The challenge for the new Everyman Theatre was to replace and re-present an iconic Liverpool institution at the centre of the city’s cultural and political life. The theatre began life in a nineteenth century chapel and was converted in the 1970s, becoming a centre of theatrical and political energy during that time. Built on the same Hope Street plot, our new building sought to encapsulate the classless, democratic values of the original while at the same time giving Liverpool a public cultural space of stature and substance.