New Hall Place (also known as ''The Capital'' and the ''Royal & SunAlliance Building'') is a 13-storey brutalist style office complex in the commercial district of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Due to its rough, beige exterior and proximity to the waterfront, it is also known by the local nickname 'The Sandcastle'.

History

It was developed by Royal Insurance as their head office building. As well as office space the building comprised a staff car park in the underground floors, a garage for the company chauffeur driven cars and staff facilities on the first floor including staff restaurant, sports hall, gymnasium and subsidised bar. Following the 1990s merger of Royal Insurance with SunAlliance to form Royal & SunAlliance (RSA), numerous job losses followed largely through outsourcing and off shoring deals. RSA staff numbers based in the building reduced from over 3000 to around 1200. In 2006 RSA sold the building to George Downing and leased back the parts of the building still used by RSA. This allowed other tenants to move in such as the UK Border Agency. Downing renamed the building from New Hall Place to The Capital. From 2016 The Capital is now owned by an American company Trinistar. New management took over in early 2016 from Lambert Smith Hampton To MJ MAPP LTD.

Design

The design of New Hall Place is described as a brutalist response to the nearby

Royal Liver Building The Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's '' Three Graces'', which line the ...

in terms of massing and height. New Hall Place is situated on Old Hall Street (one of Liverpool's main commercial and financial areas) and the lower three floors serve as The Capital Car Park — a 1,100 capacity secure guarded car park. One of two Liverpool exits from the Queensway Tunnel is located directly beneath New Hall Place (the other is next to the World Museum Liverpool).

Using river water to heat and cool the building

The building was constructed simultaneously with the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo building. Both buildings operated

heat pumps A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing h ...

to heat and cool the building using water from the adjacent

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...

. Three thousand gallons of water per hour seeps into the

Mersey railway tunnel The Mersey Railway was the first part of the passenger railway connecting the communities of Liverpool, Birkenhead, and now the rest of the Wirral Peninsula in England, which lie on opposite banks of the River Mersey, via the Mersey Railway Tun ...

from the river above, via the riverbed rock, which is a steady 13C temperature all year. This water was previously pumped out into the dock system. The heat pumps used this constant temperature water to heat the building, or as a heat sink to cool the building.

Gallery

File:New Hall Place, Liverpool.jpg File:Liverpool Commercial District.jpg

References

{{Liverpool B&S Buildings and structures in Liverpool Brutalist architecture in Liverpool Skyscrapers in Liverpool Buildings and structures completed in 1974 Skyscraper office buildings in England