Shore Road Pumping Station
The Shore Road Pumping Station is a pumping station in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England.
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It was designed by engineers James Brunlees and Charles Douglas Fox and built in the 1880s as part of the Mersey Railway.[1] The building originally housed two steam powered beam engine pumps which removed water from the railway tunnel under the River Mersey. These had ceased working by 1959[2] when they were replaced by electric pumps.[3] One of the engines, named the 'Giant Grasshopper', remains in situ[1][3] and was restored to working condition.
The pumping station is a three-storeyed brick construction in the Italianate architectural style, with a Welsh slate roof. An external staircase, housed within a glass structure, was added to the front of the building in the late 1980s[1] when being converted into a museum.
A similar building, the Mann Island Pumping Station, also still exists across the river in Liverpool.
Shore Road Pumping Station was granted Grade II listed status in 1992[1] and eventually became part of the Wirral Museum, with a period 1901 Birkenhead street scene reconstructed in the yard.[4]
In 2009, as part of its Strategic Asset Review, owners Wirral Borough Council planned to sell the museum.[5] Sometime after mid-2012 but before early 2014, the museum closed to the public.
References
- Historic England. "Shore Road Pumping Station and Boundary Walls (1282538)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- Allen, Chris. "Beam Engines in the UK: Shore Road Pumping Station". Geograph. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- Duffy, Michael C. (2003). Electric Railways 1880-1990. IET. p. 57. ISBN 0-85296-805-1.
- "Shore Road Pumping Station". Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Archived from the original on 14 June 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
- Liam Murphy (8 May 2009). "Birkenhead's historic former town hall "for sale"". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 25 June 2012.