Birkenhead

A former town hall on Merseyside has been put up for sale.

Wirral Council have invited applications from interest parties interested in buying the former Birkenhead Town Hall.

The building is situated on Hamilton Square, site of the biggest collection of Grade I listed buildings outside London. It opened in 1887 and was designed by architect Charles Ellison. It most recently housed the Wirral Museum.

The closing date for applications is July 3 2009.

The 2009 Northern Hospitality Awards were held at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester last night.

Winners from the North West were:

• Best Restaurant sponsored by The Hospitality Association & The Restaurant Association – Ramsons Restaurant, Ramsbottom near Bury
• Best Bar sponsored by Brown-Forman – Residence Restaurant & Bar, Nantwich
• Best Pub sponsored by Northern Restaurant & Bar – Kirkstile Inn, Cumbria
• Best Newcomer sponsored by The Russell Partnership – The Church Green, Lymm
• Best Chef sponsored by Steelite – Marc Wilkinson, Fraiche, Oxton, Wirral

The event is now in its 4th year and is organised by Moorfield Media, a Manchester-based exhibition organiser.

Renoir, Monet, Degas and Rodin are amongst some of the artists to be featured in a significant new exhibition for 2009 at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

In an international exchange made possible by the generous loan of works from the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, French Impressionists will run from 20 February to 31 May at the Port Sunlight gallery famed for its own extensive collection of British Art.

The small but exceptional exhibition displays wonderful examples of the French Impressionists’ achievements through a selection of 13 treasured works from National Museums Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery collection and Sweden’s premier museum of art and design. Sandra Penketh, head of the Lady Lever said:

“The artists’ abilities to capture colour, light, atmosphere and movement is a style that is still much admired today. The exhibition is unique to the Lady Lever and provides a rare opportunity to see pieces usually only on display in Sweden’s capital. We feel privileged to be sharing works by some of the most admired artists of the modern age with our visitors, in this intimate study of the French Impressionists.”

Disillusioned with traditional academic training, the Impressionists of 19th century Paris strove to develop their own painting techniques and new subject matter in a bid to challenge their contemporaries. Inspired by light, colour and texture they were able to bring everyday scenes to life, and set themselves apart from the art establishment of the time.

The Impressionists changed landscape painting, moving from the studio to paint en plein air – outdoors – to study the effects of light, weather and atmosphere on a scene. The landscapes of Monet, Sisley and Seurat displayed together for the first time in the exhibition, illustrate their new representations of landscape, capturing the ‘sensation’ of each view on the canvas.

Works including Monet’s Break-up of ice on the Seine and Sisley’s On the Shores of the Loing, demonstrate perfectly the skill of Impressionists in recording the subtle atmosphere in scenes of water and snow, favoured for their soft light and reflective surfaces.

Contemporary life was also recorded in the works of the Impressionists, as they moved away from the historical, literary and religious subjects advocated by the academic teaching establishments to depict the many aspects of urban life.
The figure studies of Renoir, Degas, Vuillard and Bonnard in the exhibition conjure up scenes of café society, theatres, friends, family and the working people of Paris, portraying an air of informality and distinguishing them from the formal work of their conventional contemporaries.

Renoir’s Young Parisian Lady and Degas’ Woman Ironing display the studied female form and personalities that inspired so many of the masters of the period. Expertly capturing everyday occasions and the movement associated with domestic chores, Degas’ painting also reacquaints the viewer with the artist’s lesser known laundress paintings, studying the movements of 19th century Parisian women at work.

French Impressionists at the Lady Lever also considers the artists’ interest in movement, drama and surface pattern through sculpture, while a section on the influence of graphic art, in particular Japanese prints, reveals how a craze for this style of art swept Paris in the 1860s and inspired Impressionists at the time.
A selection of bronze sculptures includes two pieces from the Walker Art Gallery by Rodin. Often considered to be the father of modern sculpture, Rodin was the only sculptor to exhibit with the Impressionists. The loans from the Nationalmuseum Stockholm also include two examples of Degas’ work in sculpture from his famous ballet dancer series.Sandra continues:

“Untrained as a sculptor and with little technical knowledge, most people are unaware that Degas actually worked on sculpture for twenty years. He only ever exhibited one work publicly and treated his sculptures as private experiments that were shown to friends and studio visitors, so people may be surprised to unearth this somewhat ‘hidden’ talent.”

The exhibition is a result of a collaboration between National Museums Liverpool and Nationalmuseum Stockholm. A number of the Lady Lever Art Gallery’s key Pre-Raphaelite paintings will be on display in Stockholm in the exhibition The Pre-Raphaelites during February and May.

The Fraiche restaurant on the Wirral has received a Michelin star in the new 2009 Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland, published next Friday.

The modern French restaurant in Oxton Village is the guide’s only new North West addition this year.

Neptune Developments Ltd have unveiled plans phase 2 of their £45 million waterfront development at New Brighton.

Features include a 60-room Premier Inn hotel, a 6-screen cinema, restaurants and bars, Morrison’s supermarket, sailing school, public lido, model boating lake, and car park for 750 vehicles.

Construction is expected to start in March 2009 and will take approximately 18 months.

The new Floral Pavilion theatre, part of phase 1 of the project, opens this month.

Budget hotel operator Travelodge is currently offering rooms at just £9 per night.

The offer is available on this special page on their website and is valid for bookings made now for stays between February and April 2009.

Rooms for other dates are also available from £19 and £29 provided bookings are made 7 and 21 days ahead respectively.

Wirral Council is holding a number of firework displays on Bonfire Night, Wednesday November 5 2008.

The venues for the displays are:

Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead
Central Park, Wallasey
Lingham Park, Moreton
Mayer Park, Bebington
Upton Park, Moreton
Mersey Park, Tranmere
Woodchurch Community Centre, Woodchurch
Leasowe Adventure Playground, Leasowe

All the displays start at 6.30 pm and are free. Leasowe will also host a community bonfire.

Travelodge has announced that it will open 22 hotels across the country between now and Christmas. New hotels in the North West will include the Travelodge Blackpool Tower and the Travelodge Blackpool Tower. Both are opening late December.

The budget hotel group is currently offering thousands of rooms at only £19 for stays in December and January. They can be booked via this special page on their website.

Tourism businesses in the North West were honoured at the Northwest Tourism Awards last week. The event was held at St George’s Hall in Liverpool on October 22 and was hosted by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Winners and finalists included:

Large Hotel of the Year

Marriott Worsley Park Hotel and Country Club, Manchester (Winner)
Cottons Hotel and Spa, Knutsford
Macdonald Old England Hotel and Spa, Bowness
Big Blue Hotel, Blackpool
Marriott Liverpool City Centre Hotel

Small Hotel of the Year

White House Manor, near Macclesfield (Winner)
Appleby Manor, Appleby
The Shireburn Arms Hotel, Clitheroe

Bed and Breakfast of the Year

Augill Castle, Kirkby Stephen (Winner)
Number One, South Beach, Blackpool (Highly Commended)
Moss Lodge, Rochdale
42 Caldy Road, West Kirby
Sand Hollow Farm, Burwardsley

Large Visitor Attraction of the Year

Manchester Art Gallery (Winner)
Ness Botanic Gardens, Neston
South Lakes Wild Animal Park, Dalton in Furness
Sandcastle Waterpark, Blackpool

Small Visitor Attraction of the Year

The Quaker Tapestry Exhibition, Kendal (Winner)
Cotebrook Shire Horse Centre, Cotebrook
Farmer Ted’s Farm Park, Ormskirk
Smithills Hall, Bolton
Mersey Ferries Manchester Ship Canal Cruises

Self Catering Holiday of the Year

The Beach House, Blackpool (Winner)
Staying Cool, Manchester (Highly Commended)
Premier Apartments, Liverpool
Mellow Brook Cottage at Harrop Fold Farm, Macclesfield
The Lodge Holiday Cottage, Hayton

Holiday Park of the Year

Park Cliffe Camping and Caravan Park, Windermere (Winner)
Newton Hall Holiday Park, Blackpool
Manor Wood Country Caravan Park, Coddington

Excellence in Business Tourism

The Rheged Centre, Penrith (Winner)
Park Royal Hotel, Warrington (Highly Commended)
Barton Grange Hotel, Preston
Manchester United
The Conference Centre at LACE, Liverpool

Taste of England’s Northwest

Roses Tea Room, Heswall (Winner)
The Hollies Farm Shop, Cheshire (Highly Commended)
The Village Bakery Melmerby
Northcote Manor, Langho
Isinglass Restaurant, Urmston

Tourism Experience of the Year

Manchester International Festival (Winner)
Tate Liverpool – Turner Prize (Highly Commended)
Shacklabank Free Range Walking, Sedbergh (Highly Commended)
Byways Breaks, Cheshire
Downy Duckling Experience, WWT Martin Mere
Lancashire Food Festival, Accrington
Cholmondeley Fireworks Concert and Garden Party

Excellence in Customer Service

Gary Henshall – Sandcastle Waterpark, Blackpool (Winner)
Julie Lyons – De Vere Carden Park Hotel, Chester
Daniel Fairweather, Windermere Marina Village
Pam Simpson – World of Glass, St Helens
Madge Butler – Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport

Sustainable Tourism Award

Palace Hotel, Manchester (Winner)
Cote How Organic Guest House, Rydal (Highly Commended)

RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve, Silverdale
Carden Park Hotel, Chester

Tourism for All Award

The Beacon Museum, Whitehaven (Winner)
The Trafford Centre, Manchester (Highly Commended)
Wyre Estuary Country Park
The National Wildflower Centre, Knowsley

Tourist Information Centre of the Year

Congleton TIC (Winner)
Fleetwood TIC (Highly Commended)
Manchester Visitor Centre
St.Helens TIC
Keswick TIC