Everything about Birkenhead totally explained
Birkenhead is a town within the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in
Merseyside,
England. It is located on the
Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the
River Mersey, opposite the city of
Liverpool. At the
2001 Census, the town had a population of 83,729.
Distanced from the
Industrial Revolution in Liverpool by the physical barrier of the River Mersey, Birkenhead retained its
agricultural status until the advent of the steam ferry service in 1820.
Shipbuilding started in 1829. An iron works was initially established by
William Laird in 1824 and was joined by his son
John Laird in 1828. The business eventually became
Cammell Laird. Notable vessels built at Birkenhead include
HMS Achilles,
HMS Affray,
CSS Alabama,
HMS Ark Royal,
HMS Birkenhead,
HMS Caroline,
Huáscar,
RMS Mauretania, the pioneer submarine
Resurgam,
HMS Thetis which sank on trials in Liverpool Bay,
HMS Conqueror and
HMS Prince of Wales.
In addition to the ferries, the
Mersey Railway tunnel in 1886 and the
Queensway road tunnel in 1934 gave rapid access to Liverpool and so opened up the Wirral Peninsula for development, prompting further growth of Birkenhead as an industrial centre. The town's population had swelled from 110 in 1801 to 110,912 one hundred years later and stood at 142,501 by 1951.
Governance
Formerly a township in Bidston Parish of the
Wirral Hundred, Birkenhead was incorporated as a
municipal borough in 1877, and became a
county borough with the passing of the
Local Government Act 1888. The borough included the parish of Birkenhead St. Mary and the townships of
Bidston,
Claughton with Grange,
Oxton,
Tranmere and part of
Bebington, later known as
Rock Ferry.
Prior to
1 April 1974, Birkenhead and the rest of the Wirral Peninsula, was part of the county of Cheshire. The implementation of the
Local Government Act 1972 saw Birkenhead lose its county borough status. The town has since been administered as part of the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in the
metropolitan county of Merseyside. The current
Member of Parliament is
Frank Field.
Economy
Birkenhead Market was first established on what is now the site of
Birkenhead Town Hall, between Chester Street and Hamilton Street, on
10 July 1835.
An increase in the town's population by 1841 led to the opening on
11 July 1845
During the 1970s, the commercial centre of the town was redeveloped around the principal shopping area of Grange Road. Following two fires at the original Birkenhead Market in 1969 and 1974, it was later moved to new premises adjoining the Grange Shopping Precinct development. Commercial expansion continued in the early 1990s when the Pyramids Shopping Centre was opened.
Landmarks
Birkenhead Park is acknowledged to be the first publicly funded park in
Britain.
The park was the forerunner of the
Parks Movement and its influence was far reaching both in Britain and abroad – most notably on
Olmsted's design for
Central Park, New York.
Designed by
Joseph Paxton (later Sir Joseph Paxton) in 1843 and officially opened in 1847, it was an immediate economic and social success. The park's main entrance, modelled on the Temple of Illysus in Athens, and its 'Roman Boathouse' are notable features. There are sandstone lodges at the three entrances, each with a different style of architecture,
Gothic,
Norman and
Italianate. There are also two lakes and an ornate 'Swiss Bridge'.
William Laird, a Scot, and his son John, were influential in the design of the town. Parts were laid out in a grid-iron pattern like
Edinburgh New Town with similar architecture. The chief architect was
James Gillespie Graham from Edinburgh. This grid pattern was centred around
Hamilton Square which was started in 1826 and, apart from
Trafalgar Square in
London, contains the most
Grade I listed buildings in one place in England. including Birkenhead Town Hall. A short distance from Hamilton Square are two other notable landmarks: the
Queensway Tunnel Main Entrance and the
Woodside Ferry Terminal. The film
Chariots of Fire had scenes shot at Woodside. These scenes were as a representation of
Dover in the 1920s.
Religious landmarks include
Birkenhead Priory & St. Mary's Tower, St. James' Church and St. Werburgh's
Roman Catholic Church. Other notable landmarks include
Bidston Windmill on a ridge behind the town, Flaybrick Watertower and
Flaybrick Memorial Gardens.
Transport
Trams
Birkenhead had the first street
tramway in
Europe. Opened on
29 August 1860 the first line ran from
Woodside (adjoining the terminal of the Mersey Ferry) to
Birkenhead Park. This early system was horse-drawn and was the brainchild of flamboyant American,
George Francis Train.
A preserved tram is currently on display in the Woodside ferry terminal booking hall.
Two replica trams, imported from
Hong Kong, have been brought into service as part of a heritage tramway between Woodside and
Wirral Transport Museum.
Railways
Birkenhead and
Liverpool became the first major
conurbations in northwest England to be served by an
underground railway system, which today is part of the
Merseyrail network.
The major underground station in Birkenhead is
Hamilton Square, the nearest station to the ferry terminal. Hamilton Square station is linked to the "Liverpool Loop" of the
Wirral Line, which includes
James Street,
Moorfields,
Liverpool Lime Street and
Liverpool Central stations, all of which are underground. Other stations located in Birkenhead include
Birkenhead Central,
Green Lane,
Rock Ferry,
Conway Park,
Birkenhead Park,
Birkenhead North and
Bidston.
The Wirral Line from Birkenhead travels south to
Chester and
Ellesmere Port, north to
New Brighton and westwards, across the Wirral Peninsula, to
West Kirby. The
Borderlands Line leaves Bidston station, in the north of Birkenhead and travels through the rural centre of Wirral, ultimately leaving England near
Shotton and terminating in
Wrexham,
Wales.
View Merseyrail Network Map
From 1878, until its closure in 1967,
Birkenhead Woodside railway station was the town's mainline railway terminus. Once located close to Woodside Ferry Terminal, the site has been redeveloped into flats, a bus depot and offices for the
Land Registry.
Roads
Junctions 1 and 3 of the
M53 motorway allow access to the national motorway network. The
A41 trunk road connects Woodside with
Marble Arch in
London. The
Queensway road tunnel, opened in 1936, runs underneath the River Mersey and connects the town to Liverpool.
Maritime
Birkenhead's dock system is part of the
Port of Liverpool facility, operated by the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. The
Twelve Quays ferry terminal allows a direct freight and passenger service to
Dublin,
Republic of Ireland and
Belfast,
Northern Ireland. The
Mersey Ferry at Woodside supplies a passenger service to Liverpool, as well as chartered cruising.
Airport
The nearest airport is
Liverpool John Lennon Airport (formerly known as Speke Airport) located about 8 miles (13 km) from Birkenhead.
Education
Schools
Among the town's schools are two independent schools. Birkenhead's oldest independent school is
Birkenhead School.
It was exclusively a boys' school from its founding in 1860 until 2000 when its sixth form became co-educational. It also has a preparatory school for boys aged 3–11 and will become fully co-educational in 2008. "Old Birkonians" (as former pupils are known) include the lawyer
F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead),
Andreas Whittam Smith (chairman of the
British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and founder of
The Independent newspaper),
Andrew Irvine (mountaineer), and
Philip Toosey, hero at the
Bridge on the River Kwai.
Birkenhead High School For Girls is an independent school for girls, founded in 1885 and catering for girls aged 2½–18. It is a member of the
Girls' Day School Trust. Its alumnae include the actress
Patricia Routledge.
In late 2007, both schools announced fundamental changes.
Birkenhead High School decided to become a state-funded
Academy school and
Birkenhead School decided to become co-educational for pupils aged 5-18.
Both changes are driven by falling numbers of pupils in the schools.
Colleges
Birkenhead's technical college in Woodside (Previously in Borough Road), now called
Wirral Metropolitan College, had a theatre named after one of its most famous former students and Birkonian (born 1936),
Glenda Jackson, the
Oscar-winning actress and
Member of Parliament. The Borough Road campus and the
Glenda Jackson Theatre were demolished in late 2005, to make way for flats, although Wirral Metropolitan College flourishes on other sites across the Wirral. The theatre secretly housed an emergency command centre for the region in its basement, accessible via the college. Politicians and officials would have retreated to this secure
bunker in the event of nuclear war to coordinate the recovery effort. By the 1990s, after the end of the
Cold War, the bunker had been decommissioned and the surrounding complex of rooms was used by the college as a rehearsal space and recording studio.
Other colleges include the
Birkenhead Sixth Form College located in the Claughton area of Birkenhead.
Healthcare
Birkenhead is served by
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (through its Arrowe Park Hospital, St. Catherine's Hospital and Clatterbridge Hospital sites) and
Wirral Primary Care Trust. Formerly, Birkenhead was also been served by Birkenhead General Hospital on Conway Street and St. James' Hospital in Claughton.
Arts and leisure
Arts
The Laird School of Art was the first public school of art outside London and was given to the town by John Laird. It opened on
27 September 1871. The
Williamson Art Gallery was opened in 1928 and houses a fine collection of paintings, porcelain and pottery.
In 1856, Birkenhead Library was opened as the country's first public library in an
unincorporated borough.
The library was situated in Hamilton Street until 1909, when it moved to a new building in Albion Street, near Birkenhead Market. In the 1930s, this building (along with much of the surrounding area) was demolished to make way for the entrance to the
Mersey Tunnel. The present library,
Birkenhead Central Library, is situated on Borough Road and was opened by
King George V in 1934.
Despite being in England, Birkenhead hosted Wales'
National Eisteddfod in 1917 as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1879. As in Liverpool, migrants from Wales, especially north Wales, contributed greatly to the growth of the town and its cultural development in the 19th century. The first local Birkenhead Eisteddfod, a precursor of the national events, took place in 1864. The 1917 National Eisteddfod was notable for the award of the chair to the poet Ellis Humphrey Evans, known as
Hedd Wyn. The winner was announced, and the crowd waited for the winner to accept congratulations before the chairing ceremony, but no winner appeared. It was then announced that Hedd Wyn had been killed the previous month on the battlefield in
Belgium, and the bardic chair was draped in black. These events were portrayed in the
Academy Award nominated film
Hedd Wyn, and were apparently intended as a protest against the war policies of
Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was present. There is a commemorative stone for the event in Birkenhead Park.
The
Argyle Theatre was a major theatre and music hall which opened in 1868 and became notable for the calibre of artistes who appeared there. Later in its life, it was also used as a
cinema. The theatre was destroyed by bombing in 1940.
The Little Theatre was established in 1958 from a converted former
Presbyterian church, whilst more recently, the Pacific Road Arts Centre in Woodside opened in 1999.
Media
Birkenhead is served by local daily newspapers the
Liverpool Echo and
Liverpool Daily Post. The free local weekly newspapers are the
Wirral Globe and the
Birkenhead News (part of the Wirral News group).
The local radio station
Wirral's Buzz 97.1 is based in the town. In addition, there are six other local radio stations that transmit to Birkenhead:
BBC Radio Merseyside,
Radio City 96.7,
Juice 107.6,
Dune 107.9,
Rock FM 97.4 and
CityTalk.
Birkenhead is situated within the television regions of
BBC North West and
ITV's Granada Television.
Sport and leisure
As well as Birkenhead Park, other recreational open spaces in Birkenhead include Mersey Park and Victoria Park.
Arrowe Park is a large area of parkland at the western edge of the town. In 1929, the
3rd World Scout Jamboree was held there.
Birkenhead is the home of
Tranmere Rovers Football Club, a professional
football team who play at
Prenton Park near the Tranmere area of the town. They are in
Football League One.
Cammell Laird F.C. is the town's semi professional
football club who play at Kirklands in Rock Ferry. They are in
Northern Premier League Division One South. The town is also the home of several successful amateur football leagues, both 11-a side and six-a side.
The
Birkenhead Park Football Club was founded in 1871, the same year as the
Rugby Football Union. The club originally played in the Lower Park but moved to their current home in the Upper Park in 1885.
Located in the town are the Birkenhead North End & Victoria Cycling Clubs.
Olympic riders from the clubs include
Chris Boardman,
Steve Cummings and
Rachel Heal.
The first two
Boy Scout groups in the world were founded as the 1st and 2nd Birkenhead groups at the
YMCA on the same night in 1908. The 2nd Birkenhead Scout Group is still operating and therefore is the longest running scout group in the world.
Cultural references
Birkenhead is mentioned in the song "What She Said" on the album
Meat Is Murder by
The Smiths:
What she read/All heady books/She'd sit and prophesise/(It took a tattooed boy from Birkenhead/To really really open her eyes).
The town is also referred to in the song "Everything Is Sorrow" on the
Boo Radleys'
C'mon Kids album:
I worked in Birkenhead for you/It brings me tears even now.
Notable people
In the arts, Birkenhead has produced several actors and performers including
Glenda Jackson,
Lewis Collins,
Megs Jenkins,
Patricia Routledge and
Paul O'Grady (also known as
Lily Savage). It has also produced poets and authors such as
Adrian Henri and
Michael Z. Williamson. The
World War I poet
Wilfred Owen, though born in
Oswestry, lived in Birkenhead from the age of 4 and was educated at the
Birkenhead Institute.
The town has produced some notable artists such as
Philip Wilson Steer,
Bessie Bamber, the workers at the
Della Robbia Pottery and two cartoonists:
Norman Thelwell and
Bill Tidy. In music, Indie band
Half Man Half Biscuit hail from Birkenhead as do
Paul Heaton, lead singer of the
Housemartins and the
Beautiful South, singer/songwriter
Charlie Landsborough and
Desmond Briscoe co-founder and original manager of the pioneering
BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Birkenhead has also produced notable sportsmen such as
Matt Dawson, the
rugby union player;
'Dixie' Dean (
Everton FC), record-breaking footballer, who was born at 313 Laird Street; and several other footballers including
Jason McAteer and
David Thompson. In the field of science and engineering Birkenhead claims
Sir Thomas Brassey, Victorian civil engineer and Professor Sir
John Eric Richardson, electrical engineer,
academic and champion of the
polytechnic sector.
Twin towns
Birkenhead is
twinned, as a part of Wirral, with
Gennevilliers in
France,
Lorient in France and
Latina in
Italy. Birkenhead also has a
Sister City Agreement with
Midland,
Texas.
Future
The major redevelopment project under consideration is
Peel Holdings' '
Wirral Waters'. This would allow for a £4.5 billion of investment in the regeneration of the dockland area. This equates with an investment of over £14,000 for each of the 320,000 residents of the Wirral. At the
East Float and
Vittoria Dock, the development would include several 50-storey skyscrapers, of new office space and for new residential flats. A retail and leisure quarter at the former
Bidston Dock site would encompass another of space. The whole project would create more than 27,000 permanent new jobs, aside from the employment required for construction and other peripheral employment. The development would be expected to take up to thirty years.
Further Information
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