Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Pubs Past & Present 263 Great Eastern Hotel 48 New Ferry Road 48 48

Sorry for caps, was a tad upset. Won't use them again.

I understand your anger, i live in the same house i was born in in Woodford Rd and i'm 51, the neighbours are great, there's plenty of places to walk around and there's some good shops around, ( plus a new cost cutters in spitting distance ).

Plus we've got the family pub, Wetherspoons, which is very popular and now an Indian restaurant across the road from there too.

So Engineer, don't know why you've got such a downer on New Ferry, would rather you pick on somewhere else.


ps. Yes yewgarth, that costcutter is really handy for me too,lol.

From what little I've seen of New Ferry, it's an OK area. Like with anywhere else, there's good and bad bits.

As for the Great Eastern. What a fine building it was. It "could" have been saved if the will was there. HOWEVER, there is that evil, septic, putrifying stench of the that lowest form of bottom-dwelling life, the property developer behind most sketches like this. If profit is on the distant horizon (usually in the form of building little overpriced boxes for people to live in) then any reason to flatten a place is oiked out of the Book of Excuses Vol.34.

Sorry for the rant, I'm off my medication !

You rant away Pinz

Wikipedia if you haven't seen it.

One of New Ferry's links with its historic past as a tourist resort between the 1860s and 1920s was the Great Eastern Pub. The building dated from 1862 when Liverpool day-trippers began crossing the River Mersey by ferry to New Ferry Pier when it became known as "The Great Eastern Picnic Hotel". By coincidence, in 1888, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's famous ship the SS Great Eastern was broken up on the nearby shoreline, and many artefacts from the ship were auctioned off as it was being dismantled. The pub's owner bought a number of these including the ship's bar to install into the building, wood panelling for the walls, the ship's wheel and a beautiful stained glass window. Unfortunately, these were all removed by the last owners of the building in the mid 2000s, whilst the pub closed down in 2007. In November 2009 the site was sold to a housing developer, Worksharp Ecohomes Ltd of Southport, who, in February 2010, submitted a planning application to Wirral Borough Council to demolish the building, described as being "in a state of serious disrepair" and replace it with ten two-storey semi-detached houses. On 5 March 2010, the security screens were ripped off the doors and windows, the contents of the pub removed and the building left unsecured. Many members of the community had been concerned that the motive behind this was to accelerate the pub's derelict state and ensure its future demolition. This process began in June 2010, ahead of a site meeting by Wirral Council’s planning committee and despite an online petition by New Ferry Regeneration Action Group to save the building.[7] Over 400 people had signed the petition demanding that it be saved from the bulldozer and instead converted to housing. Worksharp EcoHomes obtained planning permission to replace the building with ten semi-detached homes, but conditions attached to that permission mean they must provide a permanent memorial to explain the significance of the area and its connection with the SS Great Eastern.[citation needed] By February 2011 no plan for the memorial has been seen by the community, no work has therefore started on the houses, and the site is currently an eyesore of weeds, brick rubble mounds, and ugly steel fencing.

How can I see these photos?
Thanks, Ken

Ken, you need to subscribe to view all the pictures in the history section.
It is well worth it if you like Wirral history, because there is a plethora of content to view.
https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/subscriptions.html

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