Post & Echo Building

The Post & Echo Building is located at 95 Old Hall Street in Liverpool city centre, England, and formerly housed the headquarters of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post newspapers. It is also known as Metropolitan House and as City Tower.[1] It is an international style-style building that stands 73 metres (240 ft) tall with 18 storeys, making it the joint-tenth-tallest building in the city.[2]

Post & Echo Building
The Post & Echo Building is easily distinguishable amongst the Liverpool skyline
Post & Echo Building
Location within Merseyside
General information
Architectural styleInternational style
AddressOld Hall Street, Liverpool
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates53.4096°N 2.9954°W / 53.4096; -2.9954
Completed1974

History

The building, which was designed in the international style, was completed in 1974.[1] The Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, which had previously been based in Victoria Street, moved into the building shortly after it was completed.[3] The newspapers were produced, printed and distributed on site with the upper half of the building being used as office space and the lower parts housing the newspapers' printing rooms and distribution centre.[4] In 2008, Trinity Mirror Publishing announced that they were ceasing printing of the papers on site and that all printing would move to a site in Oldham.[5]

The building was also used as the headquarters of Merseyside County Council from completion of the building until the abolition of the county council in 1986.[6] The county council primarily used the building as office space for county officers and their departments: meetings of the full county council were held in the council chamber at Liverpool Town Hall.[7]

The Liverpool Daily Post closed in December 2013 leaving the Echo the only paper being produced there[8] and the Echo moved out of the building to newer offices on Old Hall Street in St Paul's Square in March 2018.[4]

Conversion work started in 2019 to diversify the usage of the building from solely office use to retail use and leisure use as well: a 207-bed hotel with sky bar was contemplated.[9] Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe announced in August 2018 that they were planning to move 500 staff from their previous site in Wavertree Technology Park into the building.[10]

Using river water to heat and cool the building

The building was constructed simultaneously with the New Hall Place. Both buildings operated heat pumps to heat and cool the building using water from the adjacent River Mersey. Three thousand gallons of water per hour seeps into the Mersey railway tunnel from the river above, via the riverbed rock, which is a steady 13C temperature all year. This water was previously pumped out into the dock system. The heat pumps used this constant temperature water to heat the building, or as a heat sink to cool the building.[11]

References
  1. "City Tower, Liverpool". www.emporis.com. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  2. "Metropolitan House, Liverpool". www.skyscrapernews.com. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  3. "VictoriaStreet". Liverpool Picture Book. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  4. Houghton, Alistair (14 December 2017). "ECHO to move to new home in Liverpool city centre opposite current office". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  5. "ECHO editor: Why we've moved printing out of Liverpool". Liverpool Echo. 6 September 2008. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  6. Whitaker's Almanack 1982, p. 628
  7. Evans, Andrew (13 August 1992). "End of the metropolitan line: County councils face an uncertain future". The Independent. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  8. "After 158 years, the Liverpool Post closes". National Union of Journalists. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  9. Houghton, Alistair (17 January 2018). "Former Liverpool ECHO building is set to become hotel". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  10. Houghton, Alistair (12 August 2019). "Sony moving hundreds of video games staff into former ECHO building". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  11. "Liverpool Daily Post & Echo (1973) / Royal Insurance HQ (1976)" (PDF). Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
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