Huge walls of Locharbriggs red sandstone and Muschelkauk Scheinsberger limestone standing on plinths of Balmoral granite and surrounded by Chinese granite paving help define the new 42-acre retail and leisure-led development that is Liverpool One.

The first phase - basically shops - of the £1billion pound development to help regenerate the docks area of the city opened on 29 May, with the opening of the whole project scheduled for the end of September. Still to come are gardens, a multiplex cinema and other leisure and residential areas.

Most of the stone has been fixed by stone specialists Vetter with stone on precast units supplied by Malling Products, both subsidiaries of the project\'s main contractors, Laing O\'Rourke, although a fountain and massive steps up to the new public gardens, all in Chinese granites, are the work of stone specialists Miller Druck working for landscapers Willoughby to the designs of landscape architects Gross.Max.

The steps are constructed of Chinese granite called Yellow Rock (G682) 344mm deep, 625mm wide and 1.5-2m long, all radiused and covering roughly 1,000m2. They form an impressive focal point.

Just before the phase one opening, the Queen visited Liverpool, which is this year\'s European City of Culture, to name the new granite water feature at Liverpool One as Lyver Pool. A granite plinth now commemorates the occasion (see picture right).

Liverpool One is a massive project but, impressively, both Vetter and Miller Druck worked on it while they were also working on some of the other biggest projects in the country -†Vetter were on Heathrow\'s Terminal Five and Miller Druck were at Cardiff and White City.

Liverpool One\'s first phase has seen about 40 shops open, including the flagship stores of John Lewis and Debenhams, with another 120 shops and 20 bars and restaurants, as well as the cinema, due to open in September. The gardens, known as Chavasse Park, and the 600-apartment One Park West tower will open next year along with new hotels currently under construction.

A new shopping centre might not seem the height of culture but it is intended to help revitalise the city and bring back people who had turned instead to places like Manchester\'s Trafford Centre.

And, according to the magazine Caterer & Hotel Keeper, Brasserie Blanc decided not to open a branch at Liverpool One because it was "slightly too posh for a precinct".