Croxteth lies in the north of Liverpool, bordered by Norris Green, Gilmoss, Fazakerley and West Derby. The area is well connected by road, with the A580 East Lancashire Road running close to the north and the M57 motorway within easy reach. Merseytravel bus routes link Croxteth to Liverpool City Centre, Page Moss, Broadgreen Hospital, Fazakerley Hospital and Knowsley Industrial Estate. The nearest rail connection is Fazakerley railway station, roughly 3 miles away on the Kirkby branch of Merseyrail’s Northern Line. At the 2011 census, Croxteth had a population of 14,561.
Origins and Early History
The name Croxteth is thought to be of Old Norse origin, most likely meaning “Croc’s landing place” or “river-bend landing place”. It combines either the personal name Croc or the Norse word krókr (river-bend) with stǫð, meaning landing place or jetty, though some interpretations suggest the second element may be staðr, simply meaning place. The first families to move into the Croxteth estate arrived in 1951, settling an area that at the time had no roads, pavements, shops, pubs or buses. Those early residents included skilled workers from Slough and Rugby brought in to work at the English Electric and Napier factories on the East Lancs Road, alongside families from Liverpool’s dockland areas who had lost their homes to wartime bombing and slum clearance.
Housing and Development
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, large-scale residential building at Croxteth, combined with parallel development of neighbouring Norris Green, produced what is now regarded as the largest municipal housing estate in Europe. Later waves of housing brought families displaced by demolition in the Scotland Road area of the city, cleared during construction of the second Mersey Tunnel. In more recent decades, substantial portions of Croxteth Park and a City Council playing field have been sold off for further housing development. A proposed light rail line, Merseytram Line 1, was approved in 2002 and would have connected Croxteth and Kirkby to Liverpool City Centre via West Derby Road and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, though the scheme did not proceed. Croxteth is both a suburb of Liverpool and a Liverpool City Council ward, and though its housing is largely modern in character, the area retains traces of an older past – including the site of the Dog and Gun public house, a historic hostelry associated with hunting from Croxteth Hall, which was demolished in 2005.