First published in: City GENT Issue 119. September 2004
TRANMERE
City GENT Issue 119 and 125.
The Prenton of Prenton Park, has long been a part of Birkenhead, biggest town on the Wirral. The Wirral is a strange place. A lot of it is as flat as Norfolk, and parts of it feel like it’s still waiting for the Stone Age to start.
Birkenhead (the headland with birches) was tiny until the 1820’s. Then the first regular, time tabled ferry service to Liverpool started and rich people from Liverpool built big houses around Hamilton Square. This became one of the grandest urban squares in England, and could take the breath away, even in the times of Birkenhead’s deepest depression. In 1827 William Laird created a shipyard on the banks of Wallasey Pool and had big plans for Birkenhead. As Norman Ellison wrote, in ‘The Wirral Peninsula’, it:
‘...was to be a planned city and a rival to neighbouring Liverpool-”A city of the Future” ...Birkenhead was nobly conceived and planned: had the visionaries been less ambitious, had the growth been more gradual, had they learnt to creep before they attempted to walk, its subsequent history might have been different.’
Birkenhead failed, and the failure twisted the face of the town, and it’s football club, seemingly forever. In the early Nineties, it was a right closet of a place, and far more run down than Bradford. We will not be shocked though, to discover things have changed when we visit it this season, and that Birkenhead was changed for the better before Liverpool bid for the Capital of Culture title.
New Brighton
This used to have a tower to rival Blackpool, which was only demolished in 1977. Yet when one of us visited in 1991 the very existence of the tower seemed to have been utterly forgotten. The visit was in the middle of August, the New Brighton tourist office was shut for its holidays, there wasn’t a bed and breakfast to be found, and the beach had, apparently, been washed away when the new Liverpool container dock changed the flow of the Mersey.
The Lady Lever Gallery.
This is the centrepiece of the marvellous Port Sunlight new town and factory development, just a few miles up river from Tranmere Rovers. It was built by the amazing William Hesketh Lever (of Sunlight Soap fame). The Gallery was opened in 1922 to display Lever’s personal collection, which was started with a pottery shepherd and shepherdess that he bought to put on the mantelpiece of his house. There are lots of different parts to the collection, including one of the best ranges of British artists of the 18th and 19th Century’s; and one of the finest collections of Wedgwood anywhere. If you have the slightest interest in art, architecture or social history, then you really must visit.
Issue 125
Tranmere was one of the best trips of last year, and not just because of the 4-5 win. Parts of Birkenhead still look dead seedy, but there is a massive amount of money being spent on it, and there are a couple of boozers worth finding.
The Dispensary on Chester St, on the wide road by the bus station. A pub with a grand interior, and the Cains’ was good, but the staff were not friendly.
The Crown, on the other hand, was friendly and had some wonderful beer on. It is on the river end of Conway Street, near the Dispensary, just off Hamilton Square. The latest round of redevelopment has left it isolated, so you’re best off asking for directions or printing the map available at the other end of the link.
The Lady Lever Gallery
We wrote about this place, in Port Sunlight, last year, (see above) and actually visited the place on our own recommendation! It is a stunning collection in a grand setting, but some of the ‘attendants’ would struggle to get a job as a Bradford City steward. Having a Johnny Big Gob in a uniform rushing up to you after you have been in a place for over two hours, and spent money, and being ordered with: ‘The museum has a policy. You put your coat on, or you put it in the cloakroom.’ With neither a ‘Please’, Or an ‘Excuse me sir.’ Is not customer focused. The attendant on the door was really nice, but this man was a looking for a fight!
We appreciate that the museum is an easy drive from Liverpool in a twoked car, and some Liverpudlians have been known to try and steal things, and it is understandable why they ban large bags and coats, but the notices telling you this are hidden in shadows and impossible to understand. It is a shame, because confused direction and a man without people skills left a bad memory of what would have been a great visit. So unlike our own dear Valley Parade.
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