What Birkenhead Market could look like at controversial new location - gallery

At the end of last month, Wirral Council confirmed that Birkenhead Market would be moving into the former Argos unit on Princes Pavement, despite the town’s MP Mick Whitley branding the plans a ‘disaster’.

A market has existed in Birkenhead since 1835 with a current location within the Grange Precinct. For several years, Wirral Council which took over the market in 2019, has been developing plans to create a ‘purpose-built flagship new market’ that it said would kick start its regeneration of the town centre. Proposals to move the market to Princes Pavement were approved at a meeting of the Economy, Regeneration and Housing committee on March 27, after plans for the former House of Fraser site on Grange Road were dropped last year.

In December 2023, councillors requested the Director of Regeneration and Place appoint a specialist market curator and design team to look at the options for the new market, including available alternative locations.

The council said Princes Pavement, St John’s Pavement and the existing market location were considered as alternative locations to the House of Fraser site, however, the curator’s assessment found that ‘the St John’s Pavement location was not large enough and included uncertainties around planning issues and acquiring the nearby coffee shop to provide additional space’.

The council continued: “The team also found that the existing market site would see significant disruption for traders while any works took place and that it would also take longer to complete and exceed the deadline by which the grant funding for the work needs to be used.”

Despite this, the new location has been heavily criticised by traders, hundreds who signed a petition against the Princes Pavement move. The council said the plans were open to change following future feedback from market traders. However market traders criticised what they saw as an “overall shambolic delivery of this proposal” and said there was zero evidence the council would engage with them going forward.

Wirral Council said the next steps in developing the designs for the Princes Pavement site are now set to begin, with designers and council officers working with traders and other stakeholders to develop the market proposals to ‘create a new market for current and future generations’.

The below images show how the new market could look* once plans are finalised.*Please note, the CGI images were released prior to the approval of the Princes Pavement location.