“You’d expect to see something like this in New York,” says Chris Lee of the buzzing community of small businesses at his Start Yard HQ. “So, why shouldn't it be in Birkenhead as well?”
“You could fill this place with corridors and offices, cram it full of tenants, but how much fun would that be?” Chris and Jill Lee don’t think like others do. Which is probably why Start Yard doesn’t feel like your cookie-cutter business incubation hub.
Come any day for a coffee, a breakfast or a beer and you’ll see what we mean. Start Yard is a place where conversations, connections and chance encounters happen every bit as much as new contracts are clinched, or new customers secured. But that happens too.
For Chris and Jill, this cavernous 19th century brick warehouse alongside the sandstone walls of Birkenhead Priory is a place where future plans and friendships ignite. A space to nurture the people who power our new businesses as much as to grow the bottom line that pushes them forward.
“My mentality has always been, do the right thing, make a space that people want to spend time in, and the rest will just happen naturally,” Chris says.
You wouldn’t bet against the man who built up Wade Smith and Microzine – two seminal Liverpool brands whose high street presence felt more like social hang outs than soulless stores.
“We could make a fortune if we filled this place with tenants,” Jill says, as we take a walk through the cavernous warehouse once crammed with the Rolls Royces and Bentleys of Cammell Lairds’ upper echelon and visiting ship magnates from around the world.
Now the walls are lined with cool Adidas ephemera – part of Sart Yard’s other role as an impromptu gallery space – potted palms and cosy booths to curl up in with your laptop (or book).
Shipping container-esque units zigzag back from the huge bar/café space, each the home of a new Left Bank business. Phase two’s double-decker affair of even roomier offices is being given a final lick of paint, as we take the tour.
“I was thinking of opening something up in Liverpool, but we live over here, so I took a look at this place and fell in love with it, we both did,” Chris says.
“We could see the potential,” Jill adds, “although maybe we didn’t appreciate the amount of time and money it would take us to get us here.”
“It’s been really hard,” Chris admits. “When you’re doing something new, it always is. People need convincing to come along on the journey. That takes time.”
It’s been time well spent. As we chat, future tenants are getting a guided tour, while current residents welcome them for a mooch around.
Try as we might, we just couldn’t imagine a welcome this warm and inviting in an out-of-town business centre. So who, we wonder, is the perfect Start Yard tenant-in-waiting?
“It’s for people who don’t like working in offices, like me,” Chris laughs. “It’s a place for creativity. I hate having meetings in offices. They’re the most uncreative spaces imaginable.”
“It’s for people who get their best ideas when they’re in a café, or their favourite bar,” Jill – who oversees Start Yard’s fabulous food offering – says. “If you set your laptop up here, you never know who you might meet, or what opportunities might open up.”
“I’ve travelled to America, Taiwan and Korea and have seen how inspiring their start-up spaces are,” Chris says. “I love mashing things up together.
"Yes, there are traditional office spaces here, where you can close the door and get on with the serious business of growing your company, but it’s much more than that.”
“You might not be at the stage where you actually even need an office,” Jill says. “Maybe you just need a place with free wifi and a table to do some work on for a couple of hours. We get lots of people who’ll just pop in for a coffee to spend some time out of the house.”
As Chris says, around 66% of new businesses fail in the first three years. All the coffee and free wifi in the world isn’t going to change that.
But a supportive network wrapped around you, easy-in and easy-out tenancies and, crucially, a proper education just might tip the scales in the other direction.
“It doesn’t start here,” Jill says. “It starts at school. Where’s the training for young entrepreneurs? We can help them as much as we can, but we can’t do it all.”
To that end, Start Yard is working with Wirral Met college – offering a free space for a year for students who’ve finished their courses and need a space to get things moving.
“If you want to be a lawyer or an accountant, you know what your career path is, it’s laid out for you,” Chris says.
“If you want to be a creative or digital entrepreneur and start your own business, where do you go? Where’s the support? Nowhere. There needs to be a conveyor belt. We need to look at other cities the same size – see what gaps we’ve got, and work to fill them.
“People who are 13 or 14 now need to know everything is in place for five years’ time. We’re part of that, but we’re not the only part.”
For Chris and Jill, Start Yard isn’t a school yard: yes, there are Eurovision parties, Christmas grottoes planned and fun firmly on the curriculum, but it’s serious. There is work to be done.
“We need more proper businesses, not just CICs,” Chris says, “if we’re to really grow this area and make it a viable place for people to live, and to stay here.
“We need an ecosystem built around making things. And making it possible to make things, not driving people away with red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy.”
Part catalyst, part café, part creative hot house, Start Yard is a statement of intent. It’s a place that shows this area believes in its future, and is doing something to encourage it into existence.
“This place has ended up more lovely than I ever envisaged,” Jill says. “It’s just a wonderful space to spend time in.”
“But it’s not finished yet,” Chris interjects. “It’s going to change in ways we haven’t even thought of yet.
"That’s the brilliant thing that our tenants bring to the mix,” he says, mentioning product launches and poetry readings: “Nothing’s off limits. Well, maybe a rave…”
How do they know they’ve succeeded? “It’s simple,” Jill says. “Our tenants grow, and they leave us.”
Image credits: Emma Case
Start Yard
108 Church St, Birkenhead, CH41 5JA
