Better Town Design – putting local needs first
Making family-focused housing can sound ‘pie-in-the-sky’ for some. However, in Birkenhead we have a living, breathing, successful example to show our Community-led Place Plan is achievable.
At East Float Quay, we leave the traffic behind and enter a landscape clearly designed around people rather than vehicles.
Even here, within this semi-industrial wilderness, historic bridges provide a powerful sense of continuity and context, while long views terminate dramatically on Liverpool’s famous Liver Building on the horizon.
Native planting, repurposed masonry and pavements scattered with mussel shells — dropped by gulls from great heights to crack them open — create an atmosphere that feels simultaneously wild and carefully curated.
Work is still needed to bring our Heritage buildings out of dereliction and into practical use, and that is part of the Community Plan as a Local Community Project.
High-quality play spaces also help ground the area as a genuine family neighbourhood, making it feel like something more substantial and rooted than a transient community that
On our Jane Walk (30 May 2026), Graham Marshall, (Backin’ Birkenhead Mentor) said, “These facilities are being delivered ahead of the new housing itself, laying the foundations for the thousands of homes planned here over the coming years. ”
Do you know of other areas that would suit a community-led design?
Come along and help us to transform these buildings from derelict hulks to living breathing examples of a new spirit in Birkenhead.
What you think of this example of Better Town Design?
Let us know HERE
