Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then gone but not so long ago

taken off negatives lent to me by my brother

with new scanner

Wow, fantastic!

First two are great!

Thanks Derek!

Wow - the flyover and Top Rank intact!

Yerr derek there well cool look at ford towers man! good find! more more!!

Brilliant Derek - get digging for more!

The single storey building facing the main British Leather Company building had tanks in it which contained chemicals for cleaning the skins. The smell from this building as you walked past was absolutely disgusting.

Bob.

great pictures pal thanks

Derek is keeping quiet - he used to work there!

You didn't walk past, you ran! There was a doorway or gate where you could see the pallets of slimey 'outsides of cows' and the smell was indescribable and spread over a good distance around.
Bri

I played on game of football with British Leather back in the 60's only because a mate of mine worked there. But yes the smell was something to forget.

Excellent pictures, derekdwc. What a monstrosity that Conway Street flyover was - in fact, what a monstrosity all the Birkenhead flyovers were ... and are.
Does anyone agree that this scheme, which led to the demolition of so many old residential areas, totally ruined the heart of the town and was tragically unnecessary?
As for the smell from the British Leather works, it was indeed a hell of a pong. But very much a part of what was then a thriving town.

mmmmm the smell of the leather works was deffo part of the town. that and sunvalley nut factory by Conway Street school.

wow i remember on that roof lol when i was about 7 lol

it shows just how much has changed in the area over the years.

That building on top right-what is it?
A. Cant remember. Bingo?
B. Me screens too small to see it
Great pic tho-not many cars was there?

In that 2nd pic...I use to get the bus home from that stop. Dropped me off opposite the Laird Street Library. I remember going to a pet shop on Conway St. (near Exmouth St.) and getting tropical fish. All those buildings have gone.

The Ritz - Clicky1 and Clicky2

It was Mecca or Top Bank Bingo, then Mecca tookover the one on brough road (I Think) then moved to where ASDA was, where they are now.

Brilliant derek, thanks for sharing

Theres an XR2i - so 1990 at the earliest....

I remember the flyover and the Asda with rooftop parking...

You can even make out one of the old cranes behind the flyover

To back your guess up sir Beaker.... theres a MkVa Escort there as well...which were also introduced in 1990

Funny - they are brand new cars there - now they are rust buckets

...sorry - Ill try and keep on topic - thanks for the pics - a real blast from the past

Ahhh! XR2i, they seem to be going cheap lately, might grab one as my next ride

That building top right is the old "Ritz", which then became a mecca bingo hall.

I think a doctors is on the site now

My mate lived in the road with the tropical fish shop on the corner ( the other corner had a butchers on it. I remember her brother knocking to tell us someone had thrown kittens out in the back alley, so off we went for a looksee. No kittens just 2 juvenile rats. Being kids we threw rocks at them.

Found this looking for old photos. Its The Ritz coming down in 2000. I like the ironic name of the demolition company!

Aerial view of New Chester Road before The British Leather was burnt down 1994 and Rock Retail Park built

I would be interested if anyone could get a similar pic of it nowadays

all thats left of the Ritz now is a field used as a carpark

A carpark for who?

Totally agree - it was my Dads family area - with various family members of all ages roughly from St Johns Street in the west to Jackson St and Hind St in the East and Lord Street/Market Street in the north - a thriving urban comunity that has been completely eradicated...

when the leather works burnt down we had a lot of white stuff landing all around the place in higher tranmere and it was not normal ash.a day later we had men in full hazard suits collecting big chunks and spraying some sort of chemical around,we were told it was asbestos at the time.i remember it very well because when i got up in the morning and opened the curtains the guy was standing right in front of my window in the garden and i sh** myself.

would be interesting to find out how many people have been affected by that fire .my mum got covered in the dust from the fire and she died a few years ago of lung cancer and she isnt the only one ,we lived in hampden rd tranmere and she worked in mersey park school.sorry to be morbid but i have always thought that that fire let off a lot of crap

im 26 an lived in mersey mount flatts on old chester road an i can clearly remember the fire in the leather factory, there were coucil workers every were cleaning black clumbs off the roads an every one was warned to close windows an stay in doors because the asbestos was everywere

I remember when they said they were getting rid of the ugly flyover, I assumed they meant the one by Central Station - what a great vista of gas holders for any visitors to the area! The Conway street one, whilst ugly, seemed slightly less obtrusive.

Seems a lot of buildings get burnt down on new chester road?

Such a shame with the Peel Holdings Industrial developmnt plan running down the length of it to Eastham.

any one got any pictures of mersey mount flats not far from green lane station

I remember Ford Towers, we lived in the end block, on the third floor for about 2 years. We had a very good Janitor who was always cleaning the place. Also there was some very nice people who lived there.
We had a baby and often I had to drag the pram up 3 flights of stairs as the lifts were often out of order.
Eventually we bought our own house and we were both glad to move away from there.

a few more pics
council must have seen similar carpark pics and thought there's money to be made here if we charge for parking
(can't remember if it was free)

The Asda car park was free.

They charged for car parking even then trying to park was murder,remember being parked just about where the bus station starts and two young girls who parked put up a blue parking thing and ten minutes later got done for parking,later they came back and the swearing was unbelievable,I was sitting in my car and they came screeching and asked me who came and gave them the ticket then I stupidly said,I presume one of you has health problems and that's why you have the parking badge,both said no ,it was their nan's, I then said that's why you got done if your nan was with you,you would have no problem,but your using the badge illegaly,that went down well,they screeched off looking for the parking guy.

I don't remember paying, then again i only went for a couple of years when it first opened, maybe i was lucky not getting a ticket, or perhaps they started charging later on.

Think they started charging later on when they tarted it up from waste ground to waste ground with tarmac and parking lines.

The second photo down shows the royal mail car park under the flyover. The times we couldn't get in or out because some member of the public decided it was okay to park there and block us in/out. We even put a trolley jack under one and pushed it into a corner just to get our own back once.

i remember it happening,and my mum lived in the next road to your mum and she died of lung cancer,

Great Pictures guys!

What year where the pictures taken?

these were taken by my brother I think about 1989/90 ish

Thanks. What year was the fly over demolished?

I think the building on top right used to be a picture house, then it was a bingo i think. there used to be a cinema on the other side also and one just round the corner on argyle street.

wow asda car park!!! that was our playground every sunday when we were kids such a great place for bikes and roller boots

Just been looking at the original pics off clicky

and have enlarged the car park on top of the old Asda now Wilkinsons.
As a matter of interest can anyone name the blocks of flats please?

From left to right they were called Meliden Gardens, Sidney Gardens, Hadlow Gardens and Hillside Court. The other block on Sidney Road was Norbury Gardens, just out of shot on the left.

what pissed me off was they nocked down a great boozer called the conway arms[flat iron] to put the flyover up then a few years later that came down.

Last one is extraordinary, taken from right behind my house. Thanks man!

This pic must have been taken before 1987 as Green Lane Junction signal box (the white building near to the W in the bottom right corner) was closed in December 1986 and burnt down a couple of months later.

To think that schoolchildren were taken to the leather works as career guidance/education! The stench lingers still!

Is it my imagination or does Birkenhead have a series of 'mysterious' fires that occur followed by development?

Sometime between 1958 and 1962 I went with the school to a launching at Cammell Lairds and on the way back to school we passed an open doorway in the tannery where I saw a worker iwearing an apron and wellies dipping large pieces of leather into a large wooden container full of brown liquid and I thought I wouldn't like to work there.
Guess what?
When I left school I got a job there as Trainee Transport Manager and was the only job I had until 1993 when it closed.
You got used to the smell of leather except maybe once a month when they stirred the tanning pits which where nearest to the main road, but the worst smell (like rotten eggs) came from Thomson Bros next door.

Whole families often worked there and besides those jobs that handled the wet hides there were typists,joiners, fitters, mechanics and stacker truck and lorry drivers and apprenticeships to these.
I think the wages were above the average going rate in Birkenhead

Indeed, seen during the period as decent work and as you say with a regular, not to be sniffed at wage. The other job options that schools presented included, Prices Candles,Lever Brothers, and was it British Aerospace (Hawker Siddley) out Chester way? Ah and Shotton steelworks, talk about Hades

Mmmm.nice shot..but why take it down...nothing there now for over 12 years except a makeshift, eyesore car park!!

I can remember the ASDA shopping with my mum when we had been in town and pringles were new out and we tried them in the old asda.

I can also remember the flyover getting pulled down and the Market moving into asda for a bit and then we had Argos on the other side to where it is now, I remember going down town at some point and it was they day or the last few days of the old Argos being open before it moved over to where it is now.