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NEWS FROM THE GATEACRE SOCIETY (Mar.2022):
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THE BRIDGE INN IS NO MORE
The final chapter in the history of Gateacre's Bridge Inn was written in late November 2021, when the demolition crew moved in to clear the site for a new Home Bargains store. When it was built in 1938, an advertisement (reproduced here) explained that it had taken the place of "a little wayside inn, built over two hundred years ago". "It is what the original might have looked like had the builders of bygone days used the choice woods and lovely decorative materials that are at hand to-day. … The Garden Hall is considered one of the finest reproductions of the Tudor style in the country, while on a Summer's day or evening the view from the Terrace across pleasant countryside well repays the visit".
Stuart Rimmer tells the story of the Bridge Inn, in detail, in 'Lost Manors'. He describes the struggle which Higsons Brewery had, in the 1930s, to get permission for the rebuild from the Liverpool Magistrates. A Gateacre residents' group argued that "very few people lived within half a mile of the Bridge Inn, so the demand did not exist" - and the magistrates agreed. It was only after the firm scaled down their proposals that a licence was granted. Strangely, no mention appears to have been made of the pub's strategic location at the junction of the new Childwall Valley Road (a widening of part of the original Belle Vale Road) and the proposed Liverpool Outer Circle ring road (to be known as Kings Drive) which seemed destined to make it highly accessible to the owners of the "motor cars" for which "ample parking space" was to be provided.
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Above: Demolition underway, 2021
(Photo by Stephen Reed)
Below: An advertisement from July 1938
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Read more about the Bridge Inn's demise elsewhere on our website:
The 2015 redevelopment proposal
The 2017 supermarket planning application
The 2019 Home Bargains scheme
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You can read about the book 'Lost Manors' in our May 2021 Newsletter.
Or come along to Stuart's talk on Sunday 13th March 2022
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Page created 4 Mar 2022 by MRC
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