The Grand Entrance to Birkenhead Park is at the northeast entrance to
Birkenhead Park
Birkenhead Park is a major public park located in the centre of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847. It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civic park in the world. Th ...
in
Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
,
Wirral,
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
, England. It consists of three arches flanked by lodges and is in
Ionic style. The entrance was designed by
Lewis Hornblower
Lewis Hornblower (1823–1879) was a Liverpool architect, who along with French landscape architect Édouard André was responsible for the design of Sefton Park in Liverpool.
Hornblower who had been involved with both Birkenhead Park, in Bir ...
, with amendments by
Joseph Paxton
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
, the designer of the park. The park, and its entrance, were opened in 1847. The Grand Entrance is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...
as a designated Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
Birkenhead Park was the first park in the world to be developed from public funds. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and its construction was supervised by
Edward Kemp. Paxton appointed Lewis Hornblower to design the Grand Entrance. His plans were accepted by the Road and Improvement Committee in May 1845, but Paxton was not happy with them and made changes. The Grand Entrance was built by John and William Walker of Birkenhead between 1845 and 1847. The park, with its Grand Entrance, was opened on 5 April 1847 by
Lord Morpeth
George William Frederick Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle, (18 April 1802– 5 December 1864), styled Viscount Morpeth from 1825 to 1848, was a British statesman, orator, and writer.
Life
Carlisle was born in Westminster, London, the eldest son o ...
, on the same day that
Birkenhead Docks
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverp ...
were opened.
Description
The Grand Entrance is built in
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
stone, and is in Ionic style. It consists of three arches flanked by a pair of lodges. The central arch is the largest, and contains a carriageway, and on either side there are smaller arches for pedestrians. The whole structure is about high. The central arch is flanked by pairs of
unfluted columns, and above it is a decorative attic containing the arms of the town and the date. The lodges are identical, in two storeys, and with three
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
separated by
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s. They have
sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...
s, and at the tops there are
balustrade
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...
d
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
s.
Appraisal
The Grand Entrance was designated as a Grade II* listed building on 29 June 1950. Grade II* is the middle of the three grades and is granted to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest". Hartwell and colleagues comment in the ''
Buildings of England
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...
'' series that it is "grand indeed". The park itself is designated at Grade I in the
Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...
. It influenced the design of
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
in New York, which opened in 1858.
See also
*
*
Listed buildings in Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town in Wirral, Merseyside, England. Its central area contains 150 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, six are listed at Grade I, the highest of ...
References
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Birkenhead Park, Grand Entrance
Grade II* listed buildings in Merseyside
Neoclassical architecture in England
Grand Entrance to Birkenhead Park
The Grand Entrance to Birkenhead Park is at the northeast entrance to Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It consists of three arches flanked by lodges and is in Ionic style. The entrance was designed by Lewis Hornblow ...
Cultural infrastructure completed in 1847
1847 establishments in England