Birkenhead Market is staying put… for now

Dear readers — welcome to your Monday briefing on a rather blustery start to the week. How are we all feeling? Another last-minute winner for Liverpool leaves the champions at the top of the table, and while Everton fans may be rueing their team’s missed chances, the Toffees extended their unbeaten run to four games with a home draw versus Aston Villa. But if you’re not a football supporter — or, worse, burdened with a Tranmere Rovers season ticket — never fear: we’ve got plenty to cheer you up. 

Catch up and coming up:

• Over the weekend, Abi published a wonderful piece about Liverpool’s own Chelsea Hotel — the Garlic Mansion. Lots of you got in touch to tell us your memories of the house that hosted greats like Courtney Love and Carol Ann Duffy. PJ said: “I went there in about 2006. Some girl gave me a full face of makeup. I woke up and went straight back to the pub!”. Give the piece a read here and leave your own memories in the comments section.
• This week it’s Laurence’s turn to take on the weekend read. Before the much-anticipated one-off return of the Scouse soap opera, he’ll be digging into the cultural history and social importance of Brookside. If you have any memories of or funny stories related to “Brookie”, don’t hesitate to get in touch at laurence@livpost.co.uk.

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The big story: Birkenhead Market is staying put… for now

Top line: Wirral Borough Council (WBC) have scrapped a decision to move Birkenhead’s historic market to a former Argos site. But the future of the trading hall is still in doubt.

Context: In September 2023, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed plans to relocate Birkenhead Market and invest £12 million into the former Argos on Princes Pavement. Ever since then, the scheme has been controversial. Traders opposed any move to Argos, believing it to be too small and remote compared with the current site, with its bold logo and large brick archways. 

This plan was highly contentious from the start. In March 2024 Joe Orr, the head of the market tenants' association, said previous assurances that the traders would all be moving into the new market turned out not to be true. Vice-chair Greg McTigue went so far as to say they were "witnessing the demise of Birkenhead as a market town".

But that was not all. In January, the LDRS reported that a 20-month investigation had found that WBC had misled the public and traders over the plans for Birkenhead Market. Although the report’s findings did "not warrant the council making a referral for further investigation by the police", it did reveal a lack of transparency and consistency when it came to rents, and elicited an apology from the authority’s regeneration director. 

On Friday, the BBC reported that the Argos plan — which has already cost the taxpayer over £1 million — had officially been scrapped. Paula Basnett, WBC’s current leader, said she was "delighted" to cancel the proposed move. Meanwhile, Greg McTigue said he felt "unbounded joy" that the Argos plan had been scrapped.

Basnett also said that she and her deputy leader Julie McManus were listening to traders, but "more importantly we are acting upon what they are asking for". McTigue agreed that the current leadership "seem to be very much on the side of the people and the traders" and that “their sympathies are on our side.” 

WBC are reviewing a number of options, among them revamping the current market. But whether the notoriously cash-strapped and chaotic local council can deliver on its sympathies and intentions remains to be seen. Regular Post readers will remember our investigations into the political and financial meltdowns at the council in February and last month. 

Meanwhile, what of the market? Recent examples across the city region suggest two potential paths for Birkenhead’s trading hall: that of Great Homer Street Market, for which Liverpool Council has unveiled a £5 million regeneration package, or St John’s, which closed after an ignominious dispute with that same authority. Recent visitors to Birkenhead may be forgiven for expecting the latter outcome, with the formerly bustling market now occupying only a portion of its allotted site. 

Birkenhead’s original market was opened in 1835, on the site of what is now the town hall. But over the next few years the town’s population had more than doubled, and in 1845 the new market was — after St John’s — the second-biggest in all of Europe, built by the same architectural firm that would later complete London’s Crystal Palace. 

Like the ill-fated palace, that building burned down. But when it was reconstructed as the capacious indoor market hall it is today, it retained many of the original features. To this day, the mottos of the Wirral and Birkenhead emblazon either side of its clockface, respectively: “By Faith and Foresight” and “Ubi Fides Ibi Lux Et Robur” – “Wherever there is faith, there is also light and strength.”

Today, the building’s size and history are reminders of Birkenhead’s faded grandeur and importance. Walk around the town and, despite attempts at cultural renaissance and financial regeneration, there’s little to inspire faith nor imply much foresight. Stalled roadworks and torn-up pavements make the centre feel more like an impasse than Liverpool’s “Left Bank”. 

Back in May, we sent Laurence to Birkenhead after a report claimed that half of the town centre’s population was on out-of-work benefits. His article uncovered glimmers of hope but little real optimism. Many people he spoke to cited the massive decline of the Cammell Laird shipyards as the major cause of Birkenhead’s ills. 

Attempting to revive the shipyard’s peak, when it employed 20,000 workers compared to just 650 today, would be quixotic. That pinnacle was during a wartime economy when naval craft were vital to Britain’s survival. But a reinvigoration of Birkenhead Market is not so outlandish. Across the Mersey, Great Homer Street, Blackstock, and Granby Street markets may provide examples of how Birkenhead’s might evolve or persist. 

Bottom line: The government extended WBC’s deadline to deliver the new market by 12 months, taking it to 2028. As well as McTigue’s optimism, Joe Orr, who faced being "kicked out" until recently, told the BBC that the "options on the table now feel 'for the traders'." As ever, this is a project that will require political will, good planning, and solid financial backing — not elements that have been found in abundance on the Wirral peninsula in recent times. But the sense that WBC’s new leadership are at least listening to and working with traders can only be a positive development. Perhaps the mottos either side of the market building’s clockface can even be proven right. 

What do you think of the Argos plan getting the can? Let us know in the comments.

Photo of the week

The remnants of Gotham City after the filming of Batman spin off Clayface in Liverpool last week. Photo taken by Reddit user Kopitecamera. 

Have a photo you want to submit to The Post? Email it to editor@livpost.co.uk for a chance to be featured in our Monday briefings.

Your Post briefing

A new sports pavilion has opened in Knowsley, to pay tribute to women’s football pioneer Sylvia Gore. Prescot-born Gore scored England’s opening goal against Scotland back in 1972, which marked the first ever English goal in women’s football since the ban on women’s football was lifted in 1971. The new pavilion is part of a £750,000 investment by the Football Foundation, Knowsley Council, Berkley Junior Football Club, and the Friends of Brown's Field. It’ll include pitch improvements, as well as new changing rooms, lockers, a community room and office space as part of the pavilion. Graham Morgan, the leader of Knowsley Council, said Gore — who died in 2016 aged 71 — was "an inspiration for girls and women in sport".

The future of Wirral’s libraries may not be as bleak as first thought. Wirral’s new council leader Paula Basnett has said she will be setting up a task force “to find the bold solutions Wirral deserves”, including potentially saving several libraries on the peninsula from previously suggested budget cuts. At a meeting on Wednesday this week, councillors will be asked to agree to keep eight libraries as council-run, the rest now potentially being transferred to local community organisations to keep them afloat. “Libraries are not a luxury. They are the beating heart of our communities,” Basnett said. “To even consider closing them, savings on staff salaries, doesn’t even begin to touch the real costs of managing empty buildings, securing them, and watching them fall into disrepair. That is not a saving, it is a false economy.”

And the River of Light festival returns next month. The annual arts festival will showcase ten artworks between 24th October to 2nd November, revolving around the theme “the science of light”. Liverpool Council says the artworks will be placed along a two-mile route along the waterfront, including Albert Dock and Pier Head. "For us to hand over the streets of Liverpool to artists — and this year scientists as well — is such a joyful experience,” the council's cabinet member for health, wellbeing and culture, councillor Harry Doyle, said. “I can't wait to see locals and visitors enjoying this extraordinary art show again."

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🎨On Wednesday, Pocket Cafe is hosting its life drawing session from 7pm. All drawing materials are provided, but you’re more than welcome to bring your own too. Details here.

🍷On Thursday, Spilt Wine is hosting a tasting session with a curated selection of six unique wines, chosen to suit the season. The event is at The Hightown Inn — find out more here.

🛋️On Saturday, St Barnabas on Smithdown Place is hosting a midcentury vintage marketplace dedicated to retro homewares, furniture, lighting and collectables from the 1940s to 1970s. Find out more here.