Work has begun on a new hotel which will pay tribute to Everton scoring legend Dixie Dean, with the proposals aiming to form part of a ‘Football Quarter’ district in the city centre.
Liverpool’s Signature Living started work on the new £10m pound hotel in the Jerome and Carlisle buildings located on Victoria street, just opposite the Shankly Hotel.
The development will commemorate the life and career of Dean, a famous Everton star of the 1920s and 30s.
Signature Living has also confirmed that it has plans to seek permission from Liverpool City Council to pedestrianise the area between both hotels and create a tree-lined boulevard of statues in honour to both Everton and Liverpool footballing greats. Their proposals include naming the area ‘Stanley Park Avenue’.
The 65,000sq ft hotel will follow the same vein as the Shankly Hotel, featuring unique rooms with influences and quotes from Dixie’s life, plus memorabilia from the Dean family.
YouTube: Lawrence Kenwright, Signature Living
Signature Living’s head of press, Gerald Franklin, told JMU Journalism: “We have two of the most iconic football clubs in British footballing history and now we have the chance to make our city the first to have a hotel supporting each of those teams right next to each other… it’s really a world first.”
The project will create a further 150 jobs within the hotel and another 100 locally for tradesmen working on the building.
Mr Franklin added: “To have their memories enshrined like this and nodding each other is beautiful. Then, to have the ‘Football Quarter’ within that as a place for fans to come and forget about the rivalry and just take a trip through history is what football is all about really.”
Dean family members were in attendance and laid down the first brick to kick off construction.