Birkenhead Park opened with great ceremony on a sunny day, on Easter Monday, 26th April, 1847. There were brass bands, a grand dinner and official choirs. The event was timed to coincide with the opening of the newly-completed Birkenhead Dock complex. The people of the new city had magnificent opportunities for work and play.

From the first, visitors enjoyed everything that the Park offered. It was – and is – a beautiful expense of landscape, laid out with new trees, colourful shrubs and flowers, serpentine lakes, winding paths, sports fields and play-grounds. It provides a marvellous environment for a rich array of birds, insects and animals. There are also ornamental structures including a rockery inspired by Alpine landscapes, the Roman Boathouse, the Swiss Bridge and the imposing Grand Entrance Lodge.

This is a remarkable Park and we hope you and your children will continue to enjoy it for the next 150 years.

1. Birkenhead Park Pavilion
2. Public Toilets
3. Information
4. Roman Boathouse
5. Swiss Bridge

2. Bowling Greens

3. Grand Entrance Lodge

4. Roman Boathouse

5. Swiss Bridge

6. Children's Play

7. Rockery

8. Figure of Eight Lake

9. Birkenhead Park Cricket Club

10. St Mary's Cricket Club

11. Changing Rooms

12. Performance Area

13. Tennis Courts

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Birkenhead Park

1 Park Road North
2 Boothby Ground
3 Grand Lodge
4 Ashville Road
5 Carriage Road
6 Upper Lake
7 Boathouse
8 Lower Lake
9 Swiss Bridge
10 Upper Park
11 Lower Park
12 Castellated Lodge
13 Park Road West
14 Park Road South
15 Italian Lodge
16 Gothic Lodge
17 Park Road East

+6.55 = elevation in metres
above sea level

people. In 1833 Parliament passed an Act establishing the Birkenhead Improvement Commission to run the town. Many of the Commissioners were local merchants with businesses in Liverpool. The Select Committee on Public Walks also published its report in 1833. That Committee had been charged with recommending 'the best means of securing open spaces in the vicinity of populous towns'. The population of Birkenhead was recorded as 8529 in the 1841 census. Following a suggestion that year by Isaac Holmes, a Liverpool Councillor and Birkenhead Improvement Commissioner, Birkenhead became the first town to react to the new mood for the provision of public open space. In April 1843 the Second Birkenhead Improvement Act was passed. This provided for the Commissioners to purchase land and set aside not less than 28 hectares for a park, 'the first occasion upon which land for a freely accessible public park was obtained by Act of Parliament'.¹⁴³

## Size and Condition of the Site at the Time of Designation

The Commissioners purchased 91 hectares of 'swampy, low-lying land which fell 20 metres in a fairly uniform slope'. Of this land, 51 hectares was to be for public use. The land was part of the Birkenhead Estate owned by a Mr F. R. Price. It 'contained a small farmhouse which was known as a beer den where illegal gambling and dog fighting took place. The land was purchased cheaply because of its poor quality'. Parklands Consortium noted that on maps from 1824 there are references to 'Seven Acres Marsh' and from 1842 to 'Low Fields Lane'. Numerous sources quote Paxton's letter to his wife in 1843. 'I think I must have lost a pound of propriation for I walked at least 30 miles about to make myself master of the locality and it is not a very good situation for a park as the land is generally poor but of course it will redound more to my