For decades, you couldn’t get a stall at Birkenhead market for “love nor money”, according to Nick Adcock.
“Once upon a time in this market you could have got everything,” he says, noting how it was a case of “dead man’s shoes” waiting for a space to open up - such was the demand. The 57-year-old has been running his framing business inside the historic building for the last 12 years, following his mum who also had her own clothing business before him.
But the family line is likely to end there with Nick soon to give up his tenancy. Rather than ‘dead man’s shoes’, these days it appears the old market is dying itself.
READ MORE: Battle for Birkenhead is on as Wirral MPs set out their stalls
Rows of once busy aisles are largely empty. The remaining footfall circles around the few businesses that are still in operation.
The frontage of the old Wards Fish, a fixture since 1927, has been completely stripped out. Its signage remains as a nod to its heritage but its business can now be found on the main Birkenhead high street - rather than the market where it added to its name.
The nearby Grange and Pyramids shopping centre have recently been bought by Wirral Council. The purchase forms part of the authority’s Birkenhead 2040 plan to revitalise the town.
Once defined by its market, ship building and manufacturing, Birkenhead is somewhere that is now in flux. Long-held ideas to regenerate now have the backing of millions of pounds, with funding secured from different Government pots in recent years.
Even the old dockside, once the heartbeat of the area, feels more modern than it once did. The Cammell Laird shipyard has neighbours that range from a mixed use art music venue at Bloom Building, a craft brewery at Glen Affric and trendy co-working spaces at Start Yard.
Friday work drinks in The Royal Castle across the road from the yard were once some of the liveliest in the town. These days the grand building lies empty and in wait of rescue.
Tomorrow, the area will find out what its political future is likely to hold at the next General Election, as the ongoing battle between current Birkenhead Labour MP Mick Whitley and Wirral South MP Alison McGovern concludes. Whoever wins the selection race will be a huge favourite to be elected at a future election, with both Mr Whitley and longstanding former MP Frank Field having secured huge majorities in the seat down the years. It’s a political battle that’s arisen from a change to the area’s ward boundaries, but it’s one that’s taking place before a town battling over what its identity and future might look like.
On the north side of the town the major Wirral Waters project continues. It promises new homes and office space, and could even be joined by what many view as the “heart” of Birkenhead, Tranmere Rovers. The club may one day move away from its home at Prenton Park up to a new stadium and adjoining facilities in Bidston - should a feasibility study suggest the move is viable.
Right in the heart of the town centre, two large office blocks have sprung up next to the outdoor section of the market. In temperatures pushing 30 degrees, they come in handy for further shade for Joe and David Orr.
The pair are one of only six traders still outside of the market. David, 62, who has been on the market for four decades, says there were once 70 other businesses beside his.
While committed to the market and the history it still holds, the pair say they are impressed by Wirral Council’s vision to construct a new market on the other side of the town centre. New plans were revealed this week but the findings of a public consultation remain under review - with nothing yet finalised.
“Nobody is standing in the way of what is coming,” says David, “change is never going to be easy."
“About 25 years ago, the market represented something amazing,” says Joe when asked if the town’s identity is at stake as regeneration sweeps through the area, “we need to try and get that back".
The 32-year-old is confident a new identity for Birkenhead can be fashioned - one that could come with a successful new market that blends tradition and modernity. Examples like Bury market regularly come up in conversation.
“We have to be positive - it can’t get any worse, can it?", David adds, considering the current state of the market.
Inside, Paul Johnstone, 51, has one of the largest businesses strewn across a number of stalls. His magic and fancy dress shop has called Birkenhead Market home for 32 years, but in recent years footfall and other businesses have performed something of a vanishing trick.
“I’ve been here for that long that I’m part of the place,” he says, “people know where to find me." He believes he’s “part of the fabric” of Birkenhead but whether this is pulled into a new direction with encroaching change remains to be seen.
Michaela Murtaugh, 38, is much more certain about the way things are heading. She runs the Clothing Alterations stall, inherited from her aunty, and feels the market now needs to “go with the times.”
“You can’t do this online, maybe that is why we are still busy,” she says sitting behind a workspace, but suggests that the writing is now on the wall and it calls for something modern. “It’s make or break, and there isn’t much more to break [in the market],” she says, "you have to go with it.”
If the old Birkenhead is wrestling with the future, then the streets leading from the picturesque Hamilton Square is where a new face of the town is beginning to bloom. Near to new businesses like Future Yard music venue, Make CIC’s Hamilton Square hub has become a nucleus for people road testing ideas in the post industrial town.
These include the nature focused Grow Wellbeing and Comics Youth, which uses publishing and events to help support marginalised young people from the ages of eight to 30. The building has repurposed an old office and is now home to a cafe and a wide range of artists in need of studio space.
“The area is becoming more of a hub", says Sophie Pemberton, 33, project coordinator at Grow Wellbeing CIC. Sophie lives in the nearby area of Bebington and says change now has momentum in Birkenhead.
"If it is to survive you need to make it so there is something happening here", she adds, “but it has to be for the people and not just gentrification.”
There’s a similar feeling in the office of Comics Youth. "There is definitely a need for change," says Anna Macdonald, 42, "but when it comes to change, it needs to be supported by the community.”
“More people and funders realise the power that it holds here [in Birkenhead]", adds the organisation's managing director Emily McChrystal, who says the cheaper rents mean their outreach work can now be widened. But in the wider picture of change, there is "more to be done", says Emily.
For Rosie Ashton, 33, Make CIC’s head of programming, the future of Birkenhead is as much about balance as it is about embracing change and all its growing momentum. “It has to find a way to include the people from here,” she says, sitting in the building’s garden space, adding: “[Birkenhead] is going through a change but it is not quite there.”
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