AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF MINSTER COURT
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Homes for workers view the video
Homes for Workers includes impressive aerial shots of Liverpool that show the extent to which the city had engaged in a housing programme. Two of the inner-city tenement courts mentioned are Gerard Gardens (also shown in Basil Dearden's Violent Playground, 1958), and Myrtle Gardens, both of which are excellent examples of modern architecture in Liverpool.
Gerard Gardens, whose foundation stone was laid in 1934, is also interesting because it refers, in architectural terms as well as in the way it addressed a particular social agenda, to similar housing programmes in continental Europe, such as that of the Karl-Marx-Hof (1927-30) in Vienna, built by Karl Ehn. A particular highlight of the film is the testimony of an 'ordinary' Liverpool housewife who, with a noticeably non-Liverpool accent, dutifully recites the benefits of the housing programme, such as the use of gas appliances, hot water and other amenities of modern living, which provide her with a 'happier and healthier' way of living.
Hailed as the showpiece estate of Liverpool’s modernist housing scheme of the 1930’s designed by Sir LH Keay OBE FRIBA the then Director of Housing, Myrtle Gardens now named Minster Court, was one of Britain's first complete inter-war large community social housing initiative to replace slum housing. To achieve a community setting the estate included two shops and two large children's recreational areas amongst other features for a total of 344 flat dwellings. The Minister of Health, Sir Kingsley Wood, formerly opened the estate on The 5th October 1937. Other estates developed in Liverpool included Gerard Gardens, St Andrew Gardens, Caryl Gardens to name but a few.
On the 13th and 14th of October
1940 a number of high explosive bombs intended for
Wapping Dock
missed their
target and fell on Myrtle Gardens killing eleven
people and injuring a further nine. Having been rebuilt after the bomb damage
of the second world war, the 1960's and 70's saw the estate fall into disrepair as
social decline enveloped the surrounding area. Itself turned into a slum, the
estate was given a new lease of life in 1983 as a housing contractor moved in to
renovate the estate into private one and two bedroom properties. Due to
vandalism and disrepair, one block was reduced in height and two other blocks
had already been demolished. Nevertheless two-thirds of the original structures
remains. Additional stairwells were constructed with individual entrances to the
once long balconies that entwined each floor. Where possible the character of
the estate was preserved and much of the grandeur of the golden brown brickwork
structure still remains.
Minster Court represents one of two remaining 1930’s extensive structures. Other
similar estates, such as Gerard Gardens and Caryl Gardens have long since been
demolished. Importantly Minster Court represents part of Liverpool’s historical
housing heritage, retaining much of the original character instilled from the
1930’s. One of the two shops remains, but has never been refurbished. It is
intended that this remaining shop will be renovated to its former appearance.
The building's rejuvenation into Minster Court relives Liverpool’s past and present providing one and the same answer to Liverpool’s housing problem of the 1930’s and again of the 1980’s.
Minster Court - View from Myrtle Street
The following provides a brief historical perspective of the estate in the City
of Liverpool. It highlights the importance of the preservation of the estate to
the City of Liverpool as a testament to the great housing schemes of the 1930's
and post-riot 1980's for the people of Liverpool and Britain.
The Site
Myrtle Gardens, a scheme of 344 dwellings was built on the original site of
Liverpool’s
Botanical Gardens
opened in 1802 – the site of rendezvous of
Liverpool Society in the early 1800’s. Such was the splendour of the leafy
suburb, formerly Mosslake Fields, for 34 years admittance was restricted to the
proprietors and their friends. The Botanical Garden was subsequently moved to
Edge Lane in 1836 and five years later acquired by the City Corporation for the
benefit of the public.
Site of Botanical Gardens – 1836
The site became a Hay Market but eventually fell into disuse. It was then that
the first Orphan Asylum for girls was built (see below), the foundation stone
being laid by Robertson Gladstone in 1843. Additional buildings for boys and a
church were subsequently erected but by 1934 the orphanages had moved to a more
desirable site in Woolton. Orphan Street is all that remains now to remind us of
the history of the site, but even this gives a wrong impression of where the
orphanages stood, for Orphan Street took a zigzag path through what is now
Minster Court between Melville Place and Myrtle Street.
Orphan Street - 1924
Following Liverpool’s slum clearance programme of the 1930’s Myrtle Gardens was constructed on the site by the Corporation and came to represent the showpiece housing estate of Liverpool. Its development and decline are described in subsequent paragraphs but before we go on to look at the estate it should be remembered that the site had, and still has, close associations of buildings and structures of great historical importance.
The Liverpool Orphanages and Church of the Holy Innocents
The Liverpool orphan asylum for girls, founded some 160 years ago moved to Myrtle Street three years after its origins in Stanhope Street. 1854 saw the building of the Boy’s orphan asylum and at the same time the Church of the Holy Innocents, linking the two was built for the use of the children. The site on which they sat ran along Myrtle Street.
In 1859 a further Infant Orphan Asylum was erected on the adjoining land in Melville Place. In 1913 the infant’s orphanage was transferred to the female orphan asylum and all three asylums became united under one charity as the Liverpool Orphan Asylum. In 1925 they became known as the Liverpool Orphanage.
Church of the
Holy Innocents and Liverpool Orphanages
The social decline of the area from a leafy wooded suburb to slums and coal yards led to a need to move the orphanages to a more pleasing area. Initially delayed by the First World War, it was not until 1929 that it was resolved to move the orphanages. Following the Great Fair of 1930 held in the famous St Georges Hall, sufficient funds were raised to purchase a site in Woolton and in 1934 the orphanages finally moved.
Crown Street Station
Other local sites of historical importance include Crown Street Station and Williamson's tunnels the latter recently opened as a Heritage site.
Crown Street Station opposite the site of Minster Court
Liverpool had become a principle port at the beginning of the 19th century for cotton import. Numerous docks were constructed between 1815 and 1835 and the development of powered rail travel following the success of Stevenson’s “Rocket” at the Rainhill trials led to the subsequent construction of many railway links to the city docks. The first passenger trains however, did not come about until 1830, which saw the construction and opening of the world’s first passenger railway. Passenger trains started at Crown Street station opposite the Myrtle Street / Crown Street road junction passing through Moorish Arch at Edge Hill and terminating at Water Street in Manchester. This line was 31 miles long of double rails of fish-bellied type laid on stone and timber sleepers. The station, however, took further pride in having the first train shed construction and the first of the great wooden station roof constructions.
The following century saw considerable progress in the development of railways with the extension of the passenger railway link to Lime Street and loss of the role of Crown Street Station. The site opposite on Crown Street became Liverpool and North-West Railway Crown Street Coal Depot and remained as such well into the 1960’s.
All that remains of the history of the railway today is the ventilation shaft of the long disused Wapping tunnel extending from Edge Hill to Wapping docks and the construction and naming of new buildings for student accommodation such as Stevenson House in Crown Street. The first railway passenger tunnel entrance, Stevenson's tunnel, lies blocked up by the grounds of the park behind. However, the original cuttings remain, although hidden from public view.
Wapping Tunnel Ventilation Shaft at the end of Myrtle Street
A recent heritage addition to the city lies approximately 150 metres from Minster Court. Beneath Liverpool lies a network of tunnels, caverns and arches commissioned by the wealthy 'Mole of the Tunnels' Joseph Williamson. Born in Warrington 1769, Williamson moved to Liverpool aged 7 and came to work in the Tate Tobacco Company where he eventually became its owner. The Tunnel building lasted for 34 years from 1806 onwards. The purpose of the tunnels remains unknown, but Williamson's association with Stevenson may be of significance. Skilled craftsmen were used creating smooth brickwork structures of various sizes. The official entrance now lies very close to the site of Minster Court.
Post First World War Britain was to see a significant change in housing for the country with new Acts of Parliament set to remove the poverty and squalid living conditions so common of the time.
On 6th April 1933 the Minister of Health issued a Circular (No 1331) to local authorities requiring preparation and submission of a programme of slum clearance. A 10-year programme, subsequently reduced to eight years at the request of the Minister for Health, was drawn up by the Director of Housing and approved. Sir Lancelot Herman Keay (1883-1974) was the Director of Housing for the City of Liverpool during 1925-1938 and subsequently City Architect and Director of Housing in 1938-1948. His response to the Minister of Health was both ambitious and revolutionary with a vision to envy any city.
In total, 5000 houses were to be erected on the outskirts of the city and 10,692 flats to be erected on clearance sites acquired in the central areas of the city. Myrtle Street formed one of the areas of clearance that was to make way for Myrtle Gardens, the showpiece of the new development scheme in central Liverpool.
In 1934 the Corporation acquired the old orphanage site and additional land (coal yards for the Edge Hill terminus of Liverpool and Manchester Railway) purchased for £35,000 bound by North side Myrtle Street, Melville Place and Crown Street. Olive Street and a portion of Orphan Street were closed. The orphanages and Church of the Holy Innocents were demolished.
The Scheme
The purpose of the Myrtle Gardens scheme was to “afford accommodation for those disposed from adjacent insanitary properties in the clear up of the slums”.
In November 1934 a contract was entrusted to Messrs Henry Boot & Sons Ltd for the building of an initial 180 flats with a supplemental contract for 164 more flats. The density of the development was 51 flats per acre including 44 one, 100 two-, 190 three- and 10 four-bedroom flats. Walls were to be sufficiently thick to prevent sound transmission.
Each property was equipped with hot water, baths, and a small kitchen scullery with gas cooker and oven, revolutionary for the time. Gas washer boilers and facilities for washing clothes completed all necessary amenities necessary for the household. The importance of light was recognised being plentiful in design and decoration carried out in bright colours.
Plan of building development
The structure was five storeys in height, faced with golden brown rustic bricks, with flat roofs behind parapet walls and a steep mansard at the rear. A striking distinctive visual feature was achieved by light banding running throughout the structure at each level. The design, modernist in character, was bold, deliberate and in contrast to traditional buildings of the district. Similarities of the other great housing projects in Liverpool of the time could be seen architecturally.
The striking light banding and windows give a distinctive visual appearance to the estate
Features included: two shops, semi-circular staircases at each side of the main
quadrangle and also at the main entrance at junction of Crown Street and Myrtle
Street (now demolished). Importantly the design included sun balconies and also
provision of permanent flower boxes, long removed, although the concrete
mountings remain.
Myrtle Gardens showing gardens and shops
In order to provide a true community residence recreational space of well over 4 acres was incorporated with two playgrounds for children. Garden spaces were provided in quadrangles fronting Myrtle Street. An office, pram and a cycle store were provided in a central position. No provision was made for clubrooms, reading rooms or meal centres as was provided in other schemes in view of the plentiful amenities nearby.
Myrtle Gardens – Myrtle Street/Crown Street entrance (demolished)
The contract was completed in 1936 with the first occupation on 29th April 1936. The opening was a particularly grand affair by the Minister of Health at that time, Sir Kingsley Wood MP, on 5th October 1937.
Myrtle Gardens in decay
The success of Myrtle Gardens was not to last. Social deprivation of the area was undoubted to see failure of any housing scheme. The environs of coal depots, railway sidings and concentrated housing in the immediate vicinity did little to help. In 1969 an article in the Liverpool ECHO described Myrtle Gardens as “a concrete jungle of paved areas surrounded by towering blocks of flats. Not a flower or a blade of grass in site….. Even the sandpits provided as playgrounds for the very young – lie unusable, with several inches of water and old cans in the bottom.” This did not stop the then residents association from attempting to raise funds to erect a community centre on the site of an old police station opposite the estate in Orphan Street, highlighting the strong community spirit of the estate.
1968 saw modernisation at a cost of £216,000 including the addition of lifts. However, in the coming years Myrtle Gardens, as with the other great housing projects in Liverpool, fell into decline. By the early 1980’s Myrtle Gardens was one of Liverpool’s city slums. Many of the local buildings were demolished and the estate lay in an area of desolation. To add to Liverpool’s problems 1981 saw the Toxteth riots with significant social unrest and unwanten destruction of local housing including Myrtle Gardens. The aftermath of the Toxteth riots led to fire sweeping through the upper storey of one block facing Melville Grove and was reported world-wide. The social situation in Liverpool was once again becoming desperate.
Fire sweeps through the top floor at Myrtle Gardens
1981 saw the city’s Housing Committee debate the future of Myrtle Gardens. The then deputy chairman Chris Davies proposed a scheme to sell the flats for which demolition would cost £250,000. However, the council still owed £250,000 on the block. Ideas included a possible conference centre and sports facility in the central courtyard.
Bulldozers had already commenced demolition when the building contractor, Barratt stepped in to modernise the estate. In August 1982, Barratt Urban Renewal (Northern), a subsidiary of Barratt bought the freehold of the estate for £250,000. The project, then estimated at £4,500,000 was to result in a change of the name of the estate to Minster Court and have renovated properties ready for private sale in the forthcoming year.
Architectural consultants Kingham Knight Associates (Liverpool practice) were engaged on the new design. In total, the redeveloped estate comprised of 278 dwellings, including 24 new build houses and 54 flats. The project was to be the first of Liverpool’s post-Toxteth riot ‘Urban Renewal’ scheme following a visit by Sir Michael Heseltine MP, appointed as the ‘Minister to Merseyside’ in response to the riots. By 1983 much of the renovation was complete. Tom KING MP, Environment Secretary, officially opened the Minster Court scheme in March 1983.
New stairwells blend with the old structure of Myrtle Gardens
Although parts of the Myrtle Street and Crown Street structure had been demolished, in its place new flats and houses were built. So successful was the scheme, in 1985 it was awarded a Housing Design award. A community atmosphere was soon to develop with organised social events taking place and BBQs held in the grounds.
Changes to the original estate included new roofs, timber replacement for the original steel windows, new plumbing (most of which had been stripped for scrap) and new internal plasterwork and hardboard finished floors. The largest physical change concerned the access routes with external brick and glass stairwells being constructed to fulfil health and safety regulations and providing access and security to pairs of flats on each floor. Brick partitions within the flats were rearranged to provide a larger kitchen, bathroom and open plan dining-living areas but party walls between flats were retained as was the external appearance of the estate.
In the Hands of Private Enterprise
From 1983 to end 1989 Barratt Urban Renewal managed the estate. During this time work was completed on the additional structures and the estate maintained including regular painting of the interior communal areas and external features and window frames. In 1990 a new private Managing Agent took over the running of the estate.
However, lack of maintenance, structural surveillance and refusal to decorate by the new Managing Agent led to extensive deterioration of the external fabric of the estate.
Despite the years of ruin through neglect, 2003 saw a new beginning, the third for the old Myrtle Gardens. The Agent Company to Minster Court withdrew its services at the end of March 2003 and since then residents have been running the estate. Already, residents are showing a renewed interest in the estate and a community atmosphere is redeveloping. Meetings of the residents are positive and there is an atmosphere of hope to revive Minster Court into what it represented in its earlier years.
New developments have been constructed along Crown Street, Melville Place and Orphan Street. The area is seeing a revitalisation with a new community spirit of young individuals returning to the heart of Liverpool in what was once a very deprived area.
The situation of the estate is ideal in respect to the city centre, nearby hospital and university. As a focus of historical and heritage interest the estate provides for both history and social development.
Myrtle Gardens forms part of the displays in the Museum of Liverpool Life reflecting life in Liverpool at an age when new housing was complete with all essentials for living, contrasting with the squalid conditions of the slums.
In 1938 the 'Liverpool Gas Company' prepared a film entitled “Homes for Workers” to celebrate the urban rejuvenation resulting from Liverpool's new housing schemes. It features a Mrs Annie Greaves of Myrtle Gardens whose final comment is “the struggle to make both ends meet has ceased and we are all happy and healthy”. This was not always going to be the case, but it is hoped that new life in the estate will allow this ideal to return.
A Living History
Minster Court represents the very ethos of Sir Keay's post war housing schemes in being a structure built for the local people. In 1982 Sir Freddie Barratt pushed this concept forward, in keeping with the times, restoring the estate as private dwellings at affordable prices for the people of Liverpool. Gone were the days of massive council housing estates run by the city council.
Minster Court presents itself in part as a hybrid of the old construction with the new, and as such represents a living history of housing in Liverpool. Large portions of the estate are preserved and it is these that are amenable to further preservation and restoration work.
Unlike the recent scheme of St Andrews Gardens which is inhabited by students alone, the inhabitants of Minster Court range from families with young children to the elderly and includes some who have returned from the former Myrtle Gardens. The importance of preserving such an estate therefore is not only in relation to architectural history, but also social history, of which Minster Court remains a prime example.
Display of a typical kitchen in Myrtle Gardens from the 'Museum of Liverpool Life' with permission
Major restoration work is now being carried out in the estate. Projects are aimed at both retaining the structural history of the estate for all to see and also to keep the ethos of a Liverpool community alive. Applications are also being made for grants to preserve the shop and restore it to its original appearance of the 1930's.
How you can help
If you have any photographs of Myrtle Gardens you would like to share please get in touch with us at tony.power123@tiscali.co.uk or sign our guestbook.