Sunday 7 December 2008

Remember This Building?

Well this is one of the photos I took of the Costa in Liverpool, remember? I don't blame you if you don't - it was a few months ago! Anyway, the reason it's back is because I wanted to share with you all my attempt to get into the Observer Sunday Review paper, about this very building. Readers were asked to talk about things that were culturally significant to them in 2008 and since I didn't want to chop down one of my gig reviews, thinking that it was cheating, I decided to challenge myself by writing about Costa Liverpool - hopefully with positive results, although only time will tell!

Here it is:

Through the hordes of people wearing high-viz jackets and fluorescent tutus (though thankfully not simultaneously), Liverpool is a mysteriously black and white city. Being the Capital of Culture, you might have thought that someone would make the effort to dress everything up a little – it seems that the majority of new buildings are covered in soulless glass or made grotesquely imposing.
But nestled comfortably in the City Centre is a quirky Costa CafĂ©, decorated with rainbow-coloured pipes that contrast magnificently against the architectural gloom around it. Screaming at you to wonder at its marvels, the building demands that you laugh derisively at its contemporaries’ attempts to outshine it.