Forums Forums Wirral Information Ask - Wiki Wirral what could revive Birkenhead town centre?

What would need to happen for Birkenhead town centre for it to become a place people would want to visit / shop?
Comments, either on here or elsewhere always say how awful it is now and it's become so bad that most people choose to shop elsewhere.
When you think of Albert Dock before it was regenerated, it was an eyesore yet it has been transformed into a major tourist attraction.
So what could be done to save Birkenhead from endless charity shops and the like and get it to a place where people would be happy to go?
Or is it too far gone and it's just going to get worse?

People having money to spend shopping, unlike Liverpool Birkenhead has nothing to attract masses of tourist and their money.

Albert dock was a bit different, firstly it was conceived on the back of the toxteth riots and had the complete backing (and funding) of central government. Michael Heseltine was the minister appointed to directly oversee the project which was carried out through a government quango (the MDC). The MDC could also bypass Liverpool City Council as a planning authority, so there was very little to get in its way.

With Wirral waters getting underway, it's unlikely that anything will be done to the town centre in terms of substantial investment; local councillors are concerned about this.

I couldn't imagine any investment coming from central government for Birkenhead as it's not alone in town centre decline (Preston was on the news last night about exactly the same thing).

Personally I think it should put more emphasis on the market as it has history and does help make the place a little unique.

I know what puts me off, parking charges, might as well get the train over the water and have a better experience.

Went to Hamilton square for meeting ,drove around to find I had to pay to park ,never again birkenhead ..when you park someone from the council should hand you money ...... Terrible place .i work 5 mins from centre and have shopped there twice in 12 years .

Went shopping in Birkenhead yesterday, sad to see such decline even in the two years since I moved back to Wirral, I lived in Northwich previously, free parking in the town resulted in a lively economy.

Worth stating that Albert Dock actually failed as a retail destination but has thrived as part of the visitor economy.

Liverpool one has done for Birkenhead what Meadowhall did for Sheffield, Manchester has its Trafford centre and Prescot is now Tescoville, Birkenhead also has to contend with Chester and Cheshire Oaks.

The Answer is a mixture of a renewed vision followed by investment and a rethink about arcane parking laws, backed up by us the residents of Wirral, we should all spend locally whenever possible, if we did this then more shops would stay open.

K

In total agreement.

The work going on now for more shops/ outlets at M53 Junction 1 (Bidston) is not going to help Birkenhead centre either. Next, Argos, M&S (? rumoured) and maybe PC World (rumoured)

The work is well underway and although the following link shows only the developers 'model' I doubt they would be able to show the named shops unless it had been agreed.

For me it is better - because I live in Wallasey and just the other side of Junction 1 - but that simply makes it even more unlikely that I will go into Birkenhead.

http://www.vzdv.com/Bidston-Moss/Selected-Projects/

Snod

radical thought, demolish the eyesore that is Birkenhead Market, the whole place is overpriced, depressingly full of boring 'Stalls' and 'coffee shops'. there is no atmosphere about the place, staff seem too bored to even engage in eye contact, let alone conversation!!then in it's place could be a much smaller,more attractive area that could be used as venue for a real Farmers Market, held at weekends,

Wirral, just as Chester city centre is now doing , don't want cars in the city or town centre, they have their wish, most cars can take up to four people, those people are now going to out of town shopping area's and the city/town centres are doing what's expected dying due to lack of footfall into the city / town centre shops, you can't have it both ways, people if they had a chance would never get out of their car if the shops aisle were wide enough, the Council can have high parking fees to dissuade drivers and very few people or low parking fees and like Widnes or even Ellesmere Port lots of people.

nuke the place and start again.

look at liverpool one and the building (quiggins i believe) that was there beforehand and the major uproar that went around that being pulled down to make way for liverpool one.

i much prefer liverpool as it is now than as it was then

as was said earlier by BandyCoot - i would much rather spend the extra quid or so on the train and have the pleasure and experience of walking round liverpool shopping and have the choice of hundreds and hundreds of shops, some of which i'm still discovering, than go into birkenhead and wanting to get out ASAP.

parking i know is an issue to most, not me as at the moment i don't have a car (have had in the past, and will have in the near future) but charging more to park in birkenhead than the equivelant to park in Liverpool... i know what i'd rather do.

Birkenhead market is part of the heritage of Birkenhead. What they need to do is reconfigure it. Make it more of a farmers market for local produce etc.

The problem is trying to get big brands to invest in putting their stores in Birkenhead. If there were more of a variety in shops, people would go!
But, as Liverpool is so close by, the other option is to go down the Chester/Shrewsbury route, and have smaller unique shops. They'd have to reduce rents to gain this tho!

And parking is an issue. They should maybe do a park & ride from a free/cheap car park nearby?

The unstoppable rise of internet shopping has already changed every high street as we recently used to perceive it, and the majority of all shops are going to close sooner rather than later, but it's not to blame for the rot that had already set in. Birkenhead is a shopping backwater, Liverpool is the nearest major shopping destination, but not so far away from Manchester that two stores might be needed. It's not that important to go to a store, for most purchases, when you can have the convenience of goods delivered to your doorstep for less than it costs to park a car.

The only other reason to go to Birkenhead would be for it to become a destination in itself. Leisure services such as bars, restaurants, venues, cinemas, galleries, theatres, museums, arcades, tourist attractions... places to gather with friends and spend money. Anything other than retail.

tl;dr? Nothing simple that'll happen by grand design, these things evolve over generations.

I'm afraid that, to those of us who knew and loved the old market, the present one is rubbish.

unfortunately for birkenhead the recent resurgence of new brighton and the bad reputation that birkenhead has for pubs etc is always going to go against it.

i'm too young to know what liverpool used to be like, but i've heard stories of unprecedented random acts of violence and other such negatives from how it "used" to be on a night out, but since i've been going (around 6 years) i've never seen a single fight or anyone even showing signs that they want to go for a fight.

i have been to birkenhead on a night out twice in the past 6 years, one time a lad was stabbed, another there was a full-on brawl.

as you said, things need a long time, perhaps as much as generations, to evolve. and Liverpool has clearly managed that, ok with the assistance of a strategically placed fairly small police presence, birkenhead needs the same to happen for anyone with more than 2 brain cells to want to go there with friends for an enjoyable time, it needs a cleaner public image and new lease of life, obviously through major investment and redevelopment, otherwise it's going to become one of them places you avoid at all costs.

being what it is, a vaguely historic place, i am disappointed that Birkenhead has ended up how it has done, nobody and everybody is to blame for that, but when and IF, it does have a resurgence, i will be interested to see what direction it goes in. a shopping centre will be out of the question unless it goes like the trafford centre and is mainly inddors with some nice restaurants etc, but birkenhead isn't as important as manchester or as easily accessable to the country so it won't be a rival to the trafford centre, could it be like liverpool one? again, no. liverpool has a few train lines going to it as well as more roads to the city whereas birkenhead doesn't.
it will be interesting to see IF birkenhed does get redeveloped in years to come, and i mean 20+ years away, not anytime in the near future, and what direction it will go in. there's nothing i can think of that either hasn't already been done on the wirral/Liverpool to make people go there instead of anywhere else or that will be economically viable if there aren't as many shops...

tl;dr birkenhead isn't gonna change any time soon

It is very sad to see the way it has gone down so much over the last couple of decades. I don't know either what could be done to save it now, that's assuming even if someone wanted to. The last time I was there was last July and we only went because daughter wanted to sell her xbox and although the place was actually really busy, it just smacked of depression and despair

I know I harp on about things in USA but it's very similar in regards to how town centres here too have suffered huge decline due to massive shopping malls offering much better facilities and of course free parking, restaurants and pleasant piped music.
The centre of town near me here is all but a ghost town now, full of pawn shops and the £1 shop equivalent. Most folk avoid it like the plague as it's riddled with violence after dark with murders happening frequently and gangs hanging around everywhere.
I doubt there's hope for B'head in the near future and it would take a huge input of cash and redevelopment planning to even stand a chance against Liverpool and the ever popular Cheshire Oaks Very sad

Give it a few more years and you can kiss goodbye to a whole load of other shopping places too.

The Internet is killing it off slowly, online shopping is the big thing now.

Thank the Internet for the latest blockbuster liquidation, asif piracy wasn't already hitting it hard along comes these online rental company's!

Technology is causing a major disruption to social life as we know it.

First the mobile phone, now the Internet.

I know. and I'm doing just that now as I'm reading your post. It so easy to order online and also because most of the things I want are free delivery too.

It's a shame really, shopping is not how it used to be.

I will admit that I do most of my shopping online, mostly electrical items tbh.

I'm sorry to see blockbuster go as I use them to buy games all the time, it's very unfair on the staff there.

Why is everybody talking about Birkenhead shopping centre as though it's the Bronx? Ok it can't compete with Liverpool which has got a lot of other tourist attractions, but it's not exactly the bowels of hell!

Many of the shops that've closed have closed all over the country not just Birkenhead.

I was there shopping today, it was busy and clean. And at least you don't have to walk miles to get to different shops.

the rents are the biggest problem with birkenhead.

I only really go to central Birkenhead to pay my rent and thus end up doing my food/ 'general' shopping there.

I believe that the biggest loss to the town is HMV.:( but with saying that,I do prefer shopping online for music/ dvds etc and so I am one of thousands that led to their downfall, unfortunatley.

I do use the Market occasionally for fresh meats/ cooked meats and that stall near Max Spielmans etc for fruit and veg.

How to improve the shopping centre?

No idea- its a shit pit and my motto is to 'Get in and get out' asap.

I used to prefer Birkenhead to Liverpool, because it was less busy, and had more of the shops I wanted, but it's not quite the same anymore!

Online shopping is killing the high streets everywhere tho, it won't be long until its only designer outlets left!

I agree, Cate. Sadly, the High Street is dead.

Where I live in Seacombe, my nan in law used to refer to Borough Road area as 'the village'. I used to think wtf?

There is a 'fading' newsagent,(another did set up but lasted 3 months- if that), a flower shop,a charity shop and a chippy- not the 'village'that this dear old lady spoke off.

I do recall a bakery, two or three other chippys, a pet shop and a butchers being there in the late 80s/ early 90s- all gone now. Razored down and houses built.Same as the C.O.S.A club.

I forsee more closures of small businesses come April, not just in Seacombe but everywhere.

I find it hard to find sympathy for the likes of HMV and Blockbusters and they ripped people off for far too long. I used to buy white label records for over £15 from HMV and rent DVD’s from Blockbuster for about a fiver a night. CD’s were way overpriced too. I think the pair of them had it coming for a very long time as they kept prices too high when there was little other choice than buying in the high street.

Quite agree there Neil_c.
I suppose another thing about Birkenhead is the drive into town.
Its like driving through Bosnia - boarded up windows, houses half demolished or set on fire, roads like a patch work quilt, women walking around in pyjamas.
It all adds up to a totally disgusting experience and thats even before you get in town.
To say Birkenhead is like the capital of Wirral so to speak, i am very embarrased to mention i even live anywhere near the place

Yes, I know what you mean about the journey to get there and yet less than a mile or two away are the very exclusive areas like Pine Walks, Golf Links Rd and the surrounding locations where you need to be mega rich to live.

Liverpool is the same, a doss hole once out of the tourist friendly areas.

Dont worry too much there is big change happening to this part of the wirral with all the money being pumped into wirral water ways by chinese investment. And now the northend has had a facelift and all along claughton road. I have faith in Birkenhead it has been great once it can be great again plus we have so much history. if the people of birkenhead had pride in where they live it would be a better place.

Abbot raises a huge point by saying the roads are like a patchwork quilt.
This is so true, I am sick of dodging potholes or uneven parts of the roads.

It wouldn't take much to resurface the roads and it would help make the area nicer to look at.

I have noticed a vast amount of buildings in the laird street area have now been demolished, there's just a few large spaces there now.

Last time I was in Birkenhead town centre was about 2 years ago, last week I took my car into Ford M53 and went for a walk along the A41 to Woodside ferry then back along the river back to the garage the surprise was the parking charges 50p for half an hour, £1 an hour, in the middle of St Marys trading estate that is beyond belief, today I went to the new M&S at Cheshire Oaks, it's massive and it's free parking, the local politicians are killing their own town centres in pure ineptness and greed, the death of Birkenhead is closer than you think, Peel's waters on this side of the river I believe is just that.

A Bulldozer knocking the place down and then a massive building programe of new house ,shops, ...

I went to Birkenhead yesterday. I still go fairly regularly. The parking in the multi story was £1 for the first hour then £2 if you are any longer which I think is reasonable. The market is still great for meat and fish. Its a bit grotty with many discount and junk shops but thats a sign of the times sadly. Its still a dam site better than Liscard.