Im Hoping To find Camden Lawn , im not sure if its still the same Claughton road as it is now as a distant relative lived there any help would be great...
Could be the name of a house. Have you got a house number or surname we can work on.
Apologies for now going slightly off topic. In 1950s I vaguely remember some of the big houses in Camden St (opposite St Andrews Square flats) seemed to have no buildings behind them as far back as Hemingford St where there were high walls at the back. Which brings me to the map showing the mission hall The Charles Thompson Mission, is still run from the Hemingford Street building that has housed it since 1892.
see 1950s map below on the other side of road to bert's map
In the 1890s Camden Lawn was the home of cabinet-maker James Gamlin, his wife Sarah, and their children. The 1891 Census enumerator's book for the area starts at 184 Claughton Road (the Baker's Arms on the corner of Exmouth Street) progresses down the north side of the road to number 80, on the corner of Camden Street, before listing numbers 102-86 Camden Street then turning onto Conway Street to cover Hemingford Terrace. In between numbers 166 and 128 Claughton Road, two unnumbered properties are listed, Parkfield House and Camden Lawn. The 1889 OS map (below) shows a pair of large semi-detached houses west of the end of Parkfield Avenue, and I strongly suspect that these are the two properties referred to. By the time of the 1911 Edition OS map, the two houses had been demolished to make way for a new Council School (now Media House) and a Free Welsh Church (now the Emmanuel Church) which still stand there today.
Well done marty. Can I ask you if you have any info on the houses in Camden St opposite St Andrews Square in my post before yours. Were they originally big private houses which then became the home of several families (today's equivalent of rented rooms) From what I can recall of them they seemed to be too big for one family of just a workman. From 1916 street directory
I've done a bit more research to check my theory and discovered that I was at least partially correct. The pair of semi-detached houses I've indicated were actually numbers 128 and 130 Claughton Road; Camden Lawn was number 130, so it's the left-hand one of the pair, not the right-hand one as I originally thought. Parkfield House is the next property along towards Charing Cross, at the end of the long curved drive.
My research also uncovered some more info on Camden Lawn's occupants. James Gamlin was elected a Birkenhead Councillor in 1891 and served as Mayor during 1899-1900. His wife Sarah Ann (née Furniss) is better known as Hilda Gamlin, writer of Memories, or the Chronicles of Birkenhead and 'Twixt Mersey and Dee, two popular volumes of local reminiscences. She was also apparently an accomplished singer and musician in her younger days. Unfortunately, she was of somewhat frail constitution, and sadly died at Camden Lawn on 2nd April 1898, her husband remarrying and surviving her by almost 25 years.
Camden Lawn was bought by the Corporation and demolished in the latter half of 1902 to make way for Claughton Road Special School, whilst number 128 had been bought by the Church of Wales as the site for their new Assembly Hall and was presumably demolished at the same time.
