A History of Birkenhead

Birkenhead was once the headland which jutted into the River Mersey at Wooodside and was overgrown with birch trees. The name probably means 'headland overgrown with birch', from the old English, 'bircen', meaning birch tree. It is not known exactly when the first settlement was founded at Birkenhead but in the mid-12th century, a Benedictine Priory was built there. At some point, a little hamlet grew up nearby and in 1277 King Edward I stayed at Birkenhead. However in 1536 Henry VIII closed the priory and for centuries afterwards Birkenhead remained a tiny hamlet with, in 1801, still only 110 inhabitants . However, St Mary's Church was built in 1821 and in 1824 a man named William Laird created a new town at Birkenhead when he built a shipyard and plans were drawn up for a new town near his shipyard.

The first few streets of Birkenhead had been laid out by the lord of the manor, Francis Richard Price before, in 1825 at the behest of William Laird, the great Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham produced a plan for a modern new town which would mimic that of Edinburgh New Town where he had been responsible for the successful design of the Moray Quarter with elegant townhouses for the Scottish aristocracy. With a gridiron pattern of streets, a range of fine late Georgian buildings, and the imposing Hamilton Square, named after William Laird's mother-in-law, it would be designed to attract the wealthy, who could indulge in an urban lifestyle, but with the countryside in easy reach. The square was planned as the focal point of Gillespie Graham's formal gridiron plan for this new town. Progress was slow and though the streets were laid out buildings in the square were not completed until the 1840s. On the east side a space was reserved for a civic building, filled by the Birkenhead Town Hall, built between 1883 and 1887 and partially reconstructed following a fire in 1901. Gillespie Graham had been unhappy when he learnt that only three sides of his square were to be built, and insisted that the fourth side be built or he would withdraw. The fourth side was built on Westminster Road which was later renamed St Aidens Terrace. At the centre of the square were private gardens, only acquired as a public open space in 1903. These gardens are now the setting for a number of memorials - in 1877 a statue was erected to John Laird (1805 – 1874), originally the statue stood on the east side of the square but after World War I it was moved to the west side to make way for the Borough's war memorial. At the centre of the square is a replica Eleanor Cross, designed by Edmund Kirby and unveiled in 1905 to commemorate the reign of Queen Victoria. Most recently a series of memorials have been placed in the square in memory of people who have lost their lives in past wars and conflicts. No two sides of the square are identical and it is second only to Trafalgar Square in London for having the most Grade I listed buildings in one place in England containing 62 Grade I listed buildings as well as the former Grade II listed Birkenhead Town Hall.

Hamilton Square

The town grew rapidly and in 1833 a body of men called Improvement Commissioners was appointed with powers to pave and clean the streets of Birkenhead. Then in 1840 Birkenhead gained gaslight and was connected to Chester by railway and in 1842 waterworks were built. In 1845 a Market Hall was built, then Birkenhead Docks opened in 1847 in the same year as Birkenhead Park opened. A post office was built in 1856 and from 1860 horse-drawn trams ran in the streets of Birkenhead. By 1861 the population of Birkenhead was 35,000 and the town was flourishing. Though this ‘new town’ was conceived as a place where Liverpool merchants would make their home, not all its buildings were domestic. Market Street has numerous listed buildings, including shops and public houses dating from 1837 to the 1850s. The triangular range of former shops between Chester St and Cross is also listed and formed part of the Market Cross development carried out by the local architect, Walter Scott in 1847. It was by then a flourishing town with its market, theatres and music halls, the first tramway in Europe and the world’s first publicly funded park, which played a key role in the development of the parks movement and became a model for parks design including Central Park, New York. Birkenhead was given a corporation and a mayor in 1877 and a Town Hall was built in 1887. The Mersey Railway Tunnel was opened in 1886 and in 1896 electricity was generated in Birkenhead for the first time. By 1901 it was a bustling town of 110,000 with electric trams replacing the horse drawn ones. Buses in turn replaced them and the last trams ran in 1937. Meanwhile the Mersey Tunnel opened in 1934, the same year as a new Central Library opened. However the 1930s were years of mass unemployment and hardship in the town. Full employment returned with the Second World War although Birkenhead was bombed in 1940-1941. However, after the war, it boomed and new council estates were built. For a time shipbuilding in Birkenhead prospered, however, in the 1970s and 1980s, it declined rapidly but it is now hoped there might be a Renaissance of shipbuilding.

The Hamilton Square Conservation Area was first designated in July 1977 to protect the character and uniformity of the historic square. In 1994 it was extended to include the then Woodside Hotel, period property along Argyle Street, Hamilton Street and Market Street and the triangle of land between Cross Street and Chester Street, with the aim of providing a complementary ‘visual envelope’ to the main square. Beyond the square the Conservation Area has numerous listed buildings, many of them associated with prominent individuals or significant historic events. One such event was the Irish Famine and a green plaque on the corner of 22 Argyle Street and 1 Price Street commemorates the large number of Irish migrants who sought employment and shelter in Birkenhead during the Famine Years of 1845 -52. In 1851 a quarter of the town's population was of Irish birth, the highest proportion in any English town of the time. On the same building a red plaque marks the inauguration on August 30th 1860 of the first street railway in Europe. The brain child of the flamboyant American, George Francis Train, its horse drawn trams ran from Woodside to Birkenhead Park. Another plaque on the Grade II listed 42- 44 Hamilton Street, commemorates Sir Henry Tate, the sugar refiner, who traded there between 1851 and 1861. (Tate was the major benefactor of the Tate Gallery.) Also listed are 28 – 30 Argyle Street. These properties were once known as the Argyle Assembly Rooms. During the American Civil War these were an important meeting place for the anti-slavery lobby. At one such meeting, on 18th January 1863, a vote was taken pledging unanimous support for the end of slavery and a letter to this effect was sent to President Lincoln. A black plaque commemorates this event. 2A Price Street, on the corner of the Square, was used as the studio of Harold Rathbone's Della Robbia Art Pottery from its establishment in 1894 to its closure in 1906. A large collection of this pottery can be seen in the Williamson Art Gallery. Other Grade II listed buildings include Hamilton Square Railway Station, erected to serve the Mersey Railway when the tunnel opened in 1886. Associated with this is the listed Shore Road Pumping Station whose two 'grasshopper' beam engines were designed to keep the tunnel water-free. Its chimney and one engine have gone but the other survives in situ. In the summer of 2008, the listed Woodside Hotel which opened in 1833 and was an important reminder of Birkenhead’s past, was demolished following two disastrous fires.

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