'This building needs to change' so it can offer 'spectacular views over the Mersey'

A preview of Tate Liverpool’s Grade 1 listed Royal Albert Dock building as it nears the end of its first redevelopment phase
-Credit:PA


The refurbishment of Tate Liverpool will create a "wildly exciting" space and unlock new views of the city, according to those behind the project. The gallery has been closed since October 2023 for a £29.7m renovation and the first phase of the work has now come to an end.

The renovation work was originally scheduled to take until 2025 but the Tate will now remain closed until 2027, having been stripped back to its shell for the transformation. Found in a former Albert Dock warehouse designed by Jesse Hartley, the gallery first opened in May 1988, having been converted by James Stirling, and was a catalyst in Liverpool's regeneration at the end of the 20th century.

The refurbishment has seen the removal of the redundant components of the old gallery in the Grade 1-listed building, which has revealed the original brick walls of the historic warehouse, signalling the end of the work's first phase. The major reimagining of this Royal Albert Dock landmark is designed by 6a architects and will transform the UK’s most-popular contemporary art gallery outside London.

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Contractors Gilbert Ash have stripped out the building’s aged infrastructure and revealed more of the Victorian warehouse’s character. This work has brought more natural light into the building and opened up views across the River Mersey that have never been accessible to the public before. Alongside this, a full renovation of the roof has included improvements to the insulation, lead sheeting, joinery, windows and guttering.

Work will now begin to establish a new art hall on the ground floor. Gallery spaces over a further three floors will be reoriented to give new panoramic views of the River Mersey, which Tate says will re-establish the building’s connection to its historic waterfront site. The staircases and lifts will be expanded and moved, providing views of the river as you ascend, while the café will be moved onto an upper floor to provide those views.

The transformation will also address critical infrastructure challenges and will end the gallery’s reliance on fossil fuels, removing gas boilers and using an all-electric operation. 6a architects' co-founder Stephanie Macdonald told the ECHO that the new Tate will be "extraordinary".

Steve Rotheram, Tate Liverpool directors Helen Legg, Maria Balshaw and Tate chairman Roland Rudd stand beside the original brick walls of Tate Liverpool's Grade 1 listed Royal Albert Dock building
Steve Rotheram, Tate Liverpool directors Helen Legg, Maria Balshaw and Tate chairman Roland Rudd stand beside the original brick walls of Tate Liverpool's Grade 1 listed Royal Albert Dock building -Credit:PA

She said: "I think it really needs to change. What we did was look at all plans, just as Hartley in 1846 had this incredibly simple plan for the massive warehouse. Then when Stirling came to it in the 1980s, he had a very simple plan as well, but a very 1980s version of a gallery.

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"It was very internalised and the docks (at that time), one must remember, were starting to be cleaned up. The water was, but they were still ruined, it wasn't a place of cultural sociability.

"So it's very internalised, the staircase is in the middle, which is very rational, but it was expecting 200,000 visitors - it was a very '80s version of art that transcended the place it was in. You didn't see the Mersey, you didn't see the dock.

"The numbers have gone up to 700,000 (visitors a year) and sometimes a million - when it was Keith Haring. They were crazy numbers, but nobody from outside sees what's happening inside. Nobody inside sees the Mersey once they're inside."

Ms Macdonald said that the plans will remedy this and open the building up, making use of its location and natural light. About the future, she said: "I think you're going to have a wildly exciting and interesting, sunshine-filled, extraordinary, big public interior on the docks that you've never had before.

"As you go up to galleries and come back out and see the Mersey, each floor that you go up you keep coming back to the Mersey, whether you go in the lifts or up the stairs. The lifts will be both glazed and you will see the river as you go up four floors.

General view of Tate Liverpool
The gallery closed for renovation in 2023 -Credit:Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror

"Then you've got cafes and more relaxed spaces all west facing, with the sunlight. I hope it will be the place where there will be marriage proposals. You look back to the city and then the art is integrated in with the experience of the building and the whole of Liverpool, it's not cordoned off.

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"This will be the first building to give that elevation of the views from the Albert Dock. It will be really public, the whole brief from the beginning was that we had to bring our communities in - this belongs to them. That serves everybody, anyone visiting Liverpool should feel that it's in action, that it's doing its thing."

Owen Watson from 6a architects added: "It's a once in a generation opportunity to create change. You've got to think about what's important to this generation and the generations who are going to come."

About the gallery's future, Tate Liverpool director Helen Legg told the ECHO: "Thinking about where we started, the experience of being in the galleries sometimes felt as though you could be in a museum anywhere in the world. We really care about Liverpool and this really important historic site that the building is based in.

How the redeveloped Tate Liverpool could look
How the redeveloped Tate Liverpool could look -Credit:6a architects

"We wanted to make sure that visitors could connect to that. Some things that the architects are doing, like throwing open all of the windows - or as many of the windows as we possibly can - and really re-connecting the experience of being out there on the docks, on the river and then being in the building, that's an important start to the project.

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"We wanted to introduce more social space so that people could really enjoy these spaces. We know that people love to come and engage with exhibitions and displays but they also want to bring their kids, meet their friends, hang out for a while.

"It was quite difficult to do that in the building as was. We had the café but it was the only social space and I think everyone feels you ought to buy something, so we wanted to create some space where people could sit and hang out for free."

About the material changes to the gallery, Ms Legg said: "The stairs and lifts that we currently have are just too small to accommodate the numbers that we have coming through the building now. We're moving them to the north west corner, where as you rise up the building you're going to get these spectacular views over the Mersey.

"We're going to improve our gallery spaces and make more of the ground floor spaces especially, because they have extra height, which means that some of the bigger works from Tate's collection which we can show in our London galleries but haven't been able to show in Liverpool, we are going to be able to bring those works to Liverpool.

"We will also be able to commission world class artists to come and produce work on the ground floor, so that's really exciting for us."

A spokesperson for Tate told the ECHO construction will complete in 2026 and the plan is to reopen in 2027, with an exact date provided nearer the time.