people.
“If children are always told they won't achieve, they won't achieve. But if they're told people believe in them then they will.”
Ms Morgan agrees that there are systemic issues in Bootle surrounding its lack of investment and deprivation that have led to a seeming lack of opportunity and confidence.
She added: “Things like being overlooked for Government funding adds to the 'you're not worth it' attitude. Bootle absolutely is worth it.
“I'm fully behind the whole redevelopment of The Strand and canal side.
“But you can't just invest in capital and expect things to change. You need to invest in capital and people - in the same way the Council has enabled us to create Kingsley & Co, The Big Onion and The Tool Shed.”
'It can help brea k the cycle of decline'
Inside the Tool Shed Eddy Flynn is serving a customer a can of inside/outside paint.
He says it’s one of the few places in the local area that sell the brand, so he has people coming from as far as the Wirral to buy it.
He told the ECHO: “People from all over Sefton, when they come they all say how amazing and fantastic it is down here.
“They're people who haven't seen Bootle or The Strand for a very long time.
“But the people coming back see the change. It's change for the better.”
While the sale of paint and other handcrafted items built in the workshop are a valuable way of displaying an emerging side of Bootle, The Tool Shed’s main emphasis is on supporting the people of the local area.
It’s a service, Mr Flynn says, makes the Tool Shed a rightful asset to The Strand and project that should be expanded where possible.
Mr Flynn told the ECHO: “This is to combat social isolation and loneliness in older men.
“We started with the aim of targeting men over 50 but we now work with anyone over the age of 18, men or women.
"I'd like to think this can regenerate an area in its own way.
"These grassroots projects will lead on to different things. Whether that's employment or giving confidence to people who might be reliant on antidepressants and struggling to get out.
“It can help break the cycle of decline.
"Some men talk best shoulder to shoulder. You get them round a bench and you'll learn their life story. It's therapy for them.
“Every hour they're here they're not sitting in a doctor's surgery.”
'We need to do something about it'
The Tool Shed regularly makes planters, a number of which now line a row of shops in Seaforth and are tended to by the locals.
But over on Lincare Lane, one of its most iconic establishments is set to bloom in a similar fashion.
The towering Linacre Pub has lay empty since closing in 2014, but for when a large-scale cannabis farm was found inside in 2019.
Plans to reopen the building as flats fell through, but now Conquer Life, a community interest company, is hoping to grow the opportunities for the people of Bootle when it relaunches as a community centre in a few week’s time.
Paul Melia, managing director of Conquer Life, is still putting the final touches to the building when speaking to the ECHO about the impetus for making it a new community hub - such as fixing the electricity after the building was wired up to the street lamps when being used as a cannabis farm.
He says the community interest company, launched in 2017, was formed to combat a growing level of antisocial behaviour in Bootle at the time.
He told the ECHO: “There were a couple of [incidents with guns] and a few incidents with young people.
“A group of us were saying it isn't right that our kids have to grow up in these circumstances and we need to do something about it.”
The enterprise formed a youth club called Vibe and has worked on a wide range of projects with young people in the area over the years.
He explains how there is an ever growing community feel in Bootle and taking on the iconic Linacre pub can one day have the same regenerative impact as the range of enterprises redefining The Strand.
He added: “Reopening the historic building on the one hand is about bringing a community asset back to life.
“It was in disrepair. But it’s also important to get the door open to such a high profile location in our community and for people to know they can come along and get support.
“We just want it to benefit our community as much as possible.
“We're always proud to say where we come from and that we're based in Bootle.”
