The Royal Liver Building stands at the heart of Liverpool’s UNESCO world heritage site and is one of the city’s most recognisable symbols. The owners of the Grade I Listed building sought to breathe life into the area by investing in a dramatic new lighting scheme which would permanently light up the iconic building for the first time in its history.

A new sympathetic façade lighting scheme, developed by Arup's team of lighting designers, illuminates the iconic clock towers and liver bird sculptures. Our scheme focused on using lighting to amplify the historical features of the building and to unify its four façades while creating a more engaging experience that connects residents and visitors to the city’s past.

The bespoke lighting scheme has turned the original time-piece purpose of the clock towers into a 21st century digital display that enlivens the urban environment and transforms the visitor and occupier experience. With almost 400 light fittings used across the scheme and lighting shows held throughout the year, the building has delivered a new sense of pride for the people of Liverpool and acts as a destination for locals and visitors during the hours of darkness.

Revealing the facade

To create a hierarchy that defines how lighting should be applied and focused on the façade, we mapped the key journeys and viewpoints across Liverpool and aligned this with the visual prominence of the architectural elements. Our research revealed the importance of highlighting significant elements of the façade, including the liver birds and the clock towers – fundamental to Liverpool’s maritime heritage and the city’s story.

Royal Liver Building lighting

The building's unique features, including the liver birds and white cupolas, have been sympathetically illuminated

Royal Liver Building lighting

The scheme uses almost 400 light fittings to create a visual display that can be seen from viewpoints across Liverpool

Lighting Liverpool's heritage

A timeless, sympathetic, white light mode provided the most dominant lighting scenario with different tones used to optimise the oxidised copper colouring of the liver birds and frame the white cupolas with a halo of light. We carefully considered the building’s many unique characteristics to create a striking visual display visible across the city.

Nearly 400 light fittings make up the lighting scheme. As a Grade I listed building, each light has been thoughtfully positioned and installed to meet planning requirements without compromising the historic building fabric. The lights have colour-changing LED modules that harness complete flexibility by accommodating different uses of colour while also minimising energy consumption. This work joins our long-standing record supporting the Liver Building, which extends 

Continuing the city's story

The façade is now used as a storytelling canvas to deliver a dynamic visitor experience which uses our custom-designed daily shows to interpret different events and seasons with light. Each year the light shows are refreshed to capture any significant events in Liverpool and across the world.

The switch-on of the new scheme was a remarkable success and continues to attract Liverpudlians and visitors back to the waterfront as a desirable nocturnal location. Working alongside a local composer, Sam Crombie, we designed a one-off light show to accompany the sound piece. The show was called Flight and focused on the building waking up again, stories behind the liver birds and a celebration of the new chapter in the life of the Royal Liver Building.

Royal Liver Building lighting

The façade is now a storytelling canvas, using the colour-changing LED modules to deliver custom light shows throughout the year

We were impressed with the team's considered approach to lighting a heritage building as well as their exciting concept. Arup’s lighting scheme will be one of the first of its kind in the UK, showcasing Liverpool’s spirit and hopefully setting a new trend in the approach to lighting heritage sites.

Simon Hepple

Director, CBRE