Work is nearing completion on the £16m, 347 room student residence at Hope Street Liverpool. The scheme includes a new public courtyard and amphitheatre with the focal point being the renovated and reinstated statue of the 19th century social reformer Hugh Stowell Brown. The Statue was originally unveiled in 1889 in the churchyard opposite the Philharmonic Hall. Following demolition of the church in 1939 it was relocated to the Princes Road in 1954. After the Toxteth riots in the early 80’s the statue was removed from its plinth and stored in Croxteth Hall.

The statue has undergone six months of detailed renovation which included cleaning the stone and reconstruction of the hands and face. It has now been reunited with its original granite plinth on the former churchyard which is now the Hope Street Apartments. Hope Street opens its doors to students in the next two weeks and commercial tenants will commence fit out of the ground floor restaurants and shops thereafter.