Birkenhead Town Hall re-opens for Wirral History & Heritage Fair

Mar 3 2010 Heswall News

HISTORIC Birkenhead Town Hall is opening its doors again on Saturday for the 2010 Wirral History & Heritage Fair.

The future of the much-loved building in Hamilton Square, which most recently housed Wirral Museum, is still undecided and it is now closed to the public.

But Wirral Council is honouring a booking made last year by the Wirral History and Heritage Association.

The opening ceremony will be performed by Bruce Macgregor Laird, a direct descendant of Wirral’s famous ship-building family.

Len Ellison, chairman of Wirral History and Heritage Association, said: “We booked the fair last year so they were contracted to open the Town Hall again for it.

“There’s probably more room because everything has been taken out now it’s closed! I know some people have said they’re going to come along because they want to go inside.

“It might be the last opportunity to see it before someone takes it over.”

In December Wirral Council gave the Hamilton Partnership six months to prepare a business plan for the building. It wants to create The John Peel Centre for Community, Innovation and the Creative Arts but council leader Steve Foulkes said there were “no guarantees”, and future ownership would depend entirely on the strength and sustainability of the Partnership’s final submission.

Representatives from most of Wirral’s local and family history, research and friends groups, plus conservation, preservation and civic Societies.

Books and postcards will be on sale and Angus Tilston MBE will be providing a free local history film show in the Conference Room. There will also be activities for children. Admission is free and the fair is from 10am to 4pm.