Sitting on the eastern side of Liverpool, Old Swan is bordered by Knotty Ash, Stoneycroft, Broadgreen, Fairfield, and Wavertree. Its centre is a busy road junction where Prescot Road crosses Derby Lane, St Oswald Street, and Broadgreen Road. The A57 runs straight through Old Swan, connecting the area westward through Kensington and Fairfield and eastward through Knotty Ash toward Prescot and St Helens. The 2021 Census recorded a population of 15,596, spread across 7,097 households.
A Name from a Coaching Inn
The name Old Swan traces back to a public house called the Three Swans, which stood at the corner of Prescot Lane (now Prescot Road) and Pettycoat Lane (now Broadgreen Road) during the 18th century. The inn served travellers on the pack-horse route along Prescot Lane, and its name came from the coat of arms of the Walton family, who were local landowners at the time. The prefix “Old” was added gradually as the area developed around this original landmark.
Housing, Retail, and Local Services
Much of Old Swan’s housing consists of densely packed terraced streets, though Doric Park offers a quieter green space tucked behind the rows of houses. Liverpool Shopping Park runs parallel to the neighbourhood and underwent improvement works with a second phase opening in autumn 2020. For health services, Old Swan has an NHS walk-in health centre, an urgent care unit, a GP practice on Derby Lane, pharmacies, opticians, dentist practices, and an emergency ambulance station on St Oswald Street. Six schools serve the area, including Broadgreen Primary School, St Anne’s Stanley C of E Primary, St Oswald’s Catholic Primary, Corinthian Avenue Primary, St Cuthbert Catholic Primary, and Dixons Broadgreen Academy, a secondary school with a sixth form attached.
Who Lives Here
According to the 2021 Census, 86.3% of residents identified as White, with Asian, Asian British, or Asian Welsh people making up 4.8% of the population. English was the main household language for 92.0% of homes. The largest age groups were 35 to 49 year olds (19.0%) and 50 to 64 year olds (21.1%). Of the 6,833 people in employment, the biggest sector was human health and social work (21.3%), followed by wholesale and retail trade (16.6%), with education accounting for 8.9%. Just over a third of households, 38.5%, were single-person homes.