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Liverpool's proposed Shankly Hotel will be a must-visit experience for football fans worldwide, not just Reds fans

That is the aim of Chris Carline, grandson of the legendary Scottish manager who built the foundations for Liverpool FC’s almost unprecedented domination of European football.

Two months ago Liverpool developer Signature Living announced plans to convert the current city council offices in Victoria Street’s Millennium House into the Shankly Hotel, including a museum collection of rare family mementoes never seen before.

Signature co-founder Lawrence Kenwright said the £15m scheme will start towards the end of the year after council staff have moved out of the building into new space at Municipal Buildings and the Cunard Building.

Mr Carline, a Liverpool council employee, is working with Signature to create the Shankly experience for guests from around the world.

He said: “We want to celebrate Bill Shankly as a person and there will be heavy input from me and the family.”

Liverpool FC has some personal items of Shankly in its museum, on loan from the family.

But Mr Carline said they have a huge collection of memorabilia, catalogued and currently in safe storage, which will be used to tell the story of Shankly’s life, from being born and raised in Glenbuck, to his Liverpool successes, and after his retirement.

“When my nan, Nessie, passed away 11 years ago, she had hoarded everything he ever had.”

He said most items will be on display for the public to view.

He added: “The thing with the hotel is not to be a Liverpool FC hotel, it is to celebrate Bill Shankly as a person and how the city took to him.

“We want it to be not just for Liverpool fans but for football fans in general, but we are linking up with the club to go forward.

“It is about joining up in a way that we can give visitors to the city a general football experience.

“We have two of the biggest football clubs in the world and Everton will feature, as well, because in his latter days he went to Bellefied (Everton’s former training ground opposite his West Derby house) and to Everton games.

“We did find season ticket stubs for Everton in his belongings. He was very highly thought of by Evertonians, as well as Liverpool fans.”

There are also plans to place a statue of Shankly, similar to the one at the Kop, outside the hotel.

Mr Kenwright said: “It will signal that you are now in the city centre, almost as if he is welcoming people to the city.”

Mr Carline added: “It fits the quote from him, ‘Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool’.”

Mr Carline said they have already had booking inquiries from around the world: “There is interest from tour groups and fans’ groups. People already want to know when they can book.”

He added: “I go to home and away games and have links with international supporters’ groups.”

Plans also include guided tours of the city to Shankly-related spots. Mr Carline said: “The public side of Shankly has been done to death, but we, as the family, have got great personal stories, so it will be good to relay those to guests and visitors and tell them all about that.

“We can take them to West Derby where he lived, and places he frequented.”

Mr Kenwright said: “We want to give people a much larger experience than just a bed and a hotel.”

The ground floor of the Shankly Hotel will contain the reception and a 19,000 sq ft gym, then two floors of office space, with five floors of hotel accommodation above.

Of the 76 rooms, providing 300 beds, half of those will be apartments for family or group visits.

Evertonian Mr Kenwright said: “We’re looking at large parties coming in from around the world for the games, and it will be a normal hotel during the week. We’re aiming at Norwegians and Irish coming for four or five night stays as families, and groups of friends.

“It’s something that hotels don’t really cater for, groups.”

Mr Carline revealed to the ECHO details of a selection of the many personal items that will be on show in the Shankly museum.

They will include all the medals he won as a player and a manager.

There is also a telegram he received from The Beatles, congratulating him on winning the FA Cup in 1965.

He said there is also a huge range of scouting notes on players, including Ron Yeats who went on to captain the side, and notes about tactics.

And among the more unusual items are a framed set of all the Apollo mission badges, presented to Shankly, along with a letter, by Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, who visited Liverpool when he was tracing his family tree.

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