Emerging Outcomes and Ongoing Developments
The Waterfront Transformation remains in progress as we write in 2025. With funding secured from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and the UK Government’ s Levelling Up Fund, work has started on the major redevelopment of the interiors of the Maritime Museum and International Slavery Museum. In the next phases, the Canning Graving Dock will form the centrepiece of the Waterfront’ s outdoor spaces. Architecture firm Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and National Museums Liverpool are working with multiple partners to develop the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. building and the Hartley Pavilion. Inter alia, this will involve a prominent new entrance to ISM, improving visitor orientation and opportunities for reflection, while developing MM as a multifunctional space, facilitating community collaboration, events, and educational activity.
The collective nature of the Project is encapsulated by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, who are contracted to redesign MM’ s and ISM’ s exhibition spaces, when they state:“ Together, we will honour Liverpool’ s Waterfront as a sacred ground – a place that reverberates with the sights, sounds and souls of all those connected to its global history.” The significance of such an endeavour for building an inclusive story of the colonial pasts of major European cities like Liverpool means that many should be interested in the Waterfront Transformation Project’ s eventual outcomes.
6. Proposal for the South Dry Dock Access © Asif Khan Studio
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