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