Liverpool is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe but people in Chinatown want to see the area revived
Liverpool is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe but people in Chinatown want to see the area revived
It is a cold Thursday evening and the heavens are about to open above Liverpool city centre. A handful of people make their way down Nelson Street, walking between the city’s Ropewalks district and the Baltic Triangle.
At the end of the street, beneath its grand and ornate Chinese Arch, Henry Chiu looks out onto Great George Street – a place of much promise but plenty of disappointment for Chinatown in recent years. Despite that, Henry tells the ECHO he sees “glimmers of hope” for the area.
Henry, 38, from Toxteth, is the manager of Nelson Street restaurant North Garden, which was established by his Hong Kong-born dad in 1990 and can now also be found at Blackstock Market to the north of the city centre. Henry began working at the restaurant after finishing university, with the 2008 economic crash providing a “blessing in disguise” and sending him into the family business rather than an office job.
Liverpool is famously home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe and Chinatown was once at the heart of the city’s late-night offering. When the clubs closed, people would head to Nelson Street to continue the night – often with a hearty meal.
That has not really been Henry’s experience of working in Chinatown. He has seen plenty of change in his 17 years working in the area and, until now, not much of it has been good – illustrated by the many empty units along Nelson Street.
Henry says: “Chinatown was in decline when I started. We always had a really good community of regulars here, so we’ve been very lucky to be stable. Even in the quiet times when nothing was going on, we had all the regulars coming through which we were always happy about.
“Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was peaking. Then you had this decline when a lot of people went over to Manchester – there was a lot of opportunity there and there was growth, the Bank of China was there, so they could actually send money back to China.
“There was a big drop basically. There has been a steady growth (in Liverpool) since but it has been away from what you can now call ‘old Chinatown’. It’s been towards Renshaw Street and Myrtle Parade, so it’s expanding out.”
“The problem is that this area, regeneration wise, has had a lot of stumbling blocks. If you go back to the history – in the ’80s and ’90s, there was a planned redevelopment of Chinatown, but these stumbling blocks have caused a lack of trust in the area.”
One of those stumbling blocks is on Great George Street, which was meant to be Chinatown’s new hope. The derelict plot of land that on the west of the main road was the site of a £200m development known as ‘New Chinatown’, which was first proposed by North Point Global in 2015.
The development was meant to deliver 800 homes, a hotel, and 120,000 sq ft of office space but it stalled in 2017, subject to a series of complex legal challenges on leaseholds. The company that owned the site, The Great George Street Project Limited, entered administration in February 2022.
About that, Henry says: “The people who wanted to develop it had spoken to us and we could have been a part of it. There was so much potential, but with whatever it was, it’s been a bit of a shambles. But there are glimmers of hope – we’ve got a lot happening now.”
That hope arrived last month when Liverpool City Council completed its £10m purchase of the land, following a bidding war with the Ascot Group, clearing the way for a development process to start again. About the site’s future, the council’s cabinet member for growth and economy Nick Small tells the ECHO: “We’re going to put it out to market to be redeveloped.
“We really want to do a mixed use development. It’s a bit of a blank piece of paper, we want to see what ideas come forward from developers.
“We do need to increase the residential population in Chinatown but we also need more businesses and more varied businesses. We’re doing a lot of work with the businesses in Chinatown – the third generation businesses, the grandkids of the original founders, thinking what the future is.
“They’re thinking, do I do traditional Cantonese restaurants or other things? It’s important that we get the balance right.”
‘We wanted to bring a bit more life back to the area’
One family that has bet big on a bright future for Chinatown is the Hos. Having run Prescot’s beloved Ho’s Restaurant since 1996, they set up their huge restaurant Man Tsuen Ho’s on Nelson Street in June 2023, wanting to play their part in reviving the street’s fortunes.
Sitting in the vast venue, which is set over three floors, co-owner Tommy Ho, 29, from Otterspool, tells the ECHO: “My dad has been here since the 1980s and my family have been in restaurants for around 30 years. First and foremost, we wanted a centralised location. My dad has always wanted to open a restaurant in Chinatown.
“Part of the goal and the vision of what we want is to bring back Chinatown to what it used to be. In the last 20 years a lot of businesses have closed – we wanted to bring a bit more life back into the area.”
Like Henry, Tommy is optimistic about the future. He shares Cllr Small’s view that balance and a variety of different businesses is key for the area’s regeneration.
He says: “I came here when I was younger – this road was mainly just restaurants. There wasn’t enough variation to push forward change or to attract people here for something other than food.
“But I see there is change coming soon. The older generation are willing to move on, as we’ve seen with Yuet Ben, and the council has acted with the new plot of land on Great George Street.
“I think it might take the next ten years, but depending on how the community works together – seeing how they want to develop the growth of Chinatown, as well as how the council is going to support the community as well.”
Movement with the New Chinatown site is not the only driver of hope for Nelson Street. Two new stone lions shipped from Shanghai and donated by Manchester’s Chinese Consulate General will be placed at the far end of Nelson Street, aiming to provide a striking entrance to the street from the Baltic, as the arch does from the city centre.
Additionally, the construction of the new Merseyrail Baltic station is seen as an important step for Chinatown. Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram hopes the station, which will be located on the site of the former St James Station at the junction of Parliament Street and St. James’ Place, will be up and running by 2027.
Tommy sees that as a vital step for the area’s regeneration, saying: “The Baltic train station is another addition that would increase footfall for both the Baltic and Chinatown. We’ll see, it depends on how many people use it.
“I’ve been speaking to people about what they want for the future of Chinatown. The idea would be to join Ropewalks, Chinatown and the Baltic together to create a link where people can walk through these three different areas. Hopefully the introduction of a new train station will help that and bring more footfall.
“There are other positive things coming into Chinatown. We’ve discussed the idea of future markets coming into Chinatown – we’ve spoken to the head of marketing at the council and proposed a couple of events to celebrate different holidays during the year and to help bring more people into Chinatown, but this is pending.”
Cllr Small says the council will play its part in ensuring Nelson Street is an attractive destination for people and not just a walkway between Ropewalks and the Baltic. He explains: “Chinatown is a key gateway site that links the south of the city centre into the Baltic.
“We need to see that as an opportunity – the council can come in with public realm and improvements to bring people through Chinatown, get them to stop there and spend money there. There are some great businesses – restaurants are always going to be a part of it but we need to diversify, we need to be looking at other types of businesses – hotels, more Chinese businesses.
“Can we bring a Chinese market into Chinatown? A Hong Kong style night market? That would be amazing.
“Something like later night retail until 10pm – shops and leisure. Things like Renshaw Street (food and drink market) have really done that well. Then with New Chinatown, we want to get quality investment in – maybe people who haven’t looked at Liverpool before.”
‘Chinatown needs more reasons to come’
The Lunar New Year begins on Wednesday (January 29) people will flock to Nelson Street for the celebrations and a meal at its restaurants. But looking further ahead, Henry’s view is that regeneration of the area must mean it diversifies its offering, so it can thrive all year round.
These days, Liverpool city centre’s Asian businesses are not just found on and around Nelson Street. Henry mentioned The Renshaw Street Market and a thriving collection of shops on Myrtle Parade – including a supermarket and a bubble tea shop – and he believes there are lessons to be learned from both of those sites.
He says: “We do great because we do westernised and traditional Chinese food. But there has to be more to attract people.
“I’ve always said in business, you have to have more than one reason for the customers to come back. Whether it be good service, good food, location.
“Renshaw Street is what you need. It’s like us at Blackstock – you have nine restaurants there, you have a comedy theatre, people can have parties. They are just giving you more reasons to come. That’s why Chinatown needs – more reasons to come.”
Tommy is in agreement, saying: “I know there are two stone lions coming in, so hopefully that will attract more people into the area. But I think more variety of businesses would also be nice – I think there’s a new hotel that has been planned to be opened.
“I don’t think it has to be strictly restaurants, I think it needs a nice variation, something similar to what London’s Chinatown is offering. It’s not only restaurants, they’ve got shops, bubble tea, bakeries. I think introducing some areas for people to live, to welcome more professionals into the area to help boost the economy – rather than just targeting students – would be nice as well.”
But with new infrastructure on the horizon and fresh hope for the New Chinatown plot, the two are optimistic about the future for Nelson Street. Henry says: “There is something there. When the train line comes, when the New Chinatown comes, I see abundance for our community.
“That’s for the new year as well. It’s about the mindset, making sure you are available and you have the right people at the right time creating a dialogue.
“I just want to be here as long as I possibly can and serve our customers. That’s the big driver for me.”