Hello -I'd like to know if anyone from Birkenhead knows what this tower is for, when it was built and even how tall it is:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/76939

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/128760

Any info whatsoever would be useful. Many thanks -Pete.

isnt that one of the tunnel ventilation towers?

Great pictures Pete, this looks like the Mersey Tunnel ventilation Shaft just by Hamilton Sq.

Yes, it looks haunted. Like from a batman film in Gotham City. It is ventilation tower. Sandstone though as oposed to portland stone in Liverpool town?

Cheers for the info! I got the pictures from here:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/

It looks pretty tall, worthy of inclusion in the skyscrapernews catalogue perhaps?

Incidentally, up until now I didn't realise that Beetham Tower was a 29 storey building, until I read the thread about its new, taller neighbour. I actually counted the floors to make sure.

Elsewhere it is listed as a 27 storey building:

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=371

http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b9796

Just one more thing, does anyone know what this building is, situated just above the dome of the Port of Liverpool building in this image?

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/634

Seems like another ventilation shaft, across the river?

Whilst we're on the topic of towers and Birkenhead, it's about time this idea was seriously looked into. Wirral council are pretty dreadful but the opportunities for regeneration are really exciting along that waterfront. Maybe scouse yuppie could look into creating some ideas for a skyline there? A sleek, modern highrise skyline opposing the mish mash of architecture on the Liverpool side would create an awesome Mersey scene.

What happened to that masterplan for the Lairds area? I seem to remember the council scoffing at it when it was put forward.

WBC are shocking....even worse than LCC with it's overrunning by unelected quangos.

John MK had some valid and quite interesting ideas for the lip of the Liverpool Bay at New Brighton including talls built into the river, another river crossing and the possibility of green energy creating barrages.

Talls are absolutley NEVER going to happen in New Bro again due to NIMBY's and an existing anti-tall buildings policy that ensured the owners of the Grand Hotel were not allowed to build another few stories on that plot of land and were Neptune had to rethink some of their plans.

E.H. have also stated that nothing should be allowed to be built that obscures the view of the fort or the perch lighthouse.

As a direct result of this there was a news item in the Wirral Globe about the recent auction for the waterfront , hill top situated, old Vic Hotel and resturant. It was anticipated that with such a prominent position with prime views that the bidding would start at, at least, £2.5million.

It was anticipated that at least 3 consortiums were wanting to build an up to 30 Mike tall there.

The result......a room FULL of people keeping an eye on the situation....NOT ONE BID!!!

The paper asked why and the answer from potential bidders seems to be the uncertainty about the proposed £75m+ Neptune project....shamefully hijacked by the NIMBY brigade, despite even EH (eventually) supporting the investment....AND uncertainty about potential interference by the tall buildings policy set by WBC in New Brighton.



Now imagine: You are sitting in a fine dining resturant on the top viewing platform of a glazed tall in New Brighton. You are some 30 mikes in the air with unparralleld views of Liverpool Bay....a 360 degree unobstructed view of Wallasey Beach streching as far away as West Kirkby....the lights of North Wales twinkling in the Welsh hills....to the east of you a dramtic framed view of one of the worlds most dramatic river waterfront, the Liver building illuminated beautifully.

WHAT COULD BE IF ONLY WBC/EH/NIMBY's WERE NOT SO SMALL MINDED!!!




As for Birkenhead. Peel Holding now own the Cammel Lairds site. Before the buyout MDHC had recieved plans to turn the site into a leisure complex with snow dome, cinema and a small high quality housing area with gardens.

Then there was the daft suggestion that Alsop's cloud could be built there (at least this would give people on the other side of the water something dramatic to look at).

Since Peel have been told they cannot build a stadium at Switch Island they could (and this takes a great stretch of imagination!), build the new Everton stadium there.

I've found another image of the red brick tower:

http://www.**************************/toweralbum/photos/photo_83.html

I'm pretty sure this one is the ventilation shaft for the Mersey tunnel, as it closely resembles the one on the Liverpool side:

http://www.**************************/toweralbum/photos/photo_81.html

http://static.flickr.com/72/173802613_e805d8fb7f.jpg

Interesting post Evertonian, just shows how narrow minded the people at the top are on the Wirral.

I've always thought the derelict land around those bridges across the docks in B'head/Wallasey would be prime land for highrise development. There really isn't anything of significance there architecturally (apart from that warehouse) and the view across the river is magnificent. Quite how regeneration in this area would have any sort of negative impact is a mystery to me.

Narrow minded? Completely fucking deluded!
they really believe that W is some sort of superior Cambridgeshire!

Vast areas of the Wirral are a complete shithole. Birkenhead North, the docklands, The whole strech of Corporation road and Cleveland street infested with empty slum housing and prostitution.

Worse than that NO JOBS! No industry, no enterprise, no support for entreprenures.

How utterly depressing it is to see the decline when less than a mile away we see billions upon billions of investment....hundreds of millions of which are in the docklands.

Birkenhead/Wallasey/New Brighton have the potential for just as much inward investment if only the council would stop relying on Objective One hand outs, would stop pandering to EH and would abandom it's anti-tall buildings policies.

The only ray of light at the moment seems to be the work being done renovating and converting into luxury apartments the grand old warewhouse on the west float area.

Sorry about the negativity and the rant....but I have to pay council tax to these muppets.

I've always thought the derelict land around those bridges across the docks in B'head/Wallasey would be prime land for highrise development. There really isn't anything of significance there architecturally (apart from that warehouse) and the view across the river is magnificent. Quite how regeneration in this area would have any sort of negative impact is a mystery to me.

As far as places like Wallasey and New Bro are concerned you have to remember that vast parts of the Wirral are basically a retirement home for thousands of "1st generation" scousers who moved over here to make a better life and don't like change.

The last thing these people want is for the place to be booming with tourists and 24hr activity, nightclubs, bars, resturants....New Bro could be just as booming and cosmopolitain as L1....the very kind of thing they came here to escape from. "Oh how HORRIBLE!".

No they want to keep the Wirral as one great big suburb....forgetting that suberbs can not sustain themselves without an influx of a proffesional class to provide an ecconomy, jobs and workers.

They eventually become run down and crime infested because theres no investment in the overall area....but they're too blind to see this.

Schemes like the Neptune developments are scary to them because they want to live in the past. They don't want luxury apartments (or the supermarkets, shops and fascilities needed in the local vacinity to support this lifestyle).

"Oh no! Not on our precious concrete promenade!"




Places like Birkenhead will never be re-invigorated while this is the case. It's a knock on effect. Why would you invest money in the shithole when A) theres no support from the council & B) The ONLY investors to put forward a forward thinking plan are being told by a highly vocal minority to go shove £75m+ up their jacksies??????????

Absolute madness not only from the council, but by some of the people!

Famous quote by an American indivdual who's name currently escapes me:
"Your town is not shit....YOU ARE!"

Again very good points.

It seems many here like to think that regeneration and prosperity will somehow magically float across the water on the sea breeze so they can sit on their arses twiddling their thumbs in the meantime. There's serious deprivation that rivals anywhere across the water (and Europe!), which is being completely ignored.

Of course, what most people don't tell you - as an exiled Wirralian myself - is that in order to reach these so-called "posh" and "des res" areas of the Wirral filled with retired / snooty middle class folks (eg North Wallasey, New Brighton, Hoylake, West Kirby, Port Sunlight, Spital, Bromborough, Hooton etc) on the train, you first have to pass through the blighted wasteland areas of Birkenhead filled with the usual scally scumfucks who defile the trains en masse and make your journeys as unbearable and stressful as possible. They are to be found boarding and alighting at the following stops: Hamilton Square, Birkenhead Central, Conway Park, Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead North and Bidston....and they constitute some of the most retarded subspecies of townie detritus you will have the misfortune to share a train with, sadly.

I have never managed a single train journey home to my parents in Wallasey on the Wirral line where at least two or three of these specimens DON'T share part of the journey with us between one or another of these aforementioned stations....

The Wirral is NOT the upmarket woollyback paradise that many people who [obviously don't know the area] seem to make out - it's effectively a borough with as split a personality as, say, Sefton, and the M53 Motorway serves as a very apt boundary separating the decent upmarket parts (west) from the more down at heel areas (east - with the sole exception of the area from Lower Bebington and southwards that is).

Of course, what most people don't tell you - as an exiled Wirralian myself - is that in order to reach these so-called "posh" and "des res" areas of the Wirral filled with retired / snooty middle class folks (eg North Wallasey, New Brighton, Hoylake, West Kirby, Port Sunlight, Spital, Bromborough, Hooton etc) on the train, you first have to pass through the blighted wasteland areas of Birkenhead filled with the usual scally scumfucks who defile the trains en masse and make your journeys as unbearable and stressful as possible. They are to be found boarding and alighting at the following stops: Hamilton Square, Birkenhead Central, Conway Park, Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead North and Bidston....and they constitute some of the most retarded subspecies of townie detritus you will have the misfortune to share a train with, sadly.

You forgot Rock Ferry, clearly some sort of hole into which ex-Trisha audience members are poured. I use the train every day to get from Birkenhead Central (because I live in Oxton, which is a beautiful and completely ignored part of Birkenhead) to get to work in Chester, and while the journey out is fine at 7:30, at 5:45 I feel myself tense up as we draw into Rock Ferry and a bunch of trackie clad scallies and slappers fill up the train, take up the seats, and make life difficult for all concerned. I love Merseyrail, but to my mind, until they install proper, decent, working ticket barriers throughout the system the trains are going to be filled with dolescum blagging a free ride to Liverpool so they can get hammered in Walkabout and throw up. And by decent ticket barriers, I don't mean three barriers that work... and then a bloody great hole to the left where a bored employee will alledgedly check your "season ticket". Will not work.

To get back to topic, the Wirral Council attitude to development can be summed up thus: there was a prime location by the Woodside Ferry Terminal, a thirty second walk from Hamilton Square station, with no doubt fantastic views of an iconic skyline over the river, and they chucked up an identikit housing association development. Or go visit Priory Wharf, which stares right across the river and as such demands high prices, yet looks like a student halls of residence from c1986. Or how about the criminally hideous low rise development next to the Woodside Terminal that would look out of place in Runcorn. The view across the water is one of the finest possible selling points for any tower, and yet there seems to be a distinct lack of interest in using it which is incredibly frustrating.

Hello -I'd like to know if anyone from Birkenhead knows what this tower is for, when it was built and even how tall it is:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/76939

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/128760

Any info whatsoever would be useful. Many thanks -Pete.

The tower is the Morpeth Branch Dock ventilation tower for the Liverpool to Birkenhead (Queensway) road tunnel. It is the tallest of six ventilation towers for the tunnel and ventilates the section of tunnel between midriver and the Birkenhead shore.

It was completed in 1934 and designed in the Egyptian style by Herbert Rowse, the architect of India Buildings, the Philharmonic Hall and Martins Bank in Liverpool. Its counterpart on the Liverpool shore is the Georges Dock ventilation station behind the Port of Liverpool building which is clad in white Portland Stone.

The tunnel uses the upward semi-transverse ventilation system with fresh air pumped in along a continuous slot at road level and exhausted via a roof vent directly beneath the ventilation station.

Tunnel ventilation requirements were seriously underestimated when the tunnel was originally designed and had to be reviewed following a fire in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Following a series of tests, the present ventilation system was devised. The cost of providing it had to be met by the ratepayers of Liverpool as the contribution by Birkenhead was limited. Even so, the massive increase in traffic over the next thirty years meant that it had to be considerably upgraded by the 1960s.

Improvements in ventilation technology meant that, by the 1970s the Second Mersey Tunnel (Liverpool to Wallasey) could be ventilated by only two much smaller ventilation stations.

Oops -I seem to have inadvertantly started a fierce debate on the amount of development that goes into different areas of Mersyside! I'm not from around there, I live in Accrington (no Stanley jokes -please!) in Lancashire, but have visited Liverpool a few times, and once spent the night with a lass in Birkenhead after a boozy night in Liverpool. :cheers:

Anyway thanks Martin S for the info on the tower, and also to kev for the close up -it looks huge!

It IS arguably the most instantly recognisable landmark on the entire Wirral side of the Mersey at this point - which speaks volumes for how nondescript the Birkonian skyline really is as a whole, even now. Shame isn't it?

Has anyone got any accurate figures for how tall this ventilation shaft stands (or indeed for any of the other ones put up on both sides of the river)? As far as I know, to this day I have never seen any statistics as to its actual height.

Community's fears over £32m revamp Jun 27 2006

By Kate Mansey , Liverpool Echo

A £31m regeneration plan to revive crumbling parts of Wirral has left family businesses fearing for their future.

From spring, architects aim to change the face of boarded-up retail centres including Church Road, Tranmere, before concentrating on rebuilding rows of deteriorating terraced homes.

But some shopkeepers are against the regeneration project saying it will drive them out of business.

John Atkinson, 59, runs Waterloo Bathrooms in Church Road, with his son Stephen, 30.

He said: "We have been in business here for 14 years and now the council want to regenerate the ,but that means putting in boutique shops rather than supporting family businesses like us who have been here for years.

"When our lease runs out next April the council said they won't renew it but have not made any real efforts to help us find alternative premises."

Steve Thomas, 31, co-owner of SRT Motorcycles Limited on Church Road, said: "I think we actually bring in business to the area because people will travel to Tranmere just to come to this shop.

"I think the council would like us to move out but they've been saying that for years so I don't think it will happen any time soon."

Over the next two years money will also be spent clearing Fiveways in Rock Ferry, Ten Streets, Tyner Street and Station Road in Birkenhead and Woodhall and Royaston in Wallasey.

The council will have £12m for Housing Market Renewal funding for 2006/2008 which comes straight from central government.

In addition, the Department of Communities and Local Government has also allocated £19m from NewHeartlands (the Merseyside Market Renewal Pathfinder) which will be ploughed into the same scheme.

Chris Bowen, manager of Wirral's Housing Market Renewal project, said: "Shops along Church Road will be the first phase of the new development.

"This will give people the confidence to invest in the area and hopefully restore it to the vibrant retail centre it once was.

"In financial terms, this is the biggest single investment that we have seen in the borough. "The make-up of the Church Road shopping centre is still to be determined. But we will work closely with businesses to accommodate all their needs."

By the end of 2005-06, 650 homes were acquired, 300 homes cleared and more than 450 homes were renovated.

The 2006-2008 project has earmarked a further 150 homes for demolition over the next two years but developers say they want to avoid compulsory purchase orders.

But residents as well as business owners have mixed views on the benefits.

Father-of-two Gareth Potter, 24, lives with his wife Karen, 22, their five-year-old son Conor and 18-month-old daughter Demi-Lee in a terraced house in Chatham Road, Rock Ferry.

Mr Potter said: "My wife has lived in this street all her life and now she's being told she has to move. When the road is rebuilt, we don't think there will be a chance for us to come back. "We rent from a private landlord and the council have said they will help rehouse us but we have no idea when this will happen or even if it will be in Rock Ferry."

In a report put before councillors Alan Stennard, Director of Regeneration, said: "The funding will allow Wirral to continue its successful HMRI programme.

"The next phase of Housing MarketRenewal in Wirral for 2006-2008 will continue previous activity and make a major positive difference to local communities through bringing forward the building of new homes.

"It is anticipated that some £22m will be invested in New Build development by the Private Sector, Housing Corporation and Registered Social Landlords, in the same two-year period."