HAMILTON SQUARE
Hamilton Square is the largest Grade I listed Victorian square outside London. It contains 62 Grade I listed buildings as well as the former Grade II* listed Birkenhead Town Hall.
The houses were designed by the Scottish architect, James Gillespie Graham (1776 – 1855), famous for his work in Edinburgh New Town. 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.
The square was planned as the focal point of Gillespie Graham’s formal gridiron plan for the new town of Birkenhead. 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. This was filled by the Birkenhead Town Hall, built between 1883 and 1887 and partially reconstructed following a fire in 1901. At the centre of the square were private gardens, only acquired as a public open space in 1903.
The gardens are now the setting for a number of memorials. In 1877 a statue was erected to John Laird (1805 – 1874), of Laird’s shipyard fame and Birkenhead’s first MP. 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. 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. 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.
Though the Birkenhead ‘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.
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. Elsewhere other historic buildings have vanished but nevertheless there is still a great deal to see. To view a map of the Conservation Area click here.
