Work to turn Liverpool's Littlewoods building into film studio begins

The building on the city's Edge Lane was damaged by a fire in 2018

Work to turn a Liverpool landmark into a film studio and production hub has begun, six years after developers took over the project.

The Littlewoods building on Edge Lane was the home of the football pools when it was first built in 1938.

It closed in 1994 and in 2018, a fire caused it extensive damage and lead to delays to work starting.

The plans will see sound stages, studios, office space and a training facility open on the site.

Developers said they had taken inspiration from James Bond's spiritual home of Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

The plans will see sound stages, studios, office space and a training facility open on the site

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has invested £8m into the first phase of the project, which will see remediation and repair work take place.

A total of £17m has been committed by the authority so far.

Welcoming the start of the work, the Liverpool Film Office's Lynn Saunders said it was a case of patience paying off.

"Some things are worth waiting for and this definitely is," she said.

She said that while other parts of the UK had seen a recent downturn in film production, the picture in Liverpool had been "very different" and had been "busier than ever this year".

BBC series Time and The Responder were filmed in Liverpool this year and Taylor Swift also picked Liverpool as the backdrop for her I Can See You promo video.

Lynn Saunders said the film industry in the city was "busier than ever"

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said it had taken time to put a business case together, as it was important to make sure there was "value for money for every single penny of public money that we spend".

"This project makes sense, especially [given] the skills pipeline which this will bring," he said.

The developers have claimed the project will generate 4,000 jobs.

A planning application was submitted to Liverpool City Council in November, which will be considered at a later date.

If approved and funding is secured for the redevelopment phase, work is expected to be completed on the whole project by 2026.