The Southport Winter Gardens was a Victorian entertainment complex in the town of Southport

Southport

Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...

, Merseyside

Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

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The original winter gardens comprised a theatre, opera house, aquarium, a small zoo, conservatory, promenades and halls situated under the grand glass domes.

History

The Winter Gardens were opened on 16 September 1874, on what was then the sea front at Southport. The building was in the form of two pavilions connected by a covered promenade, designed by Maxwell & Tuke of Manchester.

Layout

The building had two Germano-Gothic pavilions, one of which held a concert hall known as the 'Pavilion', while the other was the iron and glass Winter Garden (known as the 'Conservatory'). The Pavilion had a capacity for 2,500 people and the Winter Garden was a total 180 ft in length with a maximum height of 80 ft. (In comparison, the central section of the Kew Palm House is just over 137 ft long and 63 ft high.) Southport Winter Garden was advertised as the largest conservatory in England and being the first seaside Winter Garden

Winter Garden

Winter Garden may refer to:* A winter garden, winter-hardy plants grown for winter interest and decoration, or to be harvested for food between winter and early spring.-Places:* Winter Garden, California, former community in Kern County...

 in the UK. Refreshment rooms and an aquarium filled the basement level.

Decline

Although it was one of the biggest buildings ever to grace an English sea front, the Winter Garden was not a great commercial success. The Southport Pavilion and Winter Gardens Company, which promoted it was locally based and had wide support in the town and throughout the north-west with 350 shareholders at its peak, but the addition of Frank Matcham's Opera House on an adjacent site in 1890-91 strained the capital base too far, and the Company went into liquidation in 1898. Many companies rapidly came and went in an effort to save the Winter Gardens in an attempt to turn a profit. Entertainments were lost or driven downmarket, until the Winter Garden was converted into a ballroom and roller skating rink, and the Pavilion became a cinema. Eventually both were demolished, the Winter Garden in 1933 and the Pavilion in 1962.

Opera House

The Opera House was built on Lord Street and first opened on the 7 September 1891. It was designed by Frank Matcham

Frank Matcham

Frank Matcham was a famous English theatrical architect. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery.-Early career:...

, architect of many theatres in the United Kingdom. The building seated 2,000 people and cost around £20,000 to build. At the time the Opera House theatre was considered nationally to be one of Matcham's finest creations. The venue was a great success until December 1929 when a fire raged through the building completely destroying it.

Railway Station

The Ribble Building is a former Victorian building that was built on the site of the Winter Gardens to house the Southport Lord Street railway station

Southport Lord Street railway station

Southport Lord Street was a railway station located in Southport, Merseyside.Southport Lord Street railway station opened on 1 September, 1884, as the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway's northern terminus, which ran from Aintree Central in the northern suburbs of Liverpool...

 The Station opened on the 1 September 1884 as the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway

Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway

The Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway is a now-disused railway line in Merseyside, England. It was built by the Cheshire Lines Committee, extending the North Liverpool Extension Line to Southport in 1884. Passenger services ended 7 January 1952 and goods six months later...

's (SCLER) northern terminus, which provided an alternative route to Liverpool City Centre from Southport, which ran coastally through the Sand Dunes. The last trains left the station on Saturday, 5 January 1952.

Bus Station

After the closure of the railway station Southport Lord Street Station was taken over by Ribble Buses. The spaces in between the platforms were filled in, but the rest of the interior remained the same. The train shed remained in use by the bus company until Ribble Buses ceased to operate from the building in the early 1990s. The train shed was later demolished but the frontage on Lord Street was retained and still exists today but has remained vacant ever since.
In 2006 the plans were put forward to turn the building into a 96 bed hotel with cafe and shops and a grand extension to the rear of the building. However this plan did not go ahead.
In late 2009 the glass verandah at the front of the Ribble Building was removed.

Model Village

The first model village in Southport was once situated on the Winter Gardens site and was known as the Land of the Little People. The Model village was demolished in the late 1980s to make way for the aborted Winter Gardens/SIBEC shopping development.

Winter Gardens Shopping Development

In 1991 the £40million plan known as the Winter Gardens Project crumbled as the construction company responsible for the projects went into receivership, a new developer was sought to continue the construction work on the already half built department store planned for the site.
The work was finally completed for the new Safeway

Safeway (UK)

Safeway was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in the United Kingdom. It started as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold off in 1987....

 supermarket, which opened in the early 1990s, but the Winter Gardens Style shopping centre was never fully completed to the plans. Safeway later extended the car parking facilities and added a petrol garage to their facilities on site. The Safeway supermarket was taken over by Morrisons

Morrisons

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The company is usually referred to and is branded as Morrisons formerly Morrison's, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies...

in 2004, but the Ribble Building Shops still remain empty. A mural in memory of the Winter Gardens can be seen as you look up upon entering the main entrance to the Morrisons Store on the site today.