Everyone Welcome

Quiggins Last Night Party
Quiggins, School Lane
1st July 2006

Reviewed by Hana Leaper

‘Everyone welcome’ – perhaps THE essential tenet of Quiggins’ popularity. A place that welcomed, encouraged, nurtured and provided an accessible, affordable outlet for creative entrepreneurial adventure. A forum for meetings between likeminded and totally disparate groups and individuals. A haven that inspired generations of Liverpool youth to look beyond the ugly consumerism and clone-creating mores that pervaded the town of chain stores beyond and threatened to claim them.

Quiggins was a den for the wacky, the wonderful, the beautiful and the different. To see it closing, despite years of protest by thousands of true Liverpudlians - the people who’re not set to profit from the property boom being created by ‘Capital of Culture 2008’ - is simultaneously sickening, saddening and enraging. But however sad the loss of the original School Lane Quiggins is, and however gloomy the last night party could have been, the event (which bore the campaign slogan ‘No Surrender’) actually provided a platform for protest, with a spirit of resistance uniting the hundreds of attendees. This was not one last stand, but a platform for a new wave of determined effort to claim OUR city for OUR culture – as the eloquent singer of the second to last band chanted ‘no more pokey flats; no more shitty restaurants; no more posey hairdressers’. These developments have nothing to offer the average Liverpool citizen. The average wage in Liverpool is under £17,000; the average property price is around £160,000. Do the maths. The government is becoming increasingly concerned about the debt situation in this county, yet our council continues to encourage ‘investment’ from companies who will raze our heritage, exploit our workforce and turn wants that didn’t previously exist into needs we cannot possibly live without. The only people who will benefit from these ‘investments’ are the investors, not the city, because what else is the city, but the people at its heart?

Peter, the owner of Quiggins and the co-ordinator of the ‘Save Our Culture’ campaign, promises that Quiggins will continue, that a new venue will be found (possibly the George Henry Lee’s building - which will make it more central and renew and invigorate the project) and that the vendors will be reunited under one roof. However, the material, physical Quiggins was only one aspect of the place. The building was unique and full of character, but it was the people and their spirit that made it what it was. The people who made it are dispersing, the vendors are looking for alternative retail space, and the regulars are looking for new meeting places (made all the harder by the fact that the city seems increasingly to belong to Starbucks and Subway). Hopefully, rather than the place and the feeling of the place being forgotten, we will all carry some of it with us, so that rather than being destroyed, the attitude of independence that has become synonymous with the name ‘Quiggins’ is carried onwards and strengthened. One small, but precious area of the world has been destroyed, but pulling the building down cannot, will not, must not, destroy the spirit fostered by the place.

Memories of Quiggins

Stan Ambrose (harpist): I was a regular customer at Quiggins for many years and bought furniture here. I liked the independence of the place, the way it was entrepreneurial rather than corporate.

Alexandra (artist): I’m really sad it’s closing!! It’s such a big part of my (so over) youth. I was kicked out of the café for only eating a muffin! I remember growling ‘whatever’ at the woman in an extremely stroppy teenager fashion.

Hannah (student): I’m so sad it’s closing – I’ve had many happy times wandering around here. I met my boyfriend here.

Gary (carpet fitter): I’ve been coming here since I was 14. I’m now 31. I remember the skate ramp that used to be out back – good times!

Tom (singer in the Drellas, who played last): I love the place, it’s the only alternative place in Liverpool for people to come. Manchester have Afflex Palace, Leeds has the Corn Exchange, Liverpool had Quiggins.

Sam (unemployed): Me and my friends hung out here, right from when we were kids.

Dean (in a band): I got barred for SIX years for spilling salt. But I used to disguise myself and get in anyway. For six whole years!

Dominic (musician): I was barred, for giving cheek to the record seller – which I genuinely didn’t think was cheeky, or offensive – so it feels good to be back, no matter how short the time!

Sue (former Quiggins vendor): Quiggins will be back and it will be called Quiggins. Beware of fakes!

Jen (charity fundraiser): Quiggins was ace. I’m not from Liverpool but I’d heard all about it even before I came here.

Kris and Dave (insurance brokers and members of Secondnature): We’ll miss it and we’re nostalgic. Secondnature played here and ended up hanging out over the balcony so that all the kids who couldn’t get in could still see.

Peter (family business, musician): I got a blowjob in the ladies.