Bordered by Bootle to the north, Walton and Everton to the east and Vauxhall to the south, Kirkdale occupies a slice of north Liverpool with a character shaped largely by its Victorian working-class roots. The district is a Liverpool City Council ward covering both Kirkdale and Vauxhall, and at the 2011 Census its population stood at 16,115. Boundary Street, an ancient dividing line between the former township of Kirkdale and the city of Liverpool, still separates the two areas today.
History and Regeneration
Kirkdale was once a township and chapelry within the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill. In 1866 it became a separate civil parish, and by 1921 the parish population had reached 69,857 – a figure that reflects how densely built-up the area had become with Victorian terraced housing. On 1 April 1922 the parish was abolished and merged into Liverpool. Liverpool’s expansion had already absorbed Kirkdale back in the 1860s, long before that formal reorganisation. Politically, it formed part of the Liverpool Kirkdale parliamentary constituency from 1885 until 1983. More recently, the old Easby estate has been demolished and replaced with two-, three- and four-bedroom properties built for both existing residents and newcomers.
Getting Around
Three Merseyrail stations serve the district, a concentration explained by its position where branches of the Northern Line diverge. Bank Hall station lies close to the Bootle boundary on the branch running to Southport, while Kirkdale station covers the main residential area. Sandhills is the busiest of the three, functioning as the Northern Line junction station.
Kirkdale Cemetery and Places of Worship
Kirkdale Cemetery holds 386 Commonwealth War Graves from the First World War and 115 from the Second World War. More than 100 of the First World War graves belong to Canadian servicemen who died at No. 5 Canadian Hospital, established at Kirkdale in July 1917. Two War Graves plots record the names of those buried there on Screen Wall memorials. Among others buried in the cemetery are victims of the Liverpool Blitz, including Francis William Beaumont, son of the Dame of Sark, and his wife, actress Mary Lawson. For worship, the Church of England parish church is St. Lawrence with St. Paul’s, which joined the Liverpool North Deanery in 2002. The large Catholic community is served by the Parish of St John and St John the Evangelist’s Church, a Grade II listed building, with its affiliated primary school across Sessions Road.