Last Thursday I visited New Brighton, which is part of Wallasey, on The Wirral to meet the owner of the New Brighton Palace and take a look round the building.
New Brighton is a short train ride from Liverpool Lime Street on the Wirral line. The train network is very extensive across The Wirral and takes you to towns as far as West Kirkby and Hoylake. The railway lines allowed people to travel from the larger city of Liverpool, to seaside towns such as New Brighton when people were allowed holidays or days off. However, since the 1970’s onwards, less people have travelled to these seaside resorts and favoured holiday destinations abroad. Subsequently, a lot of these towns fell into decline as there was less tourism to support the local economy.
New Brighton, however, did not currently feel run down at all, it was very well maintained and clean, and it rather more felt like an extension of Liverpool with shore front restaurants such as Prezzo and Pizza Express in a redevelopment area on the front built in 2011. Walking down from the New Brighton station in the other direction, there are some vintage style cafes and locally run restaurants.
When leaving New Brighton station, I initially walked along the promenade to the left to have a look at the distinctly ‘seaside moderne’ seaside shelters. There are three – one positioned on it’s own to the back of the promenade’s grassland which is an electricity sub station, and two that are paired together on each side of an entrance road to the promenade road. Of the paired shelters – one is circular in form and containing toilets, and the second across the road is more oval in design and only holds sheltered seating.
I cannot find any information as yet to the architect or build date regarding these shelters, if you do know anything please do get in touch.
Further back towards the shopping area, there is an electricity sub station, again in this curved ‘seaside moderne’ style.
Although most likely built in the 1960s, there is waster water station (below) nearer the rail station which is a striking building and provides very clever private areas for seating around the outside for members of the public.
And lastly, there are beautifully sculptural concrete sea defences to see as you walk along the promenade.
(This is a repost from Looking Back|Moving Forward)
