Could St Johns Beacon become home of the first Michelin-starred restaurant in Liverpool?

There’s excitement and speculation about what’s next for St Johns Beacon after former tenants Bauer Media waved goodbye after deciding not to renew their lease.

And owners and ‘custodians’ RivingtonHark believe St Johns Beacon could become home of Liverpool’s most premier dining space.

Chairman and co-founder of RivingtonHark Mark Williams says: “Wouldn’t it be fantastic if it was Liverpool’s first Michelin-starred restaurant?

“That would be brilliant!”

He adds: “It would have to be a premium restaurant because it’s a premium asset, and the more value restaurant requires high volume which doesn’t suit the Beacon. Logistically it wouldn’t work.

“There is the potential for a Michelin-starred restaurant up there, and we are open to signature chefs.”

He adds: “We are not in control.  It is occupier-led … but we wouldn’t rule it out.”

RivingtonHark has appointed agents to help find a new tenant for the 7,500 sq ft space at the top of the former Radio City tower which stands more than 450-feet above sea level.

And on Monday it launched an awareness campaign to announce that the lease was returning to it, and it was in search of new tenants.

There’s already been interest from the general public, businesses and entrepreneurs, and Mark says: “We will respond to anyone who contacts us. 

“It doesn’t matter how crazy the idea is, come forward. In places of discussion, crazy ideas lead to better ideas. 

“I have no idea what St Johns Beacon will become because we have never been involved with anything like this before – the building is unique.

“The one thing I can guarantee is that whatever we come up with will be something that the residents and the city want. It’s as simple as that.”

Mark Williams has been involved with the city for more than 30 years and he says: “It’s a city I love very much.

“In a former life I led the funding for Liverpool ONE for Grosvenor; we redeveloped Clayton Square into what you see today and bought St Johns through COVID.

“St Johns Beacon is such an important and iconic feature of the skyline of the city and we want to see it retained obviously, but also put to beneficial use. We don’t want to see it sitting idly empty.”

RivingtonHark is already looking at projecting and using it as a backdrop for illuminations to help promote ‘various things’: “It looks great when it’s illuminated, and I think we can be a bit more imaginative.

“I wish we’d thought about having darts running up the tower and the croft as a dartboard ahead of Luke Littler’s Championship game, because these are things that bring a smile to people’s faces, so we’ll remind ourselves as things come up to be quick to respond to them.”

And it would like to see the viewing gallery remain at the tower.

“It wasn’t very well publicised before, but we are in discussion with the people who used to run it and would like to see that brought back from April.

“Long term public access is important. It’s an asset and I feel it’s clear people in the city would like to use it. 

“The views from there are unbelievable because you can literally see across to North Wales, the entirety of Liverpool including Everton’s new stadium and Anfield, all the way up to Formby and across to the Wirral. 

“Think about other international cities. Paris, where you have the Eiffel Tower. London where you have the BT Tower and, although that’s not accessible to the public, you have things like The Wheel. 

“Liverpool’s got more listed buildings than London and possibly Bath, and when you look down and see what you can see, it’s just incredible.”

Mark continues: “We are here to make it better, that’s the nature of working with assets like these.

“As a business focused on town and city regeneration, everything we touch is improved before we leave it. That’s our mantra.

“We were involved in the developments of the new cinema and market hall in Chester which is marvellous and the footfall of the market has gone up 10-fold. It is a stunning success and Chester is starting to come back as a consequence of it.

“We improve places. Hence, with the tower, we want it to contribute to the success of the city.”

The controversial zip wire proposed in 2020 – and which led to St Johns Beacon being granted Grade II listed status after it failed – could even become a reality, although Mark is quick to clarify a few things.

“That was controversial for two reasons. Firstly, because it required a lot of structure on the Beacon and so from a 20^th century aesthetics point of view people didn’t like that, so that’s not going to happen. 

“Secondly, the wire went from the tower to Central Library which is a Grade One listed building. 

“However, it’s still possible to put up a wire going up to it, but everything, the mechanics and the structure, would have to be at the ground floor somewhere, not on the tower; and it would have to go to a location that wasn’t controversial.”

Nothing will happen, he says, without the support of the council: “That’s a red line.  In our history of 25 years, we have never had a failed planning application and I’m not about to start. 

“Liverpool wants to find its unique place in the United Kingdom. The objective of the city is to provide growth and jobs, and growth in housing. Housing is not for us in this instance.

“The city doesn’t have the office market in the same way that Manchester does; but Liverpool has a creative industry, it has a huge maritime history and a big play on the music industry, and it actually has a growing tourist market and cultural market.

“And in that context, if there was something that – and I’ll use the idea of the city’s first zip wire – linked to that, and promoted the cultural heritage of the city, then if that was acceptable, we would be supportive of it.”

Mark admits there is huge pressure to get it right.

“It’s critical we get it right. St Johns Beacon is synonymous with the city. It is iconic. This is our Eiffel Tower and buildings like this are few and far between.

“To be open to all ideas and suggestions is absolutely the right way forward. Let’s do it properly.”

The history of Liverpool’s iconic St Johns Beacon HERE.