Eighteenth century Gateacre was characterised by buildings and boundary walls of Woolton stone: the local red sandstone which was later used to build Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral. Many of these survive to the present day. In the late nineteenth century, however, a change in architectural fashion led to Gateacre village being associated with the 'black-and-white' or 'mock Tudor' style which makes it such a distinctive place today.

Among the wealthy Victorians who moved to Gateacre was Sir Andrew Barclay Walker: the Scottish-born brewer who was knighted in 1877 following his gift of the Walker Art Gallery to Liverpool. Walker settled in Gateacre in the late 1860s, having commissioned the local architect Cornelius Sherlock to rebuild Gateacre Grange on Rose Brow. It was Sir Andrew Barclay Walker who, in 1887, gave the village green to the Little Woolton Local Board of Health (the local council of the day), to commemorate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee. On it he placed a bronze bust of the Queen, sculpted by her nephew Count Gleichen.