St Luke’s War Memorial Hall - Wallasey
This place is quite run down and considering its original purpose its a real shame. After circling the perimeter we quickly found ourselves inside where the effects of years of dereliction were apparent. The place was trashed and apart from the main hall and a prayer room there wasn’t to much to see.
History
“The St Luke's war memorial hall in Merseyside has lay derelict for over 20 years. Built in 1926 to honor the memory of around 250 soldiers from Poulton who lost their lives during the first world war. A bereaved mother and widow, Mary Benet laid the foundation stone next to the memorial hall entrance. On the stone is an inscription that reads 'greater love hath no man'. This stone was one of two bronze tablets which displayed the names of all the men who died fighting the war from Poulton. Mary lost 3 of her 4 sons during the war in France with two of them killed in the same week, In may of 2022 a plan was submitted to Wallasey town council to demolish the WW1 memorial hall. The plan was submitted by a Liverpool based construction company 'SEP' who intend to turn the memorial into 33 new flats used for social housing with associated landscaping work. Despite the building being derelict many of the local residents showed strong disapproval with these plans. There were 70 objections to the plans listed on Wirral councils planning application site at the time of the application. Later on in November of 2023 the Wirral council accepted these plans after meeting with a council planning committee. The current owners stated that after being left to rot for over 20 years it would be too expensive to save with an estimated cost of around 2 million pounds. 129 objections were received which raised the concern of traffic, noise levels, privacy issues and the loss of heritage from the memorial hall itself. The memorial plaques that once housed the hall have since been taken out and placed within the grounds of saint luke's church opposite the hall. With the plans set in motion the building is likely to be demolished any day so it was good to be able to explore the hall before it's forgotten to the history books”.
