The Scary Glass Challenge!

‘Liverpool One’ is the collective noun that describes a major and impressive modern shopping mall development in the centre of Liverpool.

What impresses is certainly not the shops themselves, as they are the same designer-led chains that appear in any and all malls or larger retail parks anywhere in the UK, selling exactly the same stuff at exactly the same prices. If people want these shops then fair enough, there they are – and all in one place, too.

However, what makes ‘Liverpool One’ genuinely different and truly exciting is the ingenious way they’ve blended well thought out modern architecture in with the large retail units. I suspect that it’s the kind of modern architecture that is hated by those stuck in the past and the trends of centuries ago, but for everybody else it is truly spectacular.

There are websites elsewhere that will describe ‘Liverpool One’ in more detail, but I want to concentrate on the excellence of what is called Chavasse Park. Actually, Chavasse Park isn’t really a park, but a disguised car-park. What they’ve done is build a multi-storey car park and then stuck a load of grass and gardens to its top and sides. Brilliant.

A central part of the car-park is a huge deep well like granite based staircase that is modelled on the inside of a windmill. It goes up (or down) for miles. Natural light for this stairwell comes from a glass structure at the very top. This glass structure is just part of the Chavasse Park garden.

Unsuspecting visitors will stroll around the gardens and notice a flying saucer-like structure that looks like it might be a snazzy seating area. They will stroll across the beginning of the structure, maybe casually looking down as they do.

Suddenly they realise that what they are actually standing on is see-through glass. Not only is it see-through glass, but below them is the seemingly bottomless circular staircase. The effect of this realisation is similar to looking down through glass and realising one can see the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the distance miles below. Buttocks clench! No matter how strong and safe the glass actually is (And it *is* strong and safe … isn’t it?), perception changes as soon as what’s below can be seen. It immediately feels like any second now it will give way and the victim will plummet half a mile to their death.

Of course, by day it’s actually quite hard to see through the glass in the brightness of sunlight, but by night with the electric light from the stairwell clearly pointing out the depth of the hole being stood over, it becomes even more frightening.

Humans deal with unsure footing by tensing their toes. If the path is icy and slippery, then despite being trapped within socks and shoes, toes will curl and splay out like claws trying to grip. You won’t get this kind of brilliant scary fun at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, but you will at Liverpool One.
Now then. I challenge anybody to walk around completing one full circuit on this glass looking down at the emptiness of what they are walking over, and not feel their toes curl. W’oah! Try it and let me know.