What a great photo this is!
The photo is part of the library of old images curated by Hoylake Photographic Society (blog) and it’s the view from the Valentia Road lighthouse looking toward Market Street. Spot the old gasometer (and this one), the old town hall on the lefthand corner of The Quadrant, the rear of the Stanley Hotel with its curved brick wall facing Lighthouse Road and to the bottom of the photo is the car park to the former King’s Gap Hotel.
Am I right in thinking that the building next to Hoylake Police Station in Lighthouse Road (now a private residence) was once used by the Coastguard? And I might be wrong, but in the background across the fields, could those buildings be the old West Kirby RAF base? There isn’t a date on this photo so I might have my time periods out of kilter.
Peter Wilson says
The houses in the left foreground backing onto Lighthouse Road and occupying the first block of houses on Queens Road are under threat of demolition and replacement by an utterly mediocre new-build nursing home. The properties are currently the Westhaven nursing home and the new home would have increased capacity but be hugely detrimental to the integrity and character of this lovely part of Hoylake. See the application here and check the documents tab to see the plans: http://www.wirral.gov.uk/planning/DC/AcolNetCGI.gov?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=91709
The main hope must be that as they are adjacent to the King’s Gap Conservation Area they would be regarded as likely to “damage setting of the Conservation Area”. It would be hard to argue otherwise. In my view Queens and Cable Roads should be in the Conservation Area, they are an excellent example of quality Victorian/Edwardian housing and make a huge contribution to the period charm of Hoylake.
Please fight this one hard! It would set a terrible precedent.
Paul Rushton says
Totally agree – and living next door to the proposed home it affects us as much as anyone.
But this picture is a beauty – really crisp and clear, we can see our house before modernisations, and even the clouds are spectacular.
Yvonne Wilson says
I live in one of the houses in this photograph. We need to fight the demolishion of Whitehaven nursing home. The planning is got going through so quietly and has been submitted by someone living miles away from the area. We are inconvenienced enough by the nursing home now this will only get worse.