Which UK city is the most creative? Liverpool?

Admittedly, we’re all a little tired of hearing it. The city of Liverpool, you may very well argue, has had more than its fair share of the limelight, across and beyond its Capital of Culture year. And besides, how much longer can we cling to the title that clinched our biggest ever chance to shine?

Some said this was the city’s renaissance. In true Scouse style, we milked it. Our cultural crown fed creativity and of course, vice versa – from boosting architectural regeneration to chasing runaway Superlambananas, bringing Klimt to Merseyside to watching a giant spider roam our streets – driving our creative culture to thrive.

So in the quest for the UK’s first ‘City of Culture’, the question is, should we quit while we’re ahead and hand over the creative / culture baton to someone else?

Or do we still have some more milking to do? Liverpool has always radiated creativity. A quick walk along Hope Street, widely regarded as Liverpool’s cultural hub, is enough to see the truly vibrant, inspiring shades of the city. The architecture is proud and distinct, the theatres and galleries world class, the mood welcoming and exciting.

The city is compact and quick to navigate, developing at an extraordinary rate and rich with sparkling goodies for the creative magpie. First off, there’s the architecture, dominated by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s Anglican Cathedral towering over the city. Old rubs shoulders with new, as Liverpool One bridges the gap between the Georgian Quarter and China Town, and the business district leading to the infamous docks. If there ever were a model for regeneration, this is the one. And sprinkled amongst this we’ve got a few new gems including Danish practice 3XN’s new Museum of Liverpool, AHMM’s RIBA award winning Unity Building and Dutch practice Biq’s beautiful refurbishment of the classic Bluecoat school.

Theatre-land is on the up, bubbling with self-confidence and eager to show the world what it’s all about – with plans now approved for a new Everyman and the refurbishment of our beloved Playhouse.

And when it comes to music, we have led the way for decades. We’ve produced more number ones in the last 50 years than any other UK city; from The Beatles in the 60s to Frankie and the Lightning Seeds in the 80s and 90s. We’re still a hive of creativity today with bands like The Zutons and The Coral making the mainstream and young upstarts like Sound of Guns ‘keeping it real’.

The city is brimming with entrepreneurs and people making things happen. Our very own Liverpool Design Symposium, running for the second year in 2009 sees D&AD, DBA and a bunch of other well known industry bods come together for a day of discussion and celebration of design and architecture in all its glory.

We’ve got a thriving and broad commercial scene too, with a handful of award-winning design, digital and branding agencies working alongside world renowned production companies, Hollywood movie directors and actors and global architectural practices.

Liverpool rightly wore its European Capital of Culture crown in 2008, and we continue to hold our creative baton high above those other creative city contenders across the UK!

(Photography courtesy of Eric The Fish, Flickr)

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