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| A
great deal of work has taken place to turn this reservoir into
a usable space. |
"I
met someone who was on the board of North West Water and asked them
if they could do anything for Dingle. They came back a few weeks
later and said ‘yes we’ve got a redundant reservoir’ and
asked me if we wanted to use it for the community.
It's
been here for 150 years and people don’t notice it and it's a beautiful
building inside.
It
was a building that had no exits or entries other than on the roof.
So therefore it was like a bomb, because if methane leaked from
the drains it could have an explosion in it, you know, so we had
to open the place up a bit, and get some air into it and to do a
lot of restoration work on the walls, doors, on the floors etc and
on the roof.
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| The
main entrance to High Park Street Reservoir. |
The
tower is part of the mechanism which allowed the water to flow into
the reservoir, if you think of your cistern in your toilet, like
the ball-cock.
Well
the idea is it we would use it for the community, either in terms
of jobs or for all kinds of things, it could be a theatre, it could
be a concert hall, it could be a restaurant/café on the roof etc,
because there are beautiful views from the roof, you know.
Because the building is going to last, it’s four foot thick, because
its going to last so we want to make sure we get it right and it
does things for the community and it’s self sustainable.
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The
top of the reservoir was used as a campsite by children in Dingle.
Did you camp here? Let
us know! |
Years
ago people didn’t look at industrial buildings, and one thing has
changed, the atmosphere had changed now.
All
over Europe people are looking at gas tanks and all kinds of things
and saying how could we now use these in a modern way and that’s
what we’re doing with the reservoir.
They
say there was an old myth in Liverpool about Jumping Jack Flash
and he had been seen on the roof, but we’ve never seen him. "
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