Hi everyone,

I have heard that the Great Eastern in New Ferry has now been sold.
It is on the Sold section of Sidney Philips Estate Agents.

I have been told that surveyors have been around the building, but wondered if anyone had any ideas who has bought it/what the plans are?

Cheers
Steph

The Great Eastern has been baught up by the yacht club and is going to be the centre of the refurbished marina. I think you have been out of town. It has been in all the local papers and news. local meeting this week I think asking for input.

I think that was The Admiral not the Great Eastern!

sorry multi tasking

yes it was the admaral the royal mersey bought but to be there new club house, because there building now is falling down and needs a lot of money spending on it. as for the marina i carnt see that going ahead but you never know. the great eastern will probably be demolished and houses built there that seems to be the norm these days!

Hi Steph,

Welcome to the machine! I think there is info in another thread that says that the Great eastern has been bought by the Royal Yacht Club to be used as part of the water front re-devlopment. Hope this helps.

I wish people would read the thread they post on!

It is the Admiral that the Royal Yacht Club are taking over.

Hi guys, and thanks for the replies.

The Admiral is the one off Rock Park, I believe this is part of the river refurb plans.

The Great Eastern is on New Ferry Road, plans were submitted in 2008 to demolish and rebuild flats but were thrown out.

Someone has since bought the property but no news anywhere about it.

If anyone hears, please let me know - I have to stare at the boarded up monstrosity daily and the curiosity is killing me!

This is weird, when I posted there were no other replies. Honest!

My fondest memory of the Great Eastern was when they started selling draught cider in there, known locally as "Loony Soup", and we took advantage of it and sometimes got a bit wasted. Anyway we'd been in there a while, I think it was Christmas Eve, and it had been snowing when we came out. One of the fellahs was met by his missus and she was not pleased. She started knocking seven bells out of him and as he sank to the deck alongside a car he was singing, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way......." Brilliant.

Are you sure it's not the Admiral that the Royal Yacht Club are taking over?

A pic...of the Great Eastern (1898)

Well, me ol' mucker...that explains everything!!

Is it still standing ?

Found this shot though..
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Ferry,_Wirral_-_DSC03043.JPG

Over Christmas, I spotted two surveyors outside the Great Eastern with measuring equipment taking readings. I didn't approach them at that time. This Wednesday (24th Feb), a colleague of mine was walking past the former Pub when a group of people came out of the door. She politely asked them what they had been doing inside, and was given the gleeful reply; "Its being demolished love, for housing". !!!!

Eeek! Here we go again!! Cllr Steve Niblock has already checked, and as yet there is no new planning application in so we are none the wiser as to who these people are. The building is not listed nor is it protected in any other way, so we are deeply concerned that it could be lost. The previous planning application for housing on the site 18 months ago was rejected by Wirral Council as being too bland for such an important site. To our knowledge, the previous application's rejection was not contested/appealed.

It would be a tragedy if the Great Eastern should be lost, as it is the only distinctive building of its type on the eastern side of the bypass in this area. I have already asked about whether we can apply to have the Great Eastern listed, but have been told by some planning colleagues of mine (where I work in Liverpool City Council) that it is unlikely that we would be successful in getting it listed. Apparently we would have stood more of a chance if the original artefacts stripped from the Great Eastern ship and put into the Pub in the 1860s were still there, but they have long since gone - unfortunately.

I have just put together a new online petition just for it. You can find it at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savethegreateastern/

I am going to try to get the pub listed, but I need more info for the letter to the DCMS. Does anyone know who currently owns the pub?

The Eastern was bought at the end of 2009, it is not subject to contract, it is bought outright.

The people who were at the Eastern on 24th Feb were testing for asbestos.
Plans have been submitted for the demolishion of the former pub, and the erection of 10 x 2 bed semi detached homes.

The planning application can now be viewed online, the plans were submitted last thursday.

The original plans were refused on a number of grounds. Aside from the look of the apartments, there were also some health and safety issues surrounding the original plans.

I must add though that I find it astonishing that the only time this building gets any kind of attention is when there are discussions or plans to remove it.

If this is such a local icon, why are there no petitions created to restore it to it's former glory?

I doubt that many local residents who are forced to view this eyesore on a daily basis approve of the state it has become.

Personally I think that knocking this down to create new homes will be a vast improvement.

Good for the local economy, creating jobs for the building trade and offering smart new homes for the already struggling first time buyer.

There was a paper petition put together by a resident back in 2008 when the first application was submitted to demolish it. I am trying to trace that resident and to see what happened to the petition then. Residents were indeed alarmed at the prospect then, and are so again.

I suppose some of us had been naive enough to think that someone might buy the building and do something sympathetic with it. The building is certainly not an eyesore, it is simply boarded up to prevent little prats with a penchant for lighting fires from getting inside it. And if you really consider it to be an eyesore, what a sad planet you must live on, Engineer1980, that you consider wiping out a piece of New Ferry's history without a second thought is in the name of progress.

By the way, New Ferry Regeneration Action Group has been discussing the pub for some time. Our members have considered trying to turn it into a heritage centre for the area, but realise that funding both to realise and sustain such a project is unlikely at this current time.

At the recent public meetings in January organised by Ben Chapman to discuss the East Wirral Heritage and Nature Trail scheme along with the proposals to turn Bromborough Dock tip into a park and the work that the Royal Mersey Yacht Club wish to do at their end of the bay, the subject of the Great Eastern was also raised and how it might be incorporated into the grander scheme of improvements between Rock Ferry and Eastham Park.

Whilst I agree that the building is a piece of New Ferry history, this building has been in a diar state for more than 18 months.
The 'prats' you mention may not be able to enter the building to light fires, but it doesn't stop them from ripping the place to shreds, climbing on the roof, scrawling grafitti and being a general pain in the back side.

I am sorry I don't share the same empathy as you over the future of the building, I guess my opinion on this after 18 months of putting up with kids relentlessly causing trouble, swearing, shouting (and lighting fires actually..) is that anything will be better than the eyesore(and it is an eyesore)that it has become.

I resent the comment that I would wipe out a piece of New Ferry history without a second thought, that simply isn't true!

Have got some terrible news. At 11.30am this morning, five removal vans parked outside the Great Eastern. The people in them ripped all the metal shutters off the windows and doors and stripped the place. All the tables and chairs were seen being taken out. They then left the scene, leaving the building wide open with all four doors smashed of their hinges.

When I came home from work at 5.30 there were a group of teenagers sitting on a wall opposite it, flicking lighters and waiting for darkness to descend.

I immediately rang Cllr Niblock to warn him. He contacted the Council's property department who sent out two guys who have now boarded up the smashed doors, not very well I hasten to add. They couldn't do the windows because there are so many of them. They have promised to come back at 8 in the morning to do the windows.

Wirral Community Patrol also turned up to guard the place whilst the carpenters went to cut the timber needed to board it up. Whilst I waited with the community officer, two loads of gangs of youths turned up - but scarpered when they saw us.

I am very concerned that the pub is in danger of being torched - imminently.

Cllr Niblock is furious and is going to demand that a full investigation is launched into how this could have been allowed to happen. The owners of the building are going to get the bill for the boarding up and a rocket from Steve via the planning department.

Also, interestingly, the planning application details have been removed from the Council website. Steve will also be asking some serious questions of the planning department as to why.

See photos of the destruction elsewhere on this forum at https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/393187.html#Post393187

That is outrageous!
Surely the removal guys must know who booked them. To have 5 vans they must be a biggish company.

There was different vans. Some plain White,Salford hire? And onther with a company on it.

The Salford one should be traceable, you have to show all sorts of ID to hire those.

also a plumbers van!

tossers, trap the little bstrds, set up an electrocution trap

that will teach em!

The Great Eastern is being demolished - probably today (23rd June). Worksharp is living up to its name and getting the building destroyed before the Council's planning committee can do their site visit. To be honest, we expected something like this to happen.

I just wonder how smug those residents in Clipper View who wrote in letters in support of the proposals will be feeling when they find out that the new houses will be built too close to the backs of their homes. The Council's planning officer has recommended that the application to build the new houses is approved, even though they will be closer to the existing houses in Clipper View than national guidelines recommend. When that conifer hedge comes down in future years, their new neighbours in those swanky "affordable homes" are going to have a wonderful view of any bedroom activities. Whoops!!

Unfortunately, I will probably be in work when the deed is carried out. If anyone is passing as the building comes down, please try to take some pictures so we can record the event on our website and make those who allowed this to happen hang their heads in shame in the years to come when they finally appreciate what they have allowed to be lost.