The Old Blind School | Liverpool (UK) | By Emma Harrison

Established in 1791, the Liverpool School for the Blind was co-founded by local poet, writer and abolitionist Edward Rushton. First opened in two houses on Commutation Row, the school moved to its Hardman Street location in the late 1890s before closing in 1957. After the school shut its doors, the site housed Liverpool’s City Police Headquarters, the Merseyside Trade Union, Community and Unemployed Resource Centre and in the mid 80s, independent music venue, The Picket. With a colourful history, the building has retained the marks left by each occupant and what stands today is a blend of Neoclassical and Art Deco design flecked with crumbling trade union signage and Socialist Realist murals.

The building, designed by architect Arthur Hill Holm in 1851 and extended by Anthony Minoprio and Hugh Greville Spencely in 1932, presents a Neoclassical and Art Deco exterior. The once white Portland stone extension, charred with a over a century of city soot, sits on the site of John Foster Junior's now demolished Greek Doric chapel and boasts bas-relief panels depicting the work of the school. Opposite John Cunningham’s celebrated Grade II listed Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Hope Street, if you look hard enough you can find a faded inscription etched into the Old Blind School façade that reads, ‘Christ heals the blind, for who denies that in the mind dwell truer sight and clearer light than in the eyes?’.

Inside, four rear wings sprout from a central rotunda and the original cast iron balustrade and tiled flooring remain intact, however the most arresting interior feature is Michael Jones’s 1986 mural that decorates the concrete dome (pictured). Son of trade unionist Jack Jones, the mural depicts Socialist Realist images relating to the Merseyside Trade Union, including marching Liverpool workers, the Halewood car factory, a dock crane, ship yards and a central image of Edward Rushton, co-founder of the school. 

The peeling paintwork now sits alongside fresh coats as the site plays host to the 2014 Liverpool Biennial, A Needle Walks into a Haystack. Otherwise largely unused, rumours of development have yet to materialise.

The Old Blind School will remain open until 26^th October as part of the Liverpool Biennial .