Sir Paul and principal's dream of a performing arts showcase took seven years and £20m
THE Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) was created in 1996 on the site of Sir Paul McCartney's former grammar school.
It was the brainchild of Sir Paul and Mark Featherstone-Witty, who were introduced by The Beatles' producer,, Sir George Martin.
At the time, Sir Paul said: "I had always dreamt of being able to help my wonderful home town of Liverpool in some way or other. When I discovered the 1825 building which had once been my old school was derelict, saving the building became urgent."
McCartney had entered the school in 1953, at the same time as George Harrison was a pupil.
The school, on Mount Street, was itself a Liverpool landmark, with an illustrious history dating back to 1825 when the original Liverpool Institute and School of Art was built.
It became the Liverpool Institute for Boys in 1905 when the city council took over the management of secondary schools and the School of Art was taken over by Liverpool Polytechnic, now JMU.
The school closed in 1985 because there weren't enough pupils to make it viable.
But the council could not sell the building as its trust documents said it had to be used for education, so it remained in limbo.
Sir Paul discovered the disused site while making a home movie about his school days in the mid 1980s.
As Sir Paul says: "As if by magic, Mark appeared."
Mr Featherstone-Witty had been inspired by Alan Parker's 1980 film, Fame, about the New York High School for Performing Arts. He also read a book about musicians who failed to understand they were entering a business, despite the phrase "show business", and created a blueprint for a new type of training.
By 1985, he had nearly 50 artists, directors, choreographers and entrepreneurs backing him.
He formed a charity called the Schools for Performing Arts Trust to start a secondary school in London, which he finally did with the help of Sir Richard Branson and the British record industry.
It was called the BRIT School in Croydon. George Martin was Featherstone-Witty's appeal chairman and introduced him to Sir Paul, who was by then interested in finding a purpose for his old school.
The pair began talks with Liverpool City Council, which had by coincidence commissioned Pete Fulwell, then managing the Liverpool band The Christians, to look into initiatives that could help build on the city's reputation as a music city.
The resulting struggle to secure £20m and create the facility took another seven years.
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