A stone’s throw from the bustling Queen’s Drive is Liverpool's “best-kept secret”.
Described as a “paradise” by many who live there, Wavertree Garden Suburb is a hidden oasis just five minutes from the M62. The estate, originally called Liverpool Garden Suburb, was one of around 20 similar developments scheduled to be built across the country in the decade leading up to WW1.
The garden suburb concept was the brainchild of Henry Vivian - the first Chairman of Liverpool Garden Suburb Tenants Ltd - who questioned why the average working man shouldn’t share in the profits of house ownership, and therefore wanted to create a co-partnership housing scheme, where the houses were owned neither individually nor by a profit-seeking private landlord.
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An idyllic jumble of whitewashed terraces and stunning arts and crafts style villas, the Wavertree Garden Suburb was primarily built between 1910 and 1915. According to the original prospectus, the aim of the development was to provide “a residential suburb for the people of Liverpool amid surroundings which conduce to both health and pleasure".
Mike Chitty, Local History Secretary at the Wavertree Society, said: “It was part of a national campaign to improve living conditions for ordinary people because, until that time, most housing in cities like Liverpool was terraced housing with a backyard and no gardens, with not much open space for children to play in.
“An organisation set up nationally aimed to build garden suburbs on the edge of all the major cities and Liverpool was one of them.”
The original intention was to create an estate that would comprise up to 1,800 houses, but the arrival of WW1 saw development grind to a halt after only 360 had been built. The end of the war witnessed the government introduce subsidies for local councils to build housing estates; a move which, combined with the rising cost of building materials, meant it wasn’t economically viable to continue expanding the garden suburb.
Liverpool Garden Suburb Tenants Ltd began to sell off its houses to individual owners in the 1930s, with the company being wound up in 1938. Much of the undeveloped land was used to build semi-detached houses, which are now a part of the modern-day tapestry of the suburb.
Many of the original houses became part of the Wavertree Garden Suburb Conservation Area in 1971, and the area was described by the City Planning Officer as "a community in a garden” and “an important example of good civic design and town planning".
There are 36 conservation areas across Liverpool, with the status meaning residents need planning permission to carry out tasks such as altering windows and doors, pruning trees and putting up a garden shed. While the rules and regulations are pretty comprehensive, Mike, who lived in the suburb during the 1970s, believes the conservation area status is fundamental to its enduring success.
He told the ECHO: “I think it’s very important from a conservation point of view that the hedges and tiled roofs and small pane windows are maintained because they’re the things that make it special. They rely on people doing things for the good of the area rather than doing things that are better for them as individuals.
“I moved there in 1975 after only having recently arrived in Liverpool from London. I went just to have a look really and was quite amazed."
Mike added: “You’ve got that feeling of it being special because not many people know about it so you almost feel like you’ve discovered somewhere that’s really different. Not everybody approves of that.
"Some people don’t particularly like being part of a community because they feel like they’re being watched by their neighbours, but the whole idea of garden suburbs was to encourage people to mix together and socialise. It wasn’t just somewhere to eat and sleep, it was somewhere to enjoy life and I think that’s still the case today.”
Since the garden suburb was first established, the Institute, an unassuming sandstone building located on Thingwall Road, has been central to the unfaltering community ethos of the area. Originally built as a pair of cottages in the 18th century, the Institute remains a hub for residents to socialise and take part in an array of activities ranging from snooker to karate, to yoga.
Carol Golightly has been Chair of the Wavertree Garden Suburb Institute for more than a decade, and describes the Thingwall Road hub as the “jewel in the suburb’s crown”.
“There’s such a lot of history here,” Carol said. “The dance teacher, for example, has danced here since she was two and now, 30 years later, she’s running the dance school herself.
“The karate group has been going for about 35 years, we have one of the best snooker clubs in Merseyside, and the drama group, which has been going since the 1920s, puts on shows every year.
“It's a labour of love. People just love the place and it's there because people have always wanted it there and they’ve done whatever it's taken to keep it going. It’s always been run by volunteers and has never had any government grants to keep it going.”
While the community spirit in the suburb is evidently a huge source of local pride, the lack of significant external funding can pose difficulties, particularly when some of the historic facilities are in need of extensive repairs. The last three years have seen the tennis and bowls club undergo major renovations, something which Carol believes is instrumental to keeping the community right at the heart of the suburb.
Carol told the ECHO: “We get by one way or another with volunteers and benevolent builders. We’ve done a lot of work on the tennis and bowls clubs. We’re reviving them because there's a lot of clubs gone to the wall recently and we’re determined not to let ours go.
“The activities on offer are almost incidental to the friendships that are made and everything else that goes with it. I just count myself so lucky that I came across the place and I would do anything to keep it going. It truly is unique and the best-kept secret in Liverpool.”
Carol’s sentiments are shared by Kelly Tosh, 45, who moved to Wavertree Garden Suburb last year after stumbling on the area during lockdown.
She said: “We absolutely fell in love with the houses because they were just so beautiful and quaint. Then a couple of them came up for sale and we thought let’s just go for it. We didn’t really know anything about it.
"It’s a little oasis and we love it here. It’s the best thing we ever did moving here, we have lovely neighbours. It’s got a lovely vibe and, because people have to keep their houses in keeping with each other, it’s quite pleasing on the eye. When you wake up and look out the window, its beautiful.”
Walking around the suburb on a sleepy Wednesday afternoon, with residents pottering in their gardens, fixing bikes and assembling model train sets, the beauty of the place is undeniable. But in an age where superstores and social media rule the roost, there’s a sense that community spaces like these are a dying breed.
Carol said: “I’m no spring chicken so we’ve been thinking we need to look for the future to make sure it keeps going after us. We’ve started to encourage other local groups to get involved and become affiliated with the charity.
“We actually initiated the start of the Wavertree Garden Suburb in Bloom group and now its got a life of its own. We’ve got links to the local primary schools as well and we’re trying to encourage them to use our tennis courts and things like that to get the community to all be together and work on everybody’s wellbeing.
"There are so many aspects to it which are all greater than the sum of their parts.”
While a concerted effort is perhaps needed to make sure the community ethos in Wavertree Garden Suburb doesn’t wither away, Carol is adamant that people in the area need each other now more than ever before.
“It's needed now right at this moment more than it ever has been,” she said. “The way the economic situation is going, we’re focused on keeping our facilities going and getting people in to use them.
"We’re not for profit or interested in building up future reserves, we just want to keep it sustainable. We’ve never gone down the road of getting involved with the breweries or getting a bar, we just want to keep it simple.
"It’s people more than money really that keep it going. If you’ve got enough people who want it, it will keep going.”
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