Rock Park was once one of the most desirable places to live in Birkenhead. I spent some time here yesterday, looking at the fine houses, now all in flats. The park is split in two now by the by-pass & there's constant traffic noise where there would have been peace & quiet. The American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, rented a house here while he was American consul in Liverpool. The house is now gone, but a single gatepost remains.
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1853.
“Passages from the English Notebooks”
ROCK PARK. September 2nd. We got into our new house in Rock Park yesterday. It is quite a good house, with three apartments, beside kitchen and pantry on the lower floor; and it is three stories high, with four good chambers in each story. It is a stone edifice, like almost all the English houses, and handsome in its design. The rent, without furniture, would probably have been one hundred pounds; furnished, it is one hundred and sixty pounds. Rock Park, as the locality is called, is private property, and is now nearly covered with residences for professional people, merchants, and others of the upper middling class; the houses being mostly built, I suppose, on speculation, and let to those who occupy them. It is the quietest place imaginable, there being a police station at the entrance, and the officer on duty allows no ragged or ill-looking person to pass. There being a toll, it precludes all unnecessary passage of carriages; and never were there more noiseless streets than those that give access to these pretty residences. On either side there is thick shrubbery, with glimpses through it of the ornamented portals, or into the trim gardens with smooth-shaven lawns, of no large extent, but still affording reasonable breathing space. They are really an improvement on anything, save what the very rich can enjoy, in America. The former occupants of our house (Mrs. Campbell and family) having been fond of flowers, there are many rare varieties in the garden, and we are told that there is scarcely a month in the year when a flower will not be found there.
Great photos. In a certain way the bye-pass may have helped to preserve the Park from any further desecration. It's a pity the esplanade could not tbe brought up to the same standard as the houses. Here's a photo with the sun shining!
i went through rock park only recently, the first time for many years. Reading that description of rock park it sounds as if its from a novel and you can almost visualise the horse and carriages and the smell of flowers.
I love Rock Park - I love the old gate posts as you go in. There was a lot of uproar about the new building of flats as you enter the second road of Rock Park. They've eventually become occupied but has anyone seen the state of the grassland area as you go in? It seems a big shame that it looks like a dumping ground when you're driving into such a lovely area...
Thanks for all the photos and info on Rock Park - brought back memories for me - I lived in the top floor flat of No 20 for nearly a year when I was married in 1965 - and travelled to St Helens daily by Train/bus!! Spooky place at night though!!!
was this grade listed and do you know any thing about the oringinal house?
Don't know if it was grade listed - at the time it was let out as furnished accomodation - owner (Mrs Johnson) at ground level, 1st and 2nd floors let out
