Anyone visiting New Brighton in the years immediately preceding 2009 will have seen something of an empty vessel. A seaside town with an illustrious past, but a future with little to look forward to.
A town without a centre and a seafront routinely vacant aside from hot summer days, when hordes of families would flock to its port-facing golden sands, ice cream shops and arcades for a day out.
But since then, things in the Wirral town have changed.
Even a cursory glance at Google Earth’s excellent timeline feature (check out King’s Parade - where Morrison’s now is between 2008 and 2015) shows the difference made by the building of Marine Point - a now-renowned development that saw a large Morrison’s supermarket, Starbucks and more occupy huge waterfront sites at the north-western tip of the Wirral peninsula.
From this...
To this...
Fast forward to 2019, and that change is fast becoming an area-wide transformation.
That’s because Marine Point’s’s cinema, bars, shops and mid-level dining offerings have been complemented by an influx of independent shopping offerings across the town.
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This side of the revolution has been led by local entrepreneur Danny Davies, who has invested huge amounts into reviving the area and roads around Victoria Street - now known as the Victoria Quarter.
In the space of less than a year, this growing concept is becoming an established tourist attraction awash with colourful street art and thriving small businesses - capitalising upon trade from visitors and local residents alike.
Thanks to that and countless openings in areas like Seabank Road and Atherton Street, a culture of independent has emerged, with a real Lark Lane-like atmosphere starting to rear its head.
A period of drastic change
Make no mistake, New Brighton has undergone various drastic changes over time.
A major draw for tourists since most Merseyside residents can remember, it lost a multitude of significant buildings and attractions over the decades - and with it came a vast decline in footfall.
Parents and grandparents will recall memories of the Blackpool-style tower- once the tallest building in the country and with a strong Beatles connection, the old pier - with its refreshment rooms, bazaars and bandstands, and the open-air baths - the largest aquatic stadium in the world at the time.
They may be gone, but thanks to recent investment and regeneration, New Brighton is today a town quickly establishing a new identity - whilst not forgetting its famous past.
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Cllr Pat Hackett is someone who knows the town better than most.
A veteran member of the local authority and now Wirral Council leader, Cllr Hackett has represented the ward since 1994.
Cllr Hackett calling for iconic New Brighton buildings to be restored earlier this year:
For him, the town’s revival is no surprise - and is largely thanks to money from the Single Regeneration Budget allocated by the Government in the early 2000s.
“When we embarked with the community on a number of plans going back to the 1990s, there was a lot of public money around - and a lot of plans. Unlike today, the government at the time was giving money to communities.”
He said that led to Neptune getting involved - the firm who developed Marine Point - and in 2015 rebranded to Promenade Estates.
Cllr Hackett said it was “without a doubt” that the ongoing revival of New Brighton is down to the spark caused by the Marine Point development.
He said: “We had to clear a lot of hurdles, but we stuck at it. We always said that if we could survive that first hurdle, and revitalise the promenade, it would put foundations in place for more investment at a later stage. And that's been the case - a number of parties are now interested in developing the front further.
"The important thing was that this all happened before the recession in 2008.”
In Cllr Hackett’s view, New Brighton can become “whatever it wants”.
“The world is its oyster, and the future is exciting.
"It's got to be an all year-round seaside resort - but we must take care to ensure its seaside town charm isn't lost as a result. That's very important.
'The world is its oyster'
"What's happening now has come to fruition because of what we did all those years ago.
"When people now say that's the end of that for New Brighton - a full stop, they’re wrong. It's not at all. Success breeds success - that's what we are seeing now - it's brought a new confidence to the area.
"But it's got to have a different offer. Like with high streets, seaside towns have got to be creative culturally.
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"It's so important people work together and see the positive. We’re becoming a 21st century seaside resort. It’s been a renaissance, and that’s absolutely brilliant.”
So what’s the story behind the £60m spark that was Marine Point - the seafront leisure offer calling itself the “ultimate family destination”?
Daniel Hynd, Managing Director of Promenade Estates, which was behind the development, said the idea came about because his firm wanted to put the ‘new’ back into New Brighton.
He explained: “The town was tired and its retail heart had failed to keep up with the times.
The leisure offer on the waterfront needed refreshing, too. But New Brighton had two magic ingredients that we knew would help bring it back from the brink: water, and a large population on its doorstep.
“People are drawn to water, particularly when it comes to spending their leisure time and we knew that if we could match that asset with a well-planned scheme it would be a success.”
Mr Hynd said the council had initially promoted the waterfront as a development opportunity in the late 1990s - but it struggled to get off the ground “because of its financial viability”.
The cost of delivering a scheme that would do justice to the setting was simply far higher than the scheme would be worth on completion and so it didn’t get off the ground, he explained.
“We could see New Brighton’s potential, but to work, the scheme had to balance retail with leisure. A supermarket is a high-value activity and getting this included in our planning permission helped the economics of the wider scheme.
“We had some issues pitching the leisure space to national operators who rely on computer programmes that analyse locations on a number of factors. The missing ingredient in all their calculations was the value of the word ‘water’, and so the figures struggled to stack up for them. I lost count of how many came back to us and said ‘no thanks, two thirds of your catchment is fish’.”
Mr Hynd said the developer had to begin by launching its own restaurant - “to show others that we believed in the location” - and that was a big success.
“People soon changed their minds and we succeeded in attracting a host of national names.
“Ten years later and the scheme remains as popular as ever,” he said.
According to Mr Hynds, the planning process proved to be “more difficult” than the firm had hoped.
That was because the original proposals were submitted in 2003 but were then called in for inspection by the government after local opposition.
But that’s not stopped the development from becoming a huge success, as he explained.
“The government rejected our proposals in 2005 and it was another four years before we were able to secure our planning consent.
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“In the process, we lost a significant EU grant that was to go towards landscaping and other design elements, which was immensely frustrating. We re-jigged things and the success of the project speaks for itself.
“Just look at the visitor numbers. At the merest hint of sunshine the place is thronged and it’s not far off even when the weather’s being unfriendly.
“We’re particularly proud of the job creation. The area needed just the type of employment that the development was creating and lots of local people now tell us what a difference Marine Point made in that regard. You see it reflected in local house values now.”
In Mr Hynd’s view, the development has been the catalyst for further regeneration in the town.
He said: “What’s going on in Victoria Road is the perfect example of the regeneration we hoped to kick-start.
“By delivering a step-change in New Brighton’s appeal, we created the environment for others to work their magic and I think we’re approaching a tipping point now.
“The architectural quality of New Brighton is just too good to ignore and now the resort has the wind in its sales I can only see things going one way. And I’m delighted with that.”
Any mention of New Brighton’s recent success would be incomplete without a mention of local businessman Danny Davies, now chief executive of the Rockpoint Leisure regeneration group - and “what’s going on in Victoria Road”.
The aim of Mr Davies’ firm centres around turning what was once the town centre, Victoria Road, into Wirral’s creative hub.
A neighbourhood that until 2018 was littered with empty buildings and tired facades, Mr Davies has already made huge strides in filling the area - dubbed the Victoria Quarter - with street art, quirky bars, shops and restaurants and a thriving cultural hub once more.
Mr Davies is no stranger to success in hospitality, and founded the Birkenhead training firm CPL, which provides a host of courses within the sector, and which he disposed of earlier this year for an undisclosed fee.
His impressive CV also includes being the chairman of the institute of licensing - and he recently sat on two House of Lords select committees - one, coincidentally, on the regeneration of British seaside towns.
That has led to extensive research on what makes a seaside town successful - with his Victoria Quarter concept taking inspiration from locations from Brooklyn to Brighton.
Mr Davies said: “The 海角视频’s High Streets are in a shocking condition. Stores are closing daily and the offer is now a bland carbon copy from town to town, right across the country.
"The backbone of the work we are doing in the Victoria Quarter is about embracing and amplifying New Brighton’s independent offer.
“What we’re trying to do is bring New Brighton back to life, bring buildings back to life.
"In the nineteenth century, James Atherton looked across the water from Liverpool at 170 acres of sand dunes and decided he could build a seaside resort and modelled it on Brighton, calling his resort New Brighton.
“We used to have the tallest building in Britain (the New Brighton Tower) and the biggest open baths in the world. We had 11 theatres and two piers. This area was brilliant, but . It’s that spirit we’re trying to recapture.”
After establishing Rockpoint in December last year, he has set about buying various buildings in the area.
So far, openings include Rockpoint Apparel, a fashion concept store, Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant Habibi, and the traditional James Atherton pub.
In Mr Davies’ view, “ripping up the rulebook” is key to the operation.
“There is a conventional way of doing things - a perceived wisdom of how to do things.
“When we look at high streets, they are failing badly for multiple reasons, by dint of a drop in footfall and sales moving online.
“We have invested in online businesses that started from home, and put them in a retail shop and given them funding - bucking the trend. Rather than tired, manufactured retail concepts, what we’ve got here is a number of buildings we can bring back to life - and giving them unique selling points for our different operations.”
Mr Davies said: “We are fiercely independent. We have a mix of local, national and international names, but they must all have a long-term commitment to New Brighton.
“We’re creating an arts hub for creatives to come and work. We want a vibrant live music scene, good quality food and drink and events which give people a reason to come out.
“In the winter we’re going to transform the Victoria Quarter and create a Christmas extravaganza.”
With Victoria Road already also home to long-established independent shops such as a greengrocer, cafe and other pubs, Mr Davies said the Rockpoint revolution isn’t about disrupting trade for its neighbours, some of whom have been there for decades.
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Instead Rockpoint is doing all it can to help them prosper - and in doing so, aiding both the local economy and residents - many of whom are elderly.
“We want the local, traditional businesses already here, to thrive.
“The likes of the greengrocer has been here for 40 years. If they were closed, the older generation would find it hard to walk the added distance to Morrisons. And that’s the difference between them leaving the house and not leaving the house.
“When we got here, we got all the shopkeepers together and said we wanted to increase the footfall and not be in competition.”
He said that meant different pricing and as different an offering as possible, to what would appear to be competitors.
Next up for Rockpoint, Mr Davies wants to transform two previously-empty buildings opposite the James Atherton into a retail unit which will host a tattoo parlour (Rockpoint Ink), a record store (Rockpoint Records), a barber shop, a recording studio and a coffee bar.
He also wants to start a microbrewery and set up an IT system that will supply the whole of the area around Victoria Road (known as Victoria Quarter) with Wi-Fi.
As well as the regeneration offerings, the firm is also behind various events and attractions in the area - most recently sponsoring the New Brighton Pirate Fest.
Regular events are also put on in which his team, together with local young people, tidy up the area or improve its appearance - be it by plant installations or paint jobs.
That’s as well as numerous murals on buildings around the area created by some of the country’s most skilled street artists now the subject of visitors coming from far and wide to see.
So how does he rate the project’s success so far?
“We have got three places trading now - and a lot more coming over the line in the next few months. We’re keen to keep momentum and that level of activity going.
“In the past, we’ve seen newspaper front covers of artists impressions of what’s going to happen in New Brighton, and 99% of it doesn’t ever actually come to fruition.
“What we are doing is wanting every week for people to see and feel like things are happening.”
He said under the Victoria Quarter brand, he is "confident" the area will act as a "viable alternative" to New Brighton's seafront offering, including Morrisons, Burger King and Marine Street Social - based around Marine Point.
But he doesn’t agree with the view that New Brighton’s renaissance has been sparked by Marine Point.
Instead, Mr Davies puts it down to the town’s spirit and its bohemian feel, which has in turn fostered this new culture of independent firms prospering alongside one another.
When asked what’s attracting people to the town now, he said: “A number of things. We have the 海角视频’s longest promenade, a lot of beautiful architecture, and a rich history.
“New Brighton has got a very different position to many other Wirral coastal communities.
“We have got licence to do a lot more here than in Hoylake or West Kirby - maybe because they’re a bit more gentrified and traditional. New Brighton has always had that edge, a slight rebellious streak to it.
“There’s a bohemian feel to the place, and it’s fitting that comparisons are made with Lark Lane.”
In terms of an ultimate vision for the project, Mr Davies said the Victoria Quarter is a “very interesting animal” - because the boundaries have never been drawn.
He said: “It can flex and shape as much as it needs. We have got firms up on nearby Seabank Road that share similar business outlooks. We are completely inclusive and not in our own bubble. The Victoria Quarter could at some point be two-thirds of the town.
“What we are trying to do is make some tangible changes and give people the licence to know it’s okay if they want to create a new business proposition, or paint a shop front. We are acting as a platform for them.
“The ultimate goal is for a joined up community model, which everyone benefits from."
It’s inevitable that a town like New Brighton will always have challenges. On the seafront, despite Marine Point appearing to be a success, there are ongoing concerns over various other buildings further down the promenade.
The saga over the Lacy’s bar building owned by neighbouring Wetherspoon’s, as well as the potential sale of the New Palace and Adventureland attraction are both currently in the balance, and of concern to the town’s residents.
Well-known eyesore Lacy’s - owned by the pub chain, was last year earmarked for demolition but continues to lie derelict, while there are plans to turn the popular Adventureland attraction into apartments, shops and a luxury hotel, with many worried it would mean the number of families visiting the resort dropping.
Others, however, say a quality hotel is what’s needed for the area given the opportunities of using the nearby Floral Pavilion theatre venue for conferences. The owner of the Adventureland site, David Wilkie, has also promised there will in any case be a state-of-the-art arcade featuring small rides and the latest virtual reality technology underneath the new development.
Read more on the future of the New Palace and Adventureland attraction .
Similar challenges are faced by the Grosvenor Casino, the old Grand Hotel site and Fort Perch Rock - .
Alongside the challenges are opportunities too, however, not least with a campaign to reinstate one of Merseyside’s outdoor pools - a scheme that .
Other exciting developments on the front include .
The sense of optimism among the town’s traders - not only for their firm’s futures, but the future of the whole town, is infectious - and with good reason. While the , various other areas of town are also home to exciting independents doing their bit.
Visitors by rail would find it hard to miss the Sea Shanty, a cafe selling speciality coffee and cake, also hosting regular community music events.
Owner Adam Rowan launched the business on Atherton Street directly opposite the train station last year, shortly before Rockpoint was founded.
Having been brought up in Wallasey Village, he and his brother bought a property “which very fortunately had an empty shop underneath”.
He said: “I'd always wanted to have a proper business and this was too good an opportunity to miss. So as I set it up as a trial basis, and last year it really took off - and that's when the real community feel came about, as most of our customers live only streets away.”
Mr Rowan said the town’s revival had come as something of a shock.
“I’m not sure what I was expecting to happen, but things are changing for the better - there seems to be an exciting movement happening here. There’s a real togetherness of community here.”
Mr Rowan said “a lot can happen” over the next decade, and he hopes for the baths to become a reality, as well as former defence installation Fort Perch Rock to be brought back into full use as a museum and tourist attraction.
“So much has happened in the last year, it’s going to be an even more exciting place to live in 10 years.”
Next door is Lavender and Bone, an arts and gift shop that opened at a similar time to the Sea Shanty.
Co-director, Henry Brooke-Brunsdon, said: “We all have that similar goal of building up a community, and creating a healthy economical movement of independents.
“My hope is that people will see it as a place to come again, and we have seen rapid improvement.”
He said by opening the shop, the team wanted to capitalise upon the “massive community of artists and makers” this side of the water.
He said: “So many people are doing what they love and they’re a fantastic community.
“We wanted to provide people with quirky things, closer to home.
“Before opening, whenever we wanted something that’s nice, there wasn’t much nearby - we always had to go across to Liverpool.
“We’ve been wanting to buy from more independent businesses and support them. I think people are really realising that - and realising that New Brighton is becoming one of those hubs.”
Andy Williams of Victoria Road’s Bow-Legged Beagle is another local business owner looking to the future.
Mr Williams went one further than others had gone - saying New Brighton has the “potential to be much better than Lark Lane”.
He added: “Location-wise, it’s fantastic. New Brighton hasn’t had any money spent on it for a long time.
“I would love to see everything artisan - delis, bakeries, butchers - all kinds of things and variety on your doorstep, a bit like Heswall did. The sort of thing you look for when you go on holiday - you’ve got variety and everything is there.”
Mr Williams, whose pub has gained region-wide popularity, also being included in the Good Beer Guide 2020, rejected the idea of Marine Point being the catalyst for the rise in independents.
He instead argued that its introduction led to the closure of businesses such as the Co-Op on Victoria Road.
“This is an independent-rich, cultural area - that’s what it’s all about - not faceless corporations,” he said.
It would be reasonable to expect for a seaside town like New Brighton that the most challenging months for trading would be during the winter, with the cold and wet surely signalling a drop in footfall.
But that’s not the case for Mr Williams and the Bow-Legged Beagle - which has an extremely high proportion of local customers, estimated at 90%, who will return no matter what the weather.
He said: “I already know we’ve got people coming down tonight and bringing all their mates. You get to know certain days when people come out and all meet up.
“The thing is, we’ve got enough variety to keep them all in the building. The biggest thing is that people have got to embrace local business. The future of the high street is local business, not chains - they’re closing left, right and centre.
“You’ve got to give people a reason to come here - you can’t just expect people to turn up.
“We have a huge choice for our customers, and are very one-to-one with them. Customer service is the most important thing - by and large you get better customer service in an independent retailer than a busy high street chain.
“You’ve got to remember that you are nothing without people - they are they most important part of what we do.”
At the bottom of Victoria Road and close to the front is Driftwood Cafe - Wirral’s number one-rated restaurant and cafe on Tripadvisor.
Its owner, Amanda Hardman, echoed Mr Williams’ words that her main source of customers come from the local area and recommendations, and that the weather - even in the dead of winter - doesn’t make much of a difference.
She said: “People aren’t bothered about the weather. It’s freezing in the winter and we’re still packed.
“Do good food and be nice to people and you’ll get bookings.
“We’ve got loads of regulars who now only get angry because they can’t get tables.”
New Brighton’s success is down to the “memories for the older generation”, affordability, and the sea, she said, as well as recent development.
“When I signed the lease for three years, I thought ‘that’s a long time’ - but it’s flown by. I never come to work in the morning and dread it. I love my work, and the cafe, and the area.”
Also feeling the benefits of a rejuvenated town are the shops on nearby Seabank Road.
A main thoroughfare connecting New Brighton with Wallasey and Birkenhead, this is a road filled with independents, food offerings and shops selling everything from padlocks to quirky wall art.
One of those is Concept Corner, run by retired police officer Hayley Matthews, a born and bred New Brighton resident.
Describing the reasons behind opening her gift shop that doubles up as a therapy and workshop centre back in 2015, she said: “I just had the feeling it was going to be an up and coming area.
“The whole area needed developing, and now that that’s happening, there’s more of a flow of customers coming here - we’re seeing more and more people from outside the area.
“It’s still in the early stages, but it’s having a knock on effect. Dan Davies has done a marvellous job.”
She’s another with optimism about the coming years, adding: “New Brighton has got that vibe. Everyone who comes in loves all the different shops, and would love to see more.
“There are still a few empty premises that are great opportunities. Money is coming in and it’ll have a knock-on effect.
“And inevitably, once more people see the exciting regeneration in this fantastic area, they will come and spend their money too.”