Half bench, half biscuit

HALFWAY through 2009 and, as we look around our almost finished city, the magnificent Spider, Go! Superlambananas and the Debenhams opening seem a rose-coloured, frothy, festive spectacle from another age.

An age that will forever be fondly known, in Liverpool, as 08.

Time then, for everyone to sit down and examine the civic navel to see if, indeed, Liverpool has capitalised on Culture year. But sit on what?

Last year, Phil Redmond's Open Culture organisation launched a huge search for hidden talent. A competition to find something special, some “thing” that would be “a lasting legacy of 2008”.

What would be a true benchmark of a special year? they wondered. Why, a special bench, of course! The answer was right there in the question. Brilliant and obvious. Well, obvious anyway.

And now, all this time later, we have it: The first of three winners has been unveiled: The All Together Now bench.

Phil explained: “We set a creative challenge – it wasn’t just to be a simple bench. It’s a cultural resting place.”

You're talking the ultimate sit, here.

You might think it looks like a gingerbread man, that perhaps it had been sponsored by Sayers (ah, one last time for the “official pasty of Capital

of Culture”). But no. The funding for the installation came from Merseytravel. It will sit in their office in Queen Square, as may you, if you wish to rest your own little legacies.

But is it about you and me? Does it represent everyman? Yes.

“I really wanted to focus on the great characteristics of the people of Liverpool, ” said winning designer Colin Powell.

There are two more to be revealed from 550 entries. Apparently, The Storyteller bench and The Secret bench.

This design, meanwhile, with its recycled plastic seat, is said to illustrate the positivity, humour and camaraderie of the city.

Truly a reminder of European Capital of Culture. For all posteriority.