events archive

Seacycles 2008
Seacycles 2008 is the seventh annual celebration our namesake tidal pool People meet, with friendly chatter, on the steps of the World Museum on William Brown Street. To begin with getting the banners and nautical themed models, costumes and puppets ship shape ready for this years procession.

As more participants began to arrive in groups of two or three, passers by stopped, intrigued and agreed to take part or wished us well. Everyone was given something to carry or a role to play. A father and son agreed to take the on the joint responsibility of being Noah and carrying our ark, the shark costume was readily snapped up and someone with a penchant for dressing up was crowned as King Neptune for the day. About a hundred people from all different generations and backgrounds began to make a procession,

Lewis Lesley, a Pool trustee and one of the founders of Seacycles, playing the admirals role for the day outlined the route, hopped onto the front half of his tandem bicycle and away we went to follow Liverpools original, tidal watercourse. We flowed down William Brown Street, once the site of the fast downhill current of a fresh water stream, to the bottom of St Johns Gardens. the citys namesake tidal pool had originally occupied the site of the Queens Tunnel! From there we followed the route of the watercourse under the pavements of Whitechapel where centuries ago boats would have sailed up and down.

Dammed by the pedestrian traffic of Church Street we held off until a tributary of people from the Bluecoat arrived, their motion being enough to set us off once again down the channel of Paradise Street, through the newly opened Liverpool ONE shopping development. Diverting and regrouping naturally along Steers way and admiring the fountains, we eventually reached the Strand, so named after the long gone Sand bar where the boats of Liverpool beached should they return at low tide.

Navigating this stretch of fast moving traffic we arrived at the Maritime Museum and set about congratulating one another! on having made it to our boundary between earth and water. Some of us retired to the Pumphouse the traditional last stop for the Seacycles group, others to the Peer masters house for more serene reflection. All in all it was agreed that the day had been a great success and that collaboratively through much hard work Seacycles 2008 had been the most bizarre and impressive spectacle yet.

Thanks to Rowan Watts, Granby Adult Learning Centre, Pool trustees Dot Taylor and Lewis Lesley, Annie, Bec and Bryan at the Bluecoat Arts Centre, and John Robinson.
Images courtesy of Ingrid Spiegl, Jon Deane and Geoff Roberts.

Thanks also to everyone else who made this year's parade the biggest seacycles in it's 7 year history. More images to come soon, why not email your photos to info@poolproject.co.uk in the meantime and we'll add them to our facebook group.

Images
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