Article: Birkenhead: faith in the future; Across the Mersey lies Birkenhead, a Victorian 'city of the future', with the potential for an urban renaissance.

I failed my driving test in Birkenhead 40 years ago. Its gridiron of broad granite streets stretched into the distance, thinly populated with buildings that didn't match the grandeur of the plan. At each wide-open unmarked crossroad, I offered the gesture of changing down to third, instead of stopping before looking both ways. Nowadays the gridiron has road markings, but little else has changed.

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Back in 1845, Birkenhead was planned as a 'city of the future' with 'no lanes, no cul-de-sacs, no courts, none of the architectural curses of Liverpool'. The Edinburgh Journal reported 'the sudden rise of a new city in England', describing ...

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