Newsham Park Hospital

Before 1869 there was no institution in Liverpool to support and educate the orphans of British seamen. In 1868 a group of leading ship-owners and merchants set about changing that; at a public meeting at the Mercantile Marine Service Association Rooms on 16 December 1868, Ralph Brocklebank and Bryce Allan proposed the resolution to found such an establishment, with James Beazley invited to chair the committee. The next day Beazley wrote to nine colleagues offering £500 towards a building fund if they would match it. The response was immediate, and a wider public appeal followed. The Liverpool Seamen's Orphan Institution opened in temporary rented rooms in Duke Street on 9 August 1869, with 46 boys and 14 girls in residence by the year's end.

In April 1870 Liverpool Town Council granted 7,000 square yards of land on the north-east side of Newsham Park. Brocklebank, the first President, laid the foundation stone on 11 September 1871, and the chapel's stone followed on 1 August 1873, laid by Charles MacIver with a silver trowel. Beazley told the crowd the building would cost £25,000 and would open free of debt. The north wing opened informally on 30 January 1874, and the institution was formally opened on 30 September 1874 by the Duke of Edinburgh, the 'Sailor Prince'. A sanatorium, paid for entirely by Ralph Brocklebank at a cost of around £4,000, was opened by the Mayor and Mayoress and reported by the Liverpool Mercury in May 1879, and swimming baths measuring 60 by 26 feet followed in July 1900.

By June 1884 around 800 fatherless children were being supported, roughly half living in the orphanage and half assisted at home with their mothers, funded wholly by voluntary donations. Queen Victoria visited in May 1886 and added her name to the list of patrons. By 1899 there were 321 children in residence and 508 receiving outdoor relief. The First World War brought a thousand orphans into its care; after a visit by Queen Mary and the Princess Royal in 1921, George V granted the institution the title 'Royal' and a Royal Charter of Incorporation. During the Second World War the children were evacuated to Hill Bark at Frankby on the Wirral, the country home of committee member E. B. Royden, and in 1946 preparations were made for a return to Newsham Park. The site later served as a hospital and an asylum, and today it stands derelict.

Newsham Park Hospital is derelict and is not a casual visitor attraction. From the park, however, you can take in the scale of the thing: the tower from which the institution's flag first flew in August 1873, and a building raised to admit two hundred children.

If you want to go inside, the practical route is to book onto one of the organised public ghost hunts held at the venue, as the building is otherwise closed. Go with the history in mind as much as the hauntings — it makes for a far richer night.