Kirkdale is a district of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England, and a

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. Liverpool has had a local authority since 1207, which has been reformed on numerous ...

ward that covers both Kirkdale and

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

. At the 2011 Census, the population was 16,115. Kirkdale is bordered by

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

to the north, Walton and Everton to the east and Vauxhall to the south.

History

Kirkdale is a

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

area with mainly Victorian

terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s. From 1885 to 1983, it was part of the Liverpool Kirkdale constituency. Boundary Street was an ancient division between the township of Kirkdale and Liverpool before Liverpool's expansion took in Kirkdale in the 1860s. It thus separates Kirkdale and Vauxhall. Kirkdale was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill, in 1866 Kirkdale became a separate

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, on 1 April 1922 the parish was abolished and merged with Liverpool. In 1921 the parish had a population of 69,857. Kirkdale is now undergoing a large amount of regeneration. The old Easby estate has been demolished to make way for new two-, three- and four-bedroom properties. They have been built for both local residents and incomers.

Transport

There are three railway stations in the district, owing to its size and location near where the

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire in the North West England, North West of England. Merseyrail serves 69 Railway station, stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lin ...

Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...

branches diverge. The stations are: Bank Hall, near the boundary with

on the branch to

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

; Kirkdale station itself, serving the main housing area and Sandhills, a busy station acting as the Northern Line junction station.

Places of worship

St. Lawrence with St. Paul's, Kirkdale is the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church. The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

boundary runs from the edge of

to the north down until the edge of the

area and to the edge of Walton in the east. St. Lawrence church joined with St. Paul's in 2002 when the parish of St. Paul with St. Mary's, Bootle, was split in two and brought into the Liverpool North Deanery, in Liverpool Diocese. The Catholic community is served by the Parish of St John and St John the Evangelist's Church, a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building. The affiliated primary school is located across Sessions Road.

Kirkdale Cemetery

Kirkdale has a large cemetery containing 386 Commonwealth War Graves from the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and 115 from the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Over 100 of these graves from the former war are of Canadian servicemen who died at No 5 Canadian Hospital established at Kirkdale in July 1917. There are two War Graves plots (mostly of First World War dead) with the names of those buried in them listed on Screen Wall memorials. There were formerly large numbers of graves of German and American war dead from the First World War and Belgians from both

world war A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s but these were nearly all removed to dedicated national cemeteries within the United Kingdom or repatriated to their home countries. There are also buried some of the victims of the

Liverpool Blitz The Liverpool Blitz was the The Blitz, heavy and sustained bombing of the British city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the Nazi Germany, German ''Luftwaffe''. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area o ...

including Francis William Beaumont, son of the Dame of Sark, and his actress wife Mary Lawson.

Notable residents

* April Ashley, model * Bessie Braddock, politician * James Campbell, artist * William Connolly, soldier, buried at Kirkdale Cemetery * Victor Grayson, politician * William Halsall, marine painter, born in Kirkdale * James Hanley, novelist and playwright was born in Kirkdale in 1897 * Gerald Hanley, author and screenwriter, brother of James Hanley, was born here in 1916 * Michael Holliday, singer *

Brian Jacques James Brian Jacques (, as in "Jakes"; 15 June 1939 – 5 February 2011), known professionally as Brian Jacques, was an English author known for his ''Redwall'' series of children's fantasy novels and ''Castaways of the Flying Dutchman'' series. ...

, author * Steve McManaman, footballer * Paul Reynolds, musician * Paul Smith, boxer * Stephen Smith, boxer * Liam Smith, boxer *

Callum Smith Callum John Smith (born 23 April 1990) is a British professional boxer. He has held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) interim light-heavyweight title since February 2025. Previously, he held the World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super versi ...

, boxer * Anthony Gordon, footballer * Jonjoe Kenny, footballer

References

External links

Liverpool City Council, Ward Profile: KirkdaleLiverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 4Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 5Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 20
{{Liverpool Areas of Liverpool Former civil parishes in Merseyside