Gibson House wirral

Gibson House is the former home for the widows of seafarers, built at the turn of the 20th century and stands overlooking Egremont Promenade with unrivalled views towards Liverpool. The imposing red brick property was built with a donation from Andrew Gibson, a wealthy Liverpool cotton merchant in
1906.

The generous Mr Gibson and others from the same era also provided money to help build some of the houses elsewhere in adjacent Mariners' Park, providing homes to retired seamen and their next of kin, as well as a welfare funds for former seafarers. It was built in 1906 to contain 28 self-contained flats for
seafarers’ widows, but has been the subject of repeated vandalism since the residents were moved out and the building boarded up. In that time it has also had the lead stolen from the roof, copper piping ripped out and a fire started in the main lobby.

For many years few people even knew that the massive building was called Gibson House or what it was for because the covenant imposed on it included a clause that no sign be put outside saying what it was called or built for, to protect the widows who lived there.

Now its owner, Nautilus UK, has submitted a planning application to Wirral Council to convert the building in Wallasey into 34 apartments. Nautilus, the union which represents shipmasters, officers, cadets and other staff serving in the UK and international merchant shipping fleets, also wants to build town houses into the sloping grounds to help pay for the cost of refurbishment. The building had become a magnet for antisocial behaviour and squatters after it was closed and every window in the three storey edifice has been smashed in the years it has been left empty.

The house
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...psbaec150a.jpg
up the drive we go
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps732f1e40.jpg
plaque
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps499ddd03.jpg
staircase
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps85c3a8af.jpg
love this
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...psd9f2a2d7.jpg
spooky
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps8551d883.jpg
B/W
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps4ce5903a.jpg
window
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps380e17b0.jpg
washing
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps59b438da.jpg
rack
http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...psd07e2512.jpg

Thanks for looking