Just north of Liverpool is a beach, Crosby Beach. It’s one of my favorite places.
It’s windswept and not at all sandy (well, not until the tide goes out). It’s not even a pebble beach. It’s a Brick beach. Full of bricks. All different shapes and sizes.
As many will know, Liverpool was very badly bomb-damaged during the Second World War. It was Crosby Beach where all the bricks and rubble from the destroyed homes, factories, shops, streets was dumped. Fragments of everyday life, written in wind and wave blasted stone can still be seen there
Walking along the beach you see all these shapes and colours. Some have writing speaking of a time when local factories proudly produced the very fabric which Liverpool was built with. So much pride, their names are clearly stamped there. Are our modern Wimpy housing estates built with the same pride?
Of course, you might know Crosby beach for another reason. It’s the home of Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ which was permanently installed on the beach in 2007. I have always loved Gormley’s work, but Another Place is so extraordinary, the way it sits in the landscape, and yet at the same time, is the landscape.
If you are in the area, it’s well worth a visit.
Jim's Blog 