The dock cottages
which is Know Illchester Sqaure in the North End the big huge field.

The Blood Tub - Topic Click Me
Lees Tapastry - Topic - Click Me

Now and Then - Click Me



Ive been told that there is alot of History to do with the Dock Cottages in Bidston.

Does anyone have more information?

Id happy to research some information as my grandad was born there as my uncle is doing research on the family tree the dock cottages is the main place where focusing.. So give me a couple of days and i'll get some information... The dock cottages got there name as they where built for the dockers hence the name.. I'll get back to you on this as its also good information for my uncle doing the family tree..

Excellent

I have heard that the toliets were a Curtain from the Kitchen
and then there was a "Thunder Box" where the goodies would drop
and roll down and out, and then there would be someone
who would come along and empty the pit every week or so.

Just sounds smelly to me Phoooey

Right been talking to my mum about them and all she knows is that her dad was born there no history from here but i did google around and found this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/voices/bhead.shtml

remaining buildings at Ilchester Square


REF: Full article
In 1847 the Birkenhead Dock Warehousing Company opened its first warehouse, capable of holding 80,000 tons of goods. A line called the Dock Extension railway was carried round the whole, and the company erected, for their workmen, the Dock Cottages. This entire property is now under the authority of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. The pile of buildings known as the corn warehouses are traversed by a canal which gives access to its several departments, and are provided with mechanical grain-elevators. There are also extensive lairages for live-stock, and cold storage for dead meat. On the north and north-east, and partly on the east, Birkenhead is bounded by its docks, which extend, for a distance exceeding 2 m., from the landing-stage at Woodside Ferry to the Wallasey Bridge

Lee ive seen a paper back book of that article and the pictures too, you can get it from the library. I will go and ask the neighbour down the street what it was called

Davey - Good article, how many things are going on in 1847.
I think its Boom Town for Birkenhead.

Ive also been told about another print, that may be the same one
as the neighbour told me about. I will have to write the names down

Down our Lobby is the name of the Book.
Softback No more than 50 60 pages.


Its actual Statements from local people.
You should be able to get it from the Libary.

oh thanks for that mark.. Cheers. i'll have a look be good for my mum to read as well..

that name, Ilchester square, rings a bell, not sure if there is an Ilchester road as well but my brain seems to recall I had a Gran called Anson on this Ilchester road but i was about 4 when she died about 25 years ago, but the Anson clan was a tad large apparently. One of her daughters (my great Aunt) Dot Godfrey Still lives on Hoylake Road, hence my links to this part of the world and the history (I found all you folks by googlin Biddy Hill) she used to be able to tell me all about this area, Never spoke for a while now tho. I very vaugley remember little shunter trains shoving stuff along the railway down the north end. this would have been early to mid 80's and going over level crossings at at duke street and stuff. then the north end that i knew was the North End that has been pulled down over the last few years,was the houses that were built to replace the ones by the blood tub. Someone also mentions a tapestry in the museum, Is that the Museum with the picture of 'the earliest known view of leverpool' with a picture of an old wooden fort and a stone church.

PS is the bloodtub still an open pub and what is this area like now?

blood tub still open but no new houses yet

does anyone still go there, it always looked derelict when i lived there

Ilchester Square had a bad reputation iirc, am sure there was flat's there year's ago but they were knocked down in the late 90's.

The area is still full of ..., although having said that, most of the houses in that part of the North End are empty and derelict nowadays; they can't even pay people to live there so bad is the area. They are gradually getting torn down though.

Ilchester square was knocked down way before the nineties(see blood tub thread) . The buildings that the blood tub are part of are the Stanley buildings. Both the Dock cottages and Ilchester square were as you said matt quite infamous and by all acounts not good places to live . There is an excellent book which is mentioned on here in other posts/threads called Down our lobby.and is a potted history of the dock cottages made up of first hand stories from some of there inhabitants. Good Book

Some Pictures from around Illchester Sqaure.











Ive posted a new pictures in the Blood Tub Topic
If your wondering how that has changed. Click me

Now and Then - Click Me

I wonder if the council would allow an execavation of some area's ? I.e. GeoPhys it (search for stuff under ground) and see if there is any old artifacts and or old Brick from the Cottages or actual Basements of the Cottages if they had any it would be a Good intrest base but i doubt the council would allow you to and to be honest they might think it as a Money making op and charge you to the ends of the earth... But would be a good idea in all counts..............

OMG that basketball court reminds me of the one in Mersey Park

can someone help me with regards to these photos Mark (nice one) has posted here. As most are aware I am not in this area and have several questions as google sat is not up to date. i see houses in the picture next to sj roundabout, are these new?? there was a garage on the roundabout, is this new flats i see where this was?? looking the other way now in the picture where Mark is being hounded by a big shadow monster i see houses being pulled down, are these the houses that are one row behind the street that bh north station is on. Out of all wirral it is this area and biddy hill bidston and hoylake road that are most important as this is where some of my family and links to the area are

Yes the garage has gone to be replaced by apartments and a small housing estate.the house's by Birkenhead North Station are being pulled down bit by bit(seems to be lasting forever)also the River Streets are due to be pulled down in the next couple of years as well.

Picture of St James Round about Click Me

nice one for that jonno, well appreciate the info, was there also a little coach depot behind the garage and a little travelshop, this was the start of great auntie dots road (hoylake road) who probably still lives there and has done for 15 million years, and lived in then top ave before then, cant remember the name as they gave them street names, hold on, light bulb moment!! one was called goodwin, one was mason and the other began with a 'h' i think (the top one)

Illchester Square

Was Built to replace the Dock Cottages.
The Dock cottages were demolished and illchester square was built.
Illchester square flats only lasted a few years as subsidence
was found at the courner of illchester road and Tyrer Street.

The Brewery that owned the "Blood Tub" Found that there was no
subsidence to be found with there building, so there was no
reason to pull it down, nor any law to say it had to come down.

The New Blood Tub is the only part left of Illchester Square.

Illchester Square,
wasn't "Square" it was almost triangle, but follows the
field we see today as its boundary's. The Entrance was
at the top near St james Church and it had an Arch to its
entrance, and inside the Square wasnt a nice place when the
flats were in place, as it wasnt grassy nor was it tarmaced
i'm lead to believe..

I remember layouts like that in 1950's Liverpool. I worked for a while at a laboratory supply firm near the top of Brownlow Hill & use to pass flats like that. I never saw Ilchester Square myself, 'cos people with any sense kept away.

it was a beautiful place whrere the birds flew upside down as there was nothing worth poohing on,nah jokes aside it was known to be an ok area with some nice people for the short time it was there but yes it became rough as hell and a no go area. My great aunt told me a cool story about how my nan in her youth had snook up behind an old police van and put chains through the doors (no windows then)and round a lampost then snook round to the front (about 30 metres) and flashed her knickers just so her and the family could watch as the policeman started the van and ripped the doors off, and they go an about kids today

The flats at the top of Brownlow Hill were the infamous Liverpool Bullring

Oh, right; never knew that.

I read in a book that the dock cottages were built to house the influx of Irish navies that came over to dig the docks.See if you can find any ref to Birkenhead riots when they ripped out park railings to fight police.Garaboldy riots spring to mind.Ilchester square always had a big bommy right in the middle of the square windows used to blow out and you got your paintwork stripped for nothing.Fire engines had to call about ten times .still managed to reduce all to ash.

I was having a think the other day about what it would of been like to live in those cottages.. Be intresting to hunt around to see pictures of the actual area and inside the building's to see if it was rough as people make out it was ? Just an idea hehe...

I showed the photo at the top to my mum yesterday. She's in her 80s. Like SoundLad, my grandad grew up there. He worked in the Homepride flour mill on the dock road which is now posh flats. It was a downright dangerous place to work. Explosions and fires were common and he lost several friends.

My mum said that when she was a child, she considered it to be a real treat to cross the Penny Bridge and visit her dad's family in the Dock Cottages. In those days, the North Enders were looked upon as proud hard-working people. We're talking about the late 1920s to early 1930s here.

She said her dad told her that when he was a lad, he and his mates used to get onto the flat roofs and take a running jump onto the roof next door. One of his mates fell to his death this way.

fantastic stuff

one of his mates fell to his death.Let me know if there is a change in his condidtion!! he may have known my family then, cool, I love these little additions and yes the North Enders at one time were known for the super hard graft. my great nan was one of them

flour mills now posh flats, any pics??

Please Start a New Topic

This Picture isnt ilchester Square but i fairly
good idea of what it may have looked like,
ive searched for a picture but just can not find any.

So this may be the next best thing....

the dock cottages were called the queens buildings, read more here

Clicky

Good little find there

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50801

Quote from the above site; found by Jonno


In order to provide accommodation for the various workmen connected with the warehouses, the company have built a number of airy, well-lighted, and well-ventilated dwellings at the junction of Ilchester-road and Stuart-street. They are sixty in number, and have an abundant supply of pure water, with all the modern and most approved conveniences (some of them being perfectly unique) for sanitary purposes: they are built on the Scotch principle of having flats of four or five stories, one over another; and a good kitchen and two small bed-rooms are allotted to each family.

Dated 1848

Here's what is probably a rare pic, showing the Dock Cottages & Ilchester Square under construction.

Superb picture ! The Dock Cottages look er.. grim to say the least. Moving into the new Ilchester Square flats must have been the best thing in those residents lives.

The little details are fascinating. The 18" high discoloured ring at the base of the gas lamp - thanks to the local pooch's.
The (then) standard site fence round the new flats made out of old sheets of corrugated iron etc. The flags painted on the old buildings. A good find Chris.

Fantastic pic Chris
I will have to get my uncle to try and give it some
direction from where the picture was taken.

As there seems to be a "Normal" Brick Building to the right
on the picture with the wooden fence.

Thanks for sharing
Best picture ive seen yet

Great pic Chris .I have a feeling that the picture was taken from the corner of Townsend and Stanley street as from the maps the cottages ran from left to right across to what we know as Ilchester street now.

Brilliant picture Chris, cheers

what do you think?







From this image, it looks like they run perpendicular with Ilchester Road.



Plus, the road is sloping downwards, left to right.

Humm its a tough one..

I think it might be the next road down to be honest.

And thats even if the houses are the same ones since then?
However, the roads/kerbs will be pretty much the same.

I'm not curb crawling to satisfy you joe

The next street up is almost at the church?

The next one DOWN Mark.

There is'nt a next road down

Clicky

ahh I thought there was another street between ribble street and alwen street.

Perhaps it is there then.

I still live in the area and I reckon that picture was taken from the end of Alwen Street looking down Ilchester Road.

There are no houses on that corner of Townsend Street in the lower picture, as it would have been the wall of the Tapestry Works.

There has never been a street between Alwen and Ribble Street.

The 'new' flats being built (probably in the early 1930's) were the 4 storey flats known as the 'Old' flats.

These were eventually demolished in the early 1970's after many flats became empty and vandalised. This was partly due to Birkenhead corporation using the Square as a dumping ground for problem families which caused people to move out.

The original Dock Cottages seen in the picture were demolished in the late 1930's and 3 storey flats were built on the site, and were originally intended to be called St James Gardens. They eventually became an extension of Ilchester Square.

Building work on the flats was halted during World War II and the flats were completed around 1950. These flats were earmarked for improvement in the early 1970's after the demolition of the 4 storey older flats but after objections from residents, the whole site was cleared by 1975 and still looks much the same.

Incidentally, there is only one 'L' in Ilchester Square but some people added the extra 'L' because that's how the place made you feel!

Exelllent read,thanks to all, i wondered about these flats, heard a lot of stories about them

Hello

I found this website which is about the north end estate and features pictures of the demolition of Tyrer Street which is opposite where Ilchester Square was, as well as the demolition of the Roundabout Centre opposite St James Church.

http://riverstreets.tripod.com

Pictures here:

http://pub38.bravenet.com/photocenter/album.php?usernum=3195905445

Here is a pictorial video of the area as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyq9sfO6kVg

Good finds.

Strange to see the Church back as a roundabout.

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have any pictures of the petrol station off the Church?

There are some shots of it and more in this video on Youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4TIagabESl4

Cheers

This is a page of the 1901 Census showing my great-great grandparents living in the Queen's Buildings. There names were Samuel and Sarah Jackson. He was a blacksmith. Also living with them were their 2 daughters and 2 sons, Alice Jackson was my maternal great-nan on my dad's side. She is buried in Flaybrick but I have yet to find the grave. She was 97 when she died and asked to be 'buried in a raincoat' as the grave plot was on a slope. I guess this shows the sense of humour that people with a rough life had. She was certainly no stranger to death and illness. (btw I don't think she did actually get buried in a coat lol )

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/12271848

Memories I have gathered from relatives are that they were the first Victorian tenements (high-rise) to be built in the country (not proven), they were advanced for their time in that they had rubbish shutes from each flat to the ground floor - could this be the same thing as the 'thunderbox'. I wasn't given the impression that it carried faeces, just household rubbish - but then in that day maybe the 2 were the same thing lol

Exelllent read heard a lot of stories about Illchester Sqaure when i was younger thanks all

The tenement building was first used in Scotland, the most well-known being in Glasgow. These date from the late 18th/early 19th century. It looks as if the Dock Cottages were modelled on these. Many of the Glasgow ones are now listed & are now very desirable & expensive.

there is a good book called up r lobby all about the dock cottages

Wirral libraries have several copies

Can you buy this Up Our Lobby book or is it a reference book?

It's available on Amazon at present, a secondhand copy at £9.99

Just spotted "Up Our Lobby" is on fleabay. £2.99p and about 5 days to go.

Item No. 230277292318

Might be of interest.

I think i got mine at the museum fair when i was with chris for £1.50 but no more than £3

I think you got a bargain Mark !

Trust bl**dy Scotland to get 'em first - they get everything first!! lol

I went out with a girl from there back in the mid to late '60's she would not let me come and get her or take her home, she said I would get done over. I met her brother sometime later and he said that I was "aright" and that if anybody tried to give me a hard time too mention his name. Name forgotten. I also had another girlfriend who worked at a clothes factory up the North End, name forgotten but they had a very large staff.

Dave Miller

2 99 at birkenhead lirby

I was born in Alwen st in the north end in 1945.The photo of the dock cottages and the partially built Ilchester Square (the square)as everybody called it,I think was taken from Ilchester Road.The street at the bottom of the photo would be Ribble Street.I dont know when the square was built but I think it was built in two stages the top half was always known as the new square the entrance was at the church end down along Ilcchester Road.the old square ran along Tyrer St at the bottom as well as the Blood Tub there was a row of shops under the Iremember a grocers and a chippy.when I was a kid the square was the best place in the world. My heart is still in the north end!

who remebers this

the square

Fantastic picture Ducko

Where did you find that?

Do you know the date it was taken?

I'm lead to believe that the Arch you see in the picture,
St James Church would be behind you.

So you would be looking towards Wallasey now, and the Train Station.

Oooooo nice one fella, never seen a photo of illy before.

in the early 60s joe

wow, wonder who lived above the arch? crackin photo ducko

nice one mate!

lookin through the arch is illchester road

Bloody hell thats a fantastic picture Ducko

excellent photo Ducko

The book on the Dock Cottages is called Up Our Lobby,
reminiscences of life in the Dock Cottages, Birkenhead, between 1915-1938, by Bill Houldin. It's a very good read.

anyone can obtain a copy of this book from Borough Rd Library for approx £3.

My greatgrandmother was living at no 9B block Dock Cottages when she got married in 1877. Not all the people who lived there where dock workers in as much as been dockers. All the various trades men that where needed so as the shiping industry could function where also housed in the dock cottages. Her father my great great grandfather {paternal}was a Blacksmith by trade.

At least it was there own thunderbox, unlike a lot of terraced cottages that had to share a thunder box that was at the end of the row of terrace. those dock cttages must have been a palace compared to a lot of the places people where living in at that time.

photo of dock cottages.

madness great pic mate, i thought they were on the other side.

Not sure if anyone has spotted this....its a bit from BBC website called tales from the Northend.
and has another slightly wider view of the dock cottages from St James church side.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/voices/gallerys/bhead_pop7.html

the main page is as follows
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/voices/bhead.shtml

Wow.great pic Bert.I actually didn`t know they ran right up to the church,well not as close as that anyway.

Wow great picture Bert, & thanks for the other picture phil

Will get a now & then of that

.

wow cool Joe

Nice match Joe.

When the dock cottages where built the official name for them was Queens buildings

Ive Just been Told by my Uncle that going through the Arch
And Turning Left you would walk down a few steps to access the walkways for
the flats / homes.

Going through the Arch if your Turned Right there was a Metal Box
like a mini sub station for electricity this is where they would
climb on and hang out as boys.

There were also smaller arches for people to walk out at the sides and at the back if he remembers correctly but thats a
bit vague.

hrar is the Illchester side of the square

why where these buildings demolished may i ask?

most prob just run downe mate

my great nan n grandad lived abouve the archway in the picture

Taken from 'Auld-Lang-Syne' by Harry B Neilson, 1935:

'When the docks were under construction a number of Irish labourers were employed, and 'The Dock Cottages', now called 'Queens' Buildings' were erected to house them. All Irishmen love a fight and these dock navvies were no exception, and so prize-fighting was indulged in. They made the fields round about Bidston their meeting-places for fighting, rabbit-coursing, etc. It was quite a common occurrence for a large crowd to take possession of any field they fancied, regardless of the protests made by the owner. The most favoured spot for prize-fights was the 'Moss-croft' field, halfway between the church and the station (assuming he means St Oswald's and Bidston Station - could possibly be the big field by old Vyner Road Primary). Mr James Griffiths once witnessed one of these fights and lately described it to me, and I give it in his own words as follows: -
"I remember one fight in particular; crowds of people were passing through the village and down School Lane. Most of the villagers, men and women alike, scenting a prize-fight, locked up their houses and followed the crowd. A ring was formed, while the fighters, almost devoid of clothing and without gloves on, got to work. The fight went on vigorously for a considerable time, when all at once the bulk of the crowd stampede in all directions. Three Roman Catholic priests had come on the scene armed with stout cudgels, hitting right and left indiscriminately, and what had been a huge crowd a few minutes earlier had now completely vanished."

This book by Neilson is well worth a read - has lots of little stories about Claughotn, Bidston, Oxton as well as his tales from time spent in India.[/u]

exellent bit of info thank you missguided

excuse me every one who grew up in the northend are the best poeple around how der you

Excuse me jeanny but who was having a go at people from the north end?
all I read was a quote from a book that mentioned Irish Navvies
I'm just not seeing a reason for you to get all defensive *shrugs*

sorry just hate when people think northend was bad place to live the best people come from there you could leave you door open no would rob it not like now

Well I'm sure nobody would claim it was the land of fluffy bunnies and lollipops but they always looked after each other.
And that's what community was all about.
It wasn't a bad place but it was a tough place

yes it wasnt fluffy bunnies and we all looked out for each orther thats for sure sorry about my comment before

wow what a picture brings back memories i lived top flat at bloodtub end they were the days brill

Somehow I can't visualise 3 Priests arriving at a full blown street fight today. Then producing baseball bats or similar and laying into the neds and duffing them up a reeeeel treat !

An extension of that today, would be for the Priest/Minister to be issued with a Tazer (suitably blessed of course) and to zap anyone seen dozing off during the sermon !

Verily I say unto Thee.... F***in' wake up at the back...Zaaaaap!!!

Maybe not.

Dock Cottages (Block D)



Blood Tub

I wasn't insulting northenders jenny.
My great-great-nan and her husband lived in Dock Cottages (Block K). In fact if you check earlier on in the thread there's a page from the Census (post #243846 ) - check it out. If you had relatives in there you might find them on that page.

hi many thanks for the photo my family grew up in ilchester square do you have any pics of ilchester square

the pix are very good paul mate thanks mate!

pics of what remains of Ilchester Square today
just to see what they used to look like

It is very interesting seeing those pictures of Ilchester Square again. I was actually born in a flat in Ilchester Square .

The above picture is what you would see if you went in the entrance next to the Blood Tub, roughly where the Blood Tub car park is now. The arch led into Ilchester Road which you can see through the arch. The arch and the flats above it were built in the 1950's and were all 3 storey, but the flats on the left (which you can see through the arch) were built in the 1930's and were 4 storey.

That picture, I reckon would have been taken in the late 60's maybe 1970, going by the corrogated iron roughly nailed to that flat to the left of the arch.

Here is another picture of Ilchester Square taken at the Coronation parties in 1952, or was it 53? I believe this picture was taken by a Birkenhead News photographer and some residents bought them.
These are the newer 3 storey flats completed in the early 1950's. If you stood in the middle of the field with your back to St James Church, these flats were roughly just in front of where the kid's playground is now.
Ilchester Square was demolished by 1974, except for the flats over the Blood Tub. Higson's brewery wanted £90,000 compensation if the pub was demolished and, as it was also too expensive to downsize the building, the flats over the pub were refurbished.

2nd of June 1953, every street in Birkenhead and probably in most other towns and city's in the country had a street party on that day. i was 13 at the time, we all got coronation mugs {think they where issued at school to us all}

I still have my Coronation mug !

Snod

Ilchester Square has now disappeared along with The Blood Tub !!

Here is another Ilchester square picture from that BBC website which I have resized and enhanced but it is not very clear due to the size of the original.
They list it as being the dock Cottages, but in fact it is inside Ilchester Square at the Tyrer Street end.

Looks like a great community atmosphere in the coronation pics, didnt it end up with the terrible reputation by the time it was knocked down? If this is true, its amazing how it all went bad in 20 years!

Same as most places around here - 90% of the population are brilliant - but the ... make a mess of anything they touch.

i think another reason the north end's community went from great to it's current state was that the docks were pretty much closed during the last 30 years which left most people in the area unemployed as they worked on the various docklands. many people from the area managed to find other jobs but there's always that small section of scumbags who ruin it for everyone.

So interesting reading this thread.....my dad grew up in ilchester square and my great unncle (Bill Houldin) wrote 'Up Our Lobby' about the dock cottages which someone mentioned earlier....i have a copy at home and love to look through it.

Great to see some pictures of the place my dad always takls about!!

Ill have to show him the pictures see if he can spot himself.

wow they bring back memories i moved in 1970 to the nocturum would you know were i could get to see pics of 1970 nocturum

The ramaining River Streets have now ben refurbished but some properties were demolished in Solway Street.

Had an Uncle (wife and children) who lived in the Ilchester Square flats. Moved them to the Woodchurch Estate circa 1955/56

the photo of the archway--top right flat the copelands lived and top left flat was the morris,s next door to copelands lived billy sadler my uncle

joyce

i bought the book up are lobby,after reading about it on here,and enjoyed reading it.

top right hand balcony--the copelands
top left hand balcony --the morris,s
opposite the copelands billy sadler my uncle who worked in the tapestry.
think foremans lived in bottom right of right balcony.

joyce

hi folks
the top right side of the arch lived the copeland family and my uncle billy sadler lived opposite on the top floor.
on left hand side of arch jimmy morris and family lived, think foreman family lived on bottom right, in the 50,s i lived at the top end of the square nearer the church end.

joyce

my grandad was born in the dock cottages, he later went on to work in lees tapestry, he invented a loome which was exibited in the williamson gallery, my dad and mother also went on to work ther til 1960

my dad was brought up there - he has a twin brother and the old pics i have seen made them look like the kray twins....lol

some of the stories he has told me about his youth there

wasn't one of them a chutney ferret?

Off part pages
"Multi-storey living: The British working-class experience
By Anthony Sutcliffe" here

In approaching the question the Council had the experience of private ventures into this field, both in London and on Merseyside. The national associations dedicated to raising the standards of working-class housing had been in existence for twenty years. The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes, for instance, had already erected eight blocks in London.33 Closer at hand the Corporation could turn to a number of examples of such dwellings on Merseyside itself.
The earliest of these, and probably the oldest such working-class tenement development in England, lay across the river in Birkenhead. As a 'new town', built essentially around Laird's iron and ship-making enterprises founded in the 1820s, Birkenhead seemed to contemporaries to embody the spirit, hopes and aspirations of the age. Dr Hunter Robertson, admittedly a local man, felt it had
... ready materials to mould and fashion towards a high destiny by providing for all the means of pursuing life with knowledge,principles. and Purposes calculated to identify humanity and advance

The Insanitary Housing Question 59
A return of 8 or 10 per cent was hoped for by The Builder's correspondent, though the local doctor feared 'the investment will turn out an unprofitable one' owing to the unnecessarily ornate finish,which The Times suggested was reminiscent of an inn of court or Chancery building." The structure was certainly imposing even to twentieth-century eyes. though conditions in the cramped three-room space must have become severely overcrowded when occupied by large families. The 'cottages', as they came to be called, were demolished in the 1930s; the tenements built to replace them achieved only half that life and were taken down in 1972.
At least four smaller developments were erected in Birkenhead during this period. Morpeth Buildings was built by the industrialist William Laird," whose incentives for engaging in tenement building were in all probability similar to those of the Dock Company, namely the need to provide housing for industrial workers where none existed previously. Laird, the son of a Greenock rope-maker, may have been especially disposed towards dwellings on the 'Scotch plan'. His four-storey block, built in brick, consisted of eight terraced 'houses', each containing eight dwellings. Each landing served two flats in an arrangement similar to the Dock Cottages. Room dimensions and interior arrangements also appear to have been almost identical and as Laird was a chief partner in the Dock Company it may be that the similarities were not accidental. Air bricks, a feature not noted in descriptions of the Dock Cottages, were a positive proof that sanitary ideas were to some extent in the mind of the architect. One was placed near the floor to admit fresh air and the other near the ceiling for the escape of `heated or vitiated air'. These sanitary draughts were the subject of complaint from all four tenants interviewed by Robertson, though one stated he had had no trouble since pasting paper over them!

What would the other 4 buildings have been as in the above post?

Found this thread before. I couldn't find it doing a search (need some tips on that because most turn up blank)
I would have added to this thread instead of starting a new one and posting pictures that are already on this thread
I have just read the whole thread and it seems common knowledge to most wiki members of this book "up our lobby" (I thought I stumbled on a rare find ) it is a gem of a book
There are couple of pics on that thread that are not on this so I will add them here
There is so much information in these history forums it is keeping me sane whilst I am out of work so you can understand how happy I was to find this one and 9 pages of posts to read.
Happy days

Now this picture on the back cover is fascinating
None of the streets exist to the right of the church only challis st, and none of the streets running through Buccleuch and Lincoln st exist but the most strangest one is Beaufort road, down here as new road.
Didn't that exist before the cottages where built?

Harding avenue

Harding avenue is not on that picture biddy

sorry I'm New to this must have hit the wrong key i was replying to placidmaster about the avenues off gautby road

Thats ok, no worries biddy
Did you live in bidston/northend?

Yes I was born in alwen street in1945 and left when I got married in 1972
I loved my time in the northend!

You left before I was born biddy

River Street houses in 1978. They seem to have been built in at least two tranches - the first (to the east of Buccleuch St) were standing by 1935. Sash windows look good - in fact they would have been quite attractive properties at the time.

same crap thrown over the embankment....things dont change

The houses look so different without the cladding!

Illchester Square just popped up on twitter, 1946 ....