The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-05 00:00:00

BIRKENHEAD ; ITS PROGRESS AND PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS. There is perhaps no place in England which has, within the same comparatively short period, taken such rapid strides from a small beginning as Birkenhead. Our own town of Liverpool —on the immediate opposite shore of the Mersey—though, in common parlance, called " the good old town," is, as compared with some of the elder cities of the realm, of but recent date, yet has advanced in an astonishing degree. A few centuries ago, she was little more than a small fishing village, with the single parochial church of Walton-on-the-Hill, and St. Nicho las's (now a pariah church) as a chapel of ease, under the former. Her advancement has been rapid and great,— especially of late years—from her maritime advantages, the growing wants of society, and the enterprise of her inha bitants to supply them from every land ; and, latterly her splendid ranges of docks and warehouses, as well as a cor responding increase of public and private buildings, and the capital that has flowed into her, have rendered her second only as a port to the metropolis, in her own re sources, and in the revenue derived from commerce which she annually throws into the national treasury. Twenty-five years ago, Liverpool, per ae, contained but about 90,000 inhabitants. She has now, together with the populous outskirts that have since, by proximity, been welded to her, a population of little short of 300,000. This increase, great as it must be considered—(and she is still speedily advancing)—is not, however, equal in pro portionate rapidity to that of Birkenhead, which, about 15 to 18 years ago could number but a few straggling houses, including the then few ferry stations, on a coast and surrounding landscape for the most part bleak, sterile, and unpromising. That locality has since risen into a very considerable, handsome, and interesting town; with about 16,000 inhabitants ; with numerous spacious streets, squares, and public edifices ; besides vast clusters of houses, villas, and other detached residences, planted in every direction on the acclivities to the westward. The land, moreover, has been greatly improved by drainage and force of culture, and the whole aspect of the neigh bourhood improved to a degree of warmth and verdure, both in field and forest, that was little expected, though it is but yet partially reclaimed. Birkenhead has in fact almost at once risen from infancy to approaching manhood, and may at least be said to be a " bran new" town. The genius of speculation has alighted upon her, and already she has her railway, her projected new railways and canals; has commenced the construction of extensive docks ; is proceeding with an extensive public market, and project ing a new Town-Hall (ere the former ones were well sea soned); and other public edifices of considerable extent and elegance of design. The capital embarked has, it must be remarked, been provided to a great extent from the wealthy citizens of London, and the works and im provements embrace proprietors all over the kingdom. From the facilities of steam conveyance across the river, many of our merchants, professional men, (and their de pendants,) and others in business or retired, find it an agreeable and easily accessible locality in which to domi cile ; and not a few of the wealthier of them have made purchases of land from which, in the rapid increase of value for building and other purposes, they have realised, or anticipate. a large reversion. The salubrity of the lo cality, and the adaptation of the shore to several useful purposes, maritime and commercial, no one can deny ; and unless some untoward event arise to check its pro gress, Birkenhead will, in a few years, become a thriving and representative town. That it will ever rival Liver pool we neither hope nor imagine ; but it will, in other respects, be to a great extent an adjunct to this port. Be this as it may, we entertain no jealous feeling of its prosperity. We have had occasion conscientiously to op pose some portions of the dock scheme of Birkenhead, which we thought to be of so costly and speculative a cha racter that parties who were induced to embark in it might possibly stretch their arms further than they could readily draw them in. Parliament, however, has granted the bill, after the fullest investigation : this has spurred our Cor poration to the immediate construction of additional docks on this side—showing that there is nothing like a little competition—and we feel disposed to await the result, with the best wishes for the success of all parties, provided they promote the general public good. With these views, and knowing the interest which begins to be directed to Birkenhead, and the works there in progress, we this day present our readers with a Plan of that town, and its in tended docks and improvements, executed at our office, entirely in typography, on a new principle of our own, and the clearness of which will, we trust, be admitted. The names of the proprietors of the land are given in every instance where they could be obtained; the intended docks, streets, and roads, are marked out with as much accuracy as possible, and corrected (by authority) up to the time of publication,—the almost daily mutations of property rendering this no easy task. We begin with the improvements and enlargement of THE TOWN. The greater part of Birkenhead—much, however, is not yet built upon—is laid out in streets of great length, some of them upwards of 2000 yards in length, and 84 feet in breadth between the houses, in a direction nearly parallel with the river, and intersected by minor streets at right angles to them. The other principal streets are, from house to house, 36 feet wide—there being a railed space, as in the others, of 12 feet on each side. There are up wards of 40 streets all more than 300 yards in length.. Hamilton Square, a shot t distance westward from Woodside Ferry, is one of the finest squares in Europe. The area of the square is upwards of 6i acres, and nearly the whole is now built up with splendid mau• sions in the Edinburgh style, the central and the wing houses on each side being thrown into slight projection by the embellishment of Doric columns, springing from rus ticated basements. In the middle there is an extensive garden or shrubbery, within iron rails. The west side of the square is now nearly completed exteriorly, as is the south side, with the exception of a space (marked in our plan) on which it is purposed to build the new Town Hall. The footwalks in this square (which will be completed next spring) are broad and peculiarly well constructed. In se veral of the larger streets there are handsome ranges of white freestone houses, as well as cemented buildings, all raised to one elevation, and others to correspond are in course of erection. The number of new streets and open ings laid out to the best advantage is really astonishing to any one who does not reside on the spot and view the daily operations of, we may say, thousands of workmen. Stone masons, bricklayers, joiners, painters, plumbers, &c. are all busily at work in every direction, and the whole is a scene of unwonted activity. The manner in which the streets are laid out is peculiarly worthy of notice ; and it would be well if in all new parts of towns (for we cannot all have new towns) corporations would follow the example, and not be compelled, as here, for the public health and convenience, to purchase rows of premises densely packed, pull down, widen, and renovate. There is scarcely a street in the town of any note under 30 feet wide, and nearly the whole