The Bluecoat: a brief history of the Bluecoat, Liverpool's great survivor, now being recast for the twenty-first century.

Despite its long history, Liverpool has kept few of its early buildings. The city's development was driven by commerce, from the opening of the Old Dock in 1715 until the mid twentieth century, and it has always been unsentimental about preserving its past. Remarkably, however, the grandest secular building from the beginning of this period has survived, right in the heart of the modern city.

Begun in 1716, the Blue Coat School was built as a residential school for poor boys and girls. Of mellow red brick, with painted quoins and small-paned sash windows, it encloses three sides of a tree-shaded, cobbled courtyard, with a 'secret' garden, just off what is now Liverpool's main shopping street. Its architect is unknown, though it has been linked with both Thomas Ripley, who designed a long-vanished custom house for Liverpool, and Thomas Steers, the dock engineer.

In 1906 the school moved to the suburbs, and the old building faced demolition. It was saved by the formidable partnership of Charles Reilly, recently appointed head of the Liverpool School of Architecture, and W. H. Lever, the Merseyside soap magnate of Port Sunlight fame. Lever made it available to house Reilly's thriving school. Other parts were occupied from 1907 by the Sandon Studios Society, establishing an arts community that continues to this day. The Sandon was a notable arts club, with Augustus John and Charles Rennie Mackintosh among its honorary members, staging a lively programme of exhibitions, concerts, amateur theatricals and events that make the Bluecoat arguably the UK's oldest arts centre. The Society was not provincial: in 1911 it displayed a selection of works from Roger Fry's first Post-Impressionist exhibition, and in 1931 it showed Epstein's controversial Genesis, attracting nearly 50000 visitors in a month.

Reilly's school moved out during the First World War, and in 1925 the building was again on the market. This time a public appeal, driven by Sandon members, raised funds for it to be purchased and run by a charitable trust, the Bluecoat Society of Arts. For many years it housed the studio of architectural sculptor Herbert Tyson Smith. Repaired after severe bomb damage in 1941, the Bluecoat has since flourished as a centre for contemporary visual and performing arts and literature, with a renowned exhibition programme and participation in the Liverpool Biennial. It provides studio space for artists and craftspeople, international residencies, and creative industry tenants, including the Bluecoat Display Centre for contemporary crafts.

Now, an ambitious programme of repair and refurbishment is nearing completion. Its main feature is a new extension designed by the Dutch practice Biq Architecten (p54), on the site of a rear wing destroyed in the War. Externally, its gabled form and brick facing aim to harmonise with central Liverpool's oldest building; inside, it will provide a performance space and gallery, new artists' studios, a bar and restaurant, participation spaces and public areas. An exciting new chapter in the Bluecoat's eventful history is about to open.