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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Sophie Wyatt

King Charles III owns a Merseyside retail park with a McDonald's and Greggs

As the world mourns Queen Elizabeth II, the new King Charles will inherit interests in properties across the country.

Among them is Aintree Shopping Park, for which the Crown Estate, the agency which controls property officially owned by the monarch, paid £101.5m in 2010. The Crown Estate’s £13bn in assets are not his personal property but held by the monarchy “in right of the crown” and all of its profits are returned to the Treasury.

The retail park plays host to fashion brands, restaurants and food retailers including McDonald's, Nando's, Next and Greggs and welcomes millions of visitors each year. It's one of a number of properties and areas of land which fall within the Crown Estate.

READ MORE: Queen's coffin bearers were specifically chosen to protect her body

Much of our seabed and seashore is also owned by the monarchy. Burbo Bank is among the Crown Estate properties in Merseyside, along with the forest of windfarms in the Irish Sea off Wirral.

The Coliseum Shopping Park in Ellesmere Port also forms part of the estate. The 153,000 square foot complex next to Cheshire Oaks was bought in 2013.

The shore from the Mersey to Cumbria is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, along with much of the seashore in the North West of England. The Duchy’s website says its foreshore “runs between the midpoint of the River Mersey in the south, to Barrow in Furness in the north”.

In 2015, the Duchy bought 175,000 sq ft of industrial space at Estuary Business Park in Speke.

Halton Castle overlooking Runcorn was originally held by the Lacy family but in 1311 passed to Thomas, second Earl of Lancaster, and has been part of the Lancaster estates ever since. The small stone castle can trace its history back to 1070.

Today the site is leased from the Duchy by Halton council and the ruins are managed by the Norton Priory Museum Trust.

The Duchy used to own the Florence Institute, better known as the Florrie, in Dingle. However, the Institute was gifted back to the community through the Florence Institute Trust so it could be redeveloped and brought back to life.

You can light a candle for Queen Elizabeth II here or leave a tribute to her here .

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