The Seacombe Ferry and Omnibus terminal and workshop was completed on the western bank of the River Mersey in 1933 as one of the Wirral docking points for the iconic Ferry Across the Mersey. Through the years, the Art-Deco style building had been altered and adapted to serve a multitude of users and uses alongside the ferry, including a car park, workshop, and latterly a space-themed attraction before its latest incarnation for Eureka! as their new Science and Discovery Children’s Museum. Starting construction after the Covid-19 lockdown, what secrets did the building have in store?
Eureka! in Halifax, Yorkshire was the UK’s first children’s museum, and in 2019 they secured the funding required to create a new attraction in Merseyside. Eureka! Science + Discovery would transform the part-derelict Grade II Listed Seacombe Ferry Terminal into a new interactive experience on the banks of the River Mersey. The works would coincide with a major refurbishment of the ferry landing stages and linkspan bridges carried out separately in a parallel contract.
Construction began by demolishing the previous interior fitout and stripping back to the building structure. This allowed the team to verify assumptions made by the exhibition designer and to fill the gaps in the landlord’s information on the building through a series of surveys. The last significant refurbishment of the original workshop building was in 2005 and had included the introduction of some bold modern elements, including three projecting glazed bay windows at first floor, and structural modifications to create several double-height internal volumes.
What became apparent during demolition was a reinforced concrete shear wall subdividing the building, added to provide stability to the original structure presumably in the 2005 works, but absent from any record drawings, and a 300mm step in the level of the ground floor as the building gradually stepped down towards the River, neither of which had been factored into the design concept.
Design solutions to form openings in the concrete and to overcome the change in levels were arrived at quickly, and without significant disruption to the build programme. The bigger question, that was a feature of conversations throughout the project, was the role of the building itself and how it would be expressed. The more we uncovered, the deeper our fascination.
We were keen to go beyond the stipulations of the listed building consent and to articulate and celebrate its story wherever possible, both through the obvious modern additions of the bay windows that provided stunning river views, but also the more subtle, and previously hidden – the original 1930s wall tiles uncovered in the strip out, and the saw cuts and edges of the surprise concrete wall.
This listed building was special! In 1947 it made history as the as the first commercial shore-based Radar station in the world, set up to aid ferries navigating the fog on the river. Seemingly every site visit revealed a different detail and chapter in its rich and diverse history that we wanted to share.
Towards the end of the project, with the shell and core works complete and the exhibition fitout in full swing we understood the true purpose of the building – despite its playful zigzag motif window bars, it was designed to be functional and for a specific purpose, yet over the course of the last 90 years was able to flex and adapt to remain relevant and useful.
In 2022 Eureka! Science + Discovery was opening to visitors, the Ferry was once again sailing to Seacombe, and the building was ready to host another new use and user. This gateway to the Wirral holds a special place in the history and heart of Wallasey yet is successful through its capacity for reinvention, to be the neutral backdrop to things happening in and around it. In this incarnation it is no different. It quietly hosts the interactive zones of the exhibition. Young visitors are inspired to explore STEAM knowledge and skills, and offers the iconic views back to Liverpool it always has done.
As the tide rises and falls, visitors and commuters cross the river to and from this beacon on the shore, as they have for hundreds of years. Today, the excitement and anticipation to board the Ferry ‘cross the Mersey is matched by a journey of Science and Discovery at Eureka! hosted by this wonderful, functional, enduring building.
