Can you guess from inside which Hoylake property the above photo was taken?
Well, in case you can’t, it’s the spiral staircase inside The Lighthouse at the bottom of Stanley Road. The property isn’t (wasn’t) a real lighthouse of course, it’s a private residence that is currently available for rent. For a fiver shy of £4000 a month!
The top of the tower (not sure what you’d call it, observation room perhaps?) was removed nearly two years ago – the views from up there must be fantastic! At the time of the 2006 Open Golf there was a rumour that Coca Cola had paid to place advertising banners on the tower. That never happened.
It’s all a bit too much for my own tastes (and wallet) but have a look at the selection of photos over on rightmove and see what you think. Quite possibly one of the few residential properties in Wirral with it’s own dance floor!
Looks likely to appeal to footballers’ wives by the look of the interior!
Who built it and when?
It was built by Dave Evans as his own private residence. He was a local builder who also built the four newer terraced houses in Back Sea View. I worked for him as a labourer for a few weeks on those houses.
Dave also had a hovercraft and, by all accounts, used to listen in to the coastguard shouts to the lifeboat. On numerous occasions he beat the lifeboat to the rescue and I think became a frustration to them.
It was originally built by Brian Anderson. He never finished it but it was mostly complete when I went in there in the late 90’s
He had the underneath garage set up like a club with disco lights and UV.
The land it is suggested was concreted for fallen soldiers from the 1690 Battle of Boyne ground hence never being built on. There were was no evidence that this was true and doubtful they would have returned corpses from Ireland. During the deep excavation for the foundations which were so deep they filled with sea water at high tide nothing was discovered. Evans who had used the land like a builders yard sold it to Brian Anderson with the out line planning to build a light house. Anderson owned the property opposite and commissioned Evans to build the property whist it was never fully internally completed, partially due to disagreements with Evans and Anderson. Anderson was the owner of a successful shipping company he was also a very successful Motorbike and latterly car racer. He constructed the huge garage under the light house as a workshop to prepare his racing cars. This underground garage was also used as a private disco / night club for a band he had an interest in.
His initials remain in the lead work on the gable end.