Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request gothic house in Palm Grove, Oxton

Does anyone know anything of the history of this house:
https://birkenhead2020.com/2020/01/13/palm-grove/

It's the one right at the top - no need to scroll down.

One of my friends reckons that it was a club or spa called Tony's for a while - possible up to the 1990s.

I'd be grateful for any information. Thanks.

This is addressed as 1 Beresford Road, it was Lord Birkenhead's house and up to a few years ago contained Tonys Restaurant when it was the Beresford Hotel. It is now apartments and very plain inside.

It was also known as the Constitutional Club

It was also known as Tonys Restaurant and Leisure club, tying in with the "spa" thoughts. The adjacent building at the same property was the Palm Suite.

Looking more at the Lord Birkenhead "house" claim, he might have just stayed there (perhaps on a residential basis) when it was the Constitutional Club, where he also made a famous speech.

Was the the Natwest Bank in the 1970/80's ?

Could the house have belonged to the Earl of Shrewsbury. A lot of the land belonged to his estate.
Earls were Lords of the Manor of Oxton from 1521 to 1990 .

Thanks for that so far. Very interesting. It was built as a hotel or club then ? I imagined it was built for a shipping magnate or someone of that nature. Finding out it was the Constitutional Club has led me to this:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/15295

Can't say if he was the first occupant or had it built, 1879 Electoral Roll, Frederick Jevons, Iron Merchant, also had a Warehouse, Counting House, Wharf, Queens Dock, Liverpool.

A small timeline,

1 Beresford Rd

1881, Frederick Jevons, Iron Merchant, 1891, 18 Palm Grove.

1891, Adelaide Bald, widow, Living on own means.

1901, Samuel Allison, Club Steward

Became the club between 1891 and 1901.

Narrow a bit more,

1894 directory, Mrs A Bald,

1900 directory, Constitutional Club.

Thank you so much everyone. I'm assuming now that the house was built for F.Jevons the iron merchant. How strange that he only stayed there for 10 years. Perhaps he went bankrupt and had to sell it. Perhaps he was related to...
https://astro.uni-bonn.de/~deboer/genea/as/as36.html

...which is not right if Jevons and Sons had failed by 1848 ! Also mentioned here:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/3f3c34d2-b3af-4aa7-8aea-481d2123ef3d

In 1911, Frederick Jevons still lived at 18 Palm Grove and his occupation was described as Metal Merchant.

Below is I assume is his probate, I haven't checked thoroughly.

Meant to add,

18 Palm Grove had 14 rooms not including Bathrooms, so must have been/is a substantial property.

So he didn't die broke then. Using an inflation calculator, he left more than £2.75 million in today's money. Not exactly The Duke of Westminster but pretty respectable eh?

Yes a respectable amount.

Landour, the name for 18 Palm Grove. The 1911 census, records the number of rooms a property had. The club, 1 Beresford Rd had 6 rooms, 3 Beresford Rd which was a private school had 20 rooms.

The 6 rooms were probably the stewards quarters and not the full club.

My mate used to be the night security guard there when Tony's was closed and it was a lovely building inside but very spooky.

I always find very large empty buildings spooky.