The founders of a business that helped shape Liverpool’s up and coming Fabric District have called time on the venture five years after its launch.
The Liverpool Fashion Hub, opened in 2018, closed for good earlier this month after its lease in the Tapestry Building on Kempston Street came to an end. It was one of the key businesses in an area that has become increasingly attractive for creatives in recent years – in part due to the work of the Fabric District Community Interest Company.
Gary Millar and his partner Steve Macfarlane launched the Fashion Hub with the aim of developing and supporting creative businesses and entrepreneurs, including those in the fashion and textile industries. It operated in the large ground floor space inside the Tapestry, a former clothes factory that was transformed from a derelict warehouse space to provide a home for a range of businesses.
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The Hub has gone on to support a range of creatives and new businesses through its “low cost” spaces that could be rented out. Footfall to the area on the edge of London Road and the city centre was also bolstered by the hub hosting events and meetings after the creation of two bars and a kitchen.
When initially exploring the idea for the hub following a Fabric District board meeting in 2017, Gary told the ECHO a number of spaces were offered as a potential home for the idea. Some involved rent free agreements for a short term, but Gary said there was always a desire to see the hub run for five years.
He added: “We then spoke to Jason [Abbott, owner of The Tapestry] and we fell in love with this mess. We had to take a bit of a gamble, a calculated risk.”
Putting their own money in to help with the refurbishment, the pair set out to “create a space to help creatives – a work space that was low cost.” Over the years the hub supported a range of people and added to the growing textile-led offer in the area, with long established companies like hat makers Try and Lilly already operating on Kempston Street.
In Gary’s view, the “future vision for the [Fabric District] is safe” despite the loss of one of its key businesses, the Hub, adding that “new tenants will come in and make it bigger and better". There is also a bittersweet feeling that two years of the five year lease were lost to Covid-19 and interruption due to lockdowns – something that has set the area back by a couple of years, in Gary’s view.
But the challenge was also made more difficult in recent years as a result of inflated business rates, in part due to the regeneration project that is gradually sweeping through the area. Gary told the ECHO that rates doubled and even quadrupled “overnight” following assessment by the Government’s Value Office Agency, claiming that some rates were as high as “Knightsbridge” in London in some cases.
Jason Abbott, owner of the Tapestry, said the higher rates had been painful for some tenants as the warehouse transformed from a derelict space to house a range of creative businesses. He added that there was a perceived improvement in the wider Fabric District and the rates didn’t necessarily match the condition some of the streets currently remain in.
While the rates are set every five years by Government, a spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: "We are aware that some businesses have seen an increase in their rateable value, including some in the Fabric District. This is mainly because many of the hubs have had changes in their use e.g. from a warehouse premise to a digital centre, café or restaurant.
“Some businesses will receive some transitional relief and they are able to appeal directly to the Valuation office should they choose to do so.”
New tenants have already taken over the lease for the space with a full announcement expected in the coming months. Speaking about the new chapter for the area, Jason, who is on the Fabric District CIC board, said the change is more of an “evolution” and “not a case of going back to the start”.
He added: "I want to say a massive thanks for what [The Liverpool Fashion Hub] have done in the last five years. The Fashion hub was there from the start and moved in when the shell and core works were still going on. The Fashion Hub was a catalyst for the space.”
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