Another new chapter is on the horizon for us at Apollo Care. This month we have upped sticks and a moved our Head Office Team to another place. The reason, that’s quite simple really – we are growing.
As the number of our teams are growing, so is their demand for our support and never one to disappoint, we need more people – and this means we need a bigger space to house us all.
It’s going to be quite a change for us as we were in a modern communal building. We have moved to one of the oldest parts of Birkenhead and will be taking up residence in a listed building in Hamilton Square.
We started to think of when and who built these beautiful listed buildings that had originally been built as town houses.
In 1801, Birkenhead was just a small village with a population of just 110. In 1824 William Laird established a boiler works just south of Woodside, this later established into a ship building yard still prevalent today. He started to buy land around Birkenhead on which he planned to build a new town. By 1831 Birkenhead’s population had risen to 2790 and the economy grew.
Commissioned by William Laird, Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham started working on Hamilton Square in 1825. This project was to mirror the work he had done in Edinburgh, when he designed and built Edinburgh New Town.
He wanted to make sure Hamilton Square could be seen from the Liverpool waterfront, emphasizing Birkenhead’s civic pride. The square was named after William Laird’s mother in law (Mary Hamilton was her maiden name) and her brother, William Hamilton was one of Laird’s business partners.
However, due to the economic depression throughout the mid 19th century, the east side of the square was the only side that was fully completed.
Later in 1883, almost 60 years after construction, the Town Hall was started to be developed. This was designed by local architect Charles Ellison and he used Scottish granite and sandstone from the local quarry at Storeton.
No two sides of the Georgian terracing of Hamilton Square are identical. The private gardens within the square was acquired by the local council in 1903 and was subsequently opened to the public. Still today, these gardens are beautifully kept and enjoyed by lots of people.
Today Hamilton Square is the home of the town’s cenotaph, there is a Queen Victoria monument present and a statue of John Laird (the son of William Laird and Birkenhead’s first member of parliament).
So, our new office is in a place steeped in local history and has bags of character. I can’t help but think of the families that have called our office (number 54) their home. I may have to do some more research…