Demolition work has started this morning on the old toilet block on the promenade at the end of Trinity Road.
I took the photo above as the workmen were just fencing off the area and they said they’d start demolition at 11am. Mark Cunningham captured roof of the building being knocked off an hour later (below).
Plans to convert the block into a cafe were given permission some years ago and a licence to serve alcohol was also subsequently granted but the development work never started. Any redevelopment or demolition work is only allowed to take place from April to September as the beach is a registered Site of Special Scientific Interest (
An eyesore removed or an opportunity missed? Have your say in the comments below.
Opportunity missed!
Agree totally with Janet!
What an absolute shame. One of the greatest beaches in the country has absolutely nothing – not even a toilet – to offer visitors.
the one vivid memory i have of these toilets was the bleachy smell …. they were never dirty but could never have been made into a cafe .. also the yearly firework display was once done to the right of the toilet block …..another part of hoylake gone to dust ..!
True, nobody likes the smell of piss and bleach when enjoying a slice of Madeira cake.
I’m amazed it was never taken by the sea!
Opportunity missed! This could have been toilets or a little cafe for walkers and families. Where are our local councillors when you need them? Surely they could have done something to stop this? Or was it their decision?
Absolutely their decision.
Another victory for the forces of darkness in Hoylake and their relentless drive to close any licensed property.
A shame really there’s nothing now. 71 years since I first paid a visit.
I don’t think a cafe was feasible on that tiny site – kitchen, counter/display, store, tables and loos? So I’m in the eyesore removed camp. Now, the old Lifeboat Station would be perfect for a café or fish restaurant!
I will miss the old place. My dad used to rent out the council deckchairs from there many summers ago. I spent many a happy hour on the sand around there when I was a little girl .If my dad wasn’t there he was where the toilets used to be near the gardens. They’ve also gone. Nothing left now but my memories. Looking at photos of the beach you could almost always pick out the toilets. Like a kind of landmark I suppose. How sad.
It seems we all feel that our council has yet again denied Hoylake an existence. Other towns on the Wirral have grown so much, whilst at the same time Hoylake beach has deteriorated, No baths, no cafe, no bandstand, no toilet facilities, soon to be no sand as the yearly dig has stopped, no boats moored on the sands. Hoylake was a wonderful place to grow up in and I have very fond memories and there wasn’t a lot to do in the seventies, just the lamp cafe and the YMCA, but now what’s left? Maybe we should revive the spirit of HIPO, when saving the baths and community hall gave us purpose, or would the council use the money in West Kirby again! Like the last time we were cheated
correct martyn what is there to go down to the prom for now??
Oh, let me have a think now…the views, the beach itself, the skies, the sunrises, the sunsets, the fresh air…
oh right just like west kirby then
I spent the winter and spring evenings, and weekends, of 1975/76 (correct me if I’m wrong on the year!), working with a group of volunteers – led by Peter Cottrial (?) and Jackie Hall – transforming the outdoor pool for re-opening, when I should have been revising for my second year exams. So the loss of that pool is, to me, an extremely sad loss.
To get back to The Bogs…It does not seem to have been mentioned that the toilet block has not been functioning for decades. Some may blame that on Council neglect, but the Council has had its hands tied since the ideological change that the country was subjected to, beginning in 1979.
If Hoylake beach was “one of the greatest beaches in the country”, as Justin called it, then it would be the case that visitors would be thronging the place, that simple economics would dictate that there would be low quality fish & chip shops, amusement arcades, cafes, bars, the town rammed with cars and we would all be moaning on John’s site about litter, noise, parking and whatever else comes with “success”.
My very un-favourite day of the year is Lifeboat Day – and my father’s name is on the list of past Hon Secs at the local station – I like the prom and beach as they are:, quiet. I walk out at low tide; I cycle my kids there because they don’t have to cross roads and there are few traffic fumes; I cycle the prom and I run along it; it’s a sanctuary.
Left to rot by the Council until the excuse to demolish could be justified. The cost to flatten could have paid to restore to their former glory. Yet another period building gone.
The Hoylake of my youth, has sadly passed away.
All the things that made this wonderful Town, unique, have all gone…there isn’t even the basics of a Bank any more.
Whoever is responsible for the demise of the whole area, should hang their heads in utter shame.
There were such facilities as a beautiful outdoor swimming pool…a bandstand on the prom, along with tennis courts…the Parish Hall and YMCA where iconic 60’s bands played the night away….the Winter Gardens at the end of Alderley Road…the Parish Church in Trinity Rd…the Presbyterian Church also in Alderley Road, the Kings Gap Court Hotel and now to cap it off, the public toilets on the prom also gone!
How long will it be, before the whole of Hoylake is only known for it’s pensioner flats, developer’s sites and a dreadful promenade……not a flower/plant/bench/shop/café or loo in sight.
I have been to some wonderfully restored old East German coastalTowns, that put Hoylake in the shade.
Isn’t it about time that someone with a little bit of forethought and creativity took on the Town Council and made this once lovely Town, a place of beauty once again?
Susannah, remind me, when was it that I could last have relieved myself in the toilets at the bottom of Trinity Road?
“Whoever is reponsible for the demise of the whole area”
It can only be the 3 ward councillors, the same ones have been making the decisions in Hoylake for 25 years and more. The local councillors and the Melrose Hall crew who have been nominating them and voting them in for years. The only way to make changes is to vote them out!
Hoylake’s councillors have run this place into the ground with their self-serving decisions.
Absolutely spot on.
I think the comments about the ‘Melrose Hall crew’ are a bit unfair. The hall is used for many Community events, often free of charge. And if it wasn’t for the efforts of the supporters there, the Hall would have been demolished.
I thought the local councillors and the Melrose Hall people were part of the same group? Been involved in local decisions for years with all their committees and meetings and petitions. Wish they would have got together to stop the toilets being demolished.
I couldn’t agree more, what a wasted opportunity.
As you are so ill-informed perhaps you would like to come to Melrose Hall and meet us and we will inform you of our efforts for Hoylake over the years, just give me a ring.
“I’ll-informed”???
Please do tell me and other readers which bit I’ve got wrong.
Of course the efforts to save Melrose and put on community events are very worthwhile for those who use the building.
But it’s the efforts to suck the life out of Hoylake which upset a lot of people.
Jackie Hall – are you really saying that local councillors aren’t involved in local decisions?
Are you saying that Melrose Hall supporters don’t go round with petitions?
They don’t get involved in local committees on police or planning matters?
Did Melrose and the local councillors campaign to save the toilet block?
Please tell me which bit I’m ill-informed about. I would love to come and talk to you when I have time (I work and have lots of family to look after).
But it’s far better telling us on this website – you will inform much more people who think like me.
Totally agree, it seems like some people are stalling Hoylake from moving forward.
Well said Sarah.
It’s about time that the underworld is exposed.
Modern times call for a modern future, which involves our children.
We need lesuire facilities and we need a nightlife.
Community groups have done and continue to do some great work, but let’s be honest – in general, there’s a complete lack of vision for Hoylake, despite an awful lot of hot air.
The drivel from the council about a golf resort that will never happen – there’s no money for it, and you can’t build posh houses on green belt land anyway – and the pie-in-the-sky new cinema stuff, too. Really? Pull the other one.
However, back in the real world, a decent bistro-style facility on the front, taking advantage of that beautiful vista, that would not need silly money to build, and that wouldn’t take over the prom, leaving the vast majority of it a quiet place for walking, cycling, birdwatching etc, would have/still could provide a destination for visitors. And visitors spend money. That’s why West Kirby has decent enough footfall for businesses, and why Hoylake, sadly, does not.
As long as Wirral has a Labour controlled Council I doubt very much if Hoylake will see much investment from them.
What they will do is allow things to happen that will generate money for them – like allowing flats, flats and more flats which swell their yearly Council Tax pot.
I must also say that the group at Melrose Hall have actually done a lot of good for Hoylake and its residents. Those that can be bothered to venture over there instead of whinging will see.
I agree with those who are worried about Hoylake being run into the ground. We need some forward thinkers leading the place who welcome opportunities to develop Hoylake, the toilets are just an example but surely something could have been done to save them. I hate seeing things getting knocked down or closed, what a waste.
Instead of criticising other people maybe those people who felt so strongly about the demolition of the toilets should have voiced their opinions earlier instead of expecting others to do it for them. In my opinion Melrose Hall provides a great service to the local community and the people who provide this service should be applauded not criticised.
Unfortunately Jean, you and other Melrose supporters on this thread are commenting from a position of extreme ignorance.
I and many people in this community have been voicing opinions about how the toilet block should be saved from demolition and used for cafe/toilets for several years.
It has been demolished because the ward councillors and those who frequent the Melrose have much more time on their hands to attend committees. Sadly they choose to stamp on everything instead of dedicating their time to supporting Hoylake and bringing life to the town.
I’ve been to the Melrose on several occasions – it is a hive of negativity and blockers.
Good luck to your efforts to ensure no life to the old lifeboat station. I’ll wait for the petition to come round.on that one.
Only in hoylake can people be sentimental over a disused toilet block / eye sore like this.
The argument for a cafe has been there for years, but cafes on Market street struggle to survive so how one isolated ‘leisure facility’ some distance away from anything else would turn a living, i dont know im just skeptical. .
Its nothing to do with Labour, hoylake has had more investment over the last decade than a lot of its neighboring towns. Other towns which take a logistic battering when the open is on.
The seafront in hoylake lags behind a lot of its Victorian counterparts and i believe its the towns Achilles heal and has been for years due to a lack of leisure facilities. The Prom is residential and that wont change any time soon.. I salute community groups and the people who put there own time in to trying to improve the town, but sentiment over A manky old toilet block ?
It may well have been ‘manly’ and old, but the point being it had potential and is a historical building.
Now it’s gone, the likes of Melrose representatives can now argue a case for no further developments.
I think it’s very sad that we can’t move forward and combine the past with the future. Creating some facilities on the prom is what Hoylake needs.