Central Hydraulic Tower, Birkenhead
Another one from the 'archives'. This pumping station was once used to
pump water into and out of the East and West Float docks in Birkenhead. Now it's disused, but the hydraulic accumulators survive, as does the incredible
tower.
We started off exploring the old engine/boiler rooms which were mainly empty, apart from some old motors and bits of
junk.
The floor at the top of the stairs was rotten, and we couldn't see into the tower. Andy, a mate from
the Wirral, decided 'sod it!' and just walked across, and then started saying how amazing the tower looked. I held my breath and followed, and was greeted
with the sight of an amazing iron and wood staircase leading
upwards...
At the top was access onto the balcony. We thought we'd reached
the top of the tower, but oh no - this was just the balcony below the old clock faces, meaning we were only about two thirds of the way up. It still felt
pretty high!
Things then started to get interesting. A short
ladder lead up into the old clock room which was now bare. Here, the ladders, floors and walls were all one construction inside the stone tower. Shaking the
ladders shook the whole lot, and wasn't advisable! Two ladders lead on up towards the top of the
tower...
And then, another lead out through the actual stone roof
of the tower structure, into a top room...
And after
that, the most pathetic excuse for a ladder ever gave access to the top of the tower (excuse the picture being the wrong way
round)...
I'd like to get back up there, but I've heard it's
been sealed up again. I'll just have to wait until the local kids smash a way in again I suppose...
An interesting postscript to the story though...
On the first picture at the top of this thread, you can see the brickwork change colour on the main building, to the right. When we were there, I wondered if
it had been bomb damage.
The following image, found at the Historic Warships museum confirmed that the tower had been hit, although the tower
survived. But just look at that spire! Unfortunately the spire was removed long ago, although the fixings could still be seen. Note also the original boiler
chimney.
