The frontage of a former kosher butcher's shop that supplied the Titanic is set to be preserved as a monument in Liverpool's city centre.

A £1.5 million redevelopment proposal by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, which bought the Galkoff's site, includes plans to painstakingly remove the shop-front's iconic green tiles and ironwork and reconstruct them as a free-standing sculpture.

Trading from 1907-79, Galkoff's was Liverpool's last kosher butcher. It had contracts to supply kosher foods to major shipping companies transporting Jewish refugees to new lives.

A number of plans for the site have been rejected by English Heritage, which considers the building of national importance. But although it is rare to receive consent to pull down a listed building, Laurence Galkoff, grandson of the shop's last owner, Sydney Galkoff, believes "the important thing is preserving the tiles and the history, which will be shown off and made available to the public".

The medical school has liaised with Mr Galkoff, who said the family supported the latest scheme. "The idea of having the shop as a free-standing sculpture really makes a statement. It will have space around it for people to walk and think.

"People will be able to walk through its door and sit on its window ledge. It will say something about Liverpool's Jewish heritage."