The forgotten impact of the Kings Dock Car Park Fire on Liverpool’s growth and Economy

Last month, I attended the Local Government Association (LGA) Conference in Liverpool on behalf of the Business Sprinkler Alliance. Whilst I should be reflecting on the conference and discussions with differing councillors and consultants about housing or urban policy, my thoughts kept returning to a car park, writes Tom Roche, secretary of the BSA.

Bear with me. The BSA had an exhibition stand and what struck me looking out through the window of the Arena and Conference Centre (ACC) was a silent empty space fenced off with hoardings and bordered by hotels and apartments. It took a moment to place it but then I realised that this was the site of the old Kings Dock Car Park, destroyed by a fire on New Year’s Eve 2017. At the time, the blaze made national and international headlines and was one of the largest car park fires that Europe had ever seen.

After the demolition of the car park, it has remained fallow for nearly seven years. Just a hoarding surrounds the site, and the entrance arches are blocked off but nothing remains of the multi-storey car park.

Over the three days of the conference, I was not the only one who remembered. Speaking with delegates and pointing this out, they all recalled the fire and dramatic footage. They even remembered the reports of a horse show going on at the time with horse boxes in the car park. However, few had connected it to the vacant slab of concrete now occupying the space. Many were quite shocked by how close the car park was to the surrounding buildings.

This was something that stood out at the time of the incident. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service used high-volume pumps to protect surrounding properties.

Today, a new Kings Dock car park stands nearby and is reported to have cost £30 million to replace the old one. Apparently the replacement is more pleasing to the eye and now better located, at least according to the British Parking Awards 2021. Crucially, it is sprinkler protected.

A recent news story states that the area of the former car park is going to get a £300k investment to landscape it, a reminder that even after all this time, the scars of the fire have not fully healed.

Many will point to insurance paid to recover this and may even point to the renewal of the area. They might also say the lesson of the fire has been learnt with automatic sprinklers provided in the new building. A temporary car park was erected to help out with the shortfall but over 1200 cars needed to be disposed of and replaced. The environmental impact was significant, not to mention the challenges of dismantling and disposing of the charred multi-storey car park.

However, that hides some of the impacts and the slow drag of recovery. For me it is a stark reminder of the effort and energy that goes into rebuilding after a fire. We may readily forget the four-year period needed to demolish, plan and rebuild a new car park. This was four years in which a major city destination and venue operated from a temporary space without a key piece of infrastructure.

There is also the local economic impact. Liverpool City council missed targets for job creation and generation, citing the fire as part of the reason. This led to millions of pounds in government funding being returned. The lost parking revenue, disruption to local businesses and events, and reputational damage to a city experiencing remarkable growth – none of this can be dismissed as collateral.

We often talk about the cost of fires in terms of buildings and insurance claims but the story of the Kings Dock car park is a sobering reminder that the true cost and impact of fire is far broader. The new car park has sprinklers but the original fire was preventable. The conversation about resilience and sustainability continues but we must not forget the lessons of the past. The empty space across from the ACC remains a physical symbol of that.