53°28′1″N 3°1′12.5″W / 53.46694°N 3.020139°W / 53.46694; -3.020139
25-580: 53°23′46″N 3°00′18″W / 53.396°N 3.005°W / 53.396; -3.005 Twelve Quays is a ferry terminal and business park which is located between East Float and the River Mersey at Birkenhead , in England . Twelve Quays separates Woodside from Seacombe . Twelve Quays is named from the quaysides which served the adjoining Morpeth Dock , Egerton Dock , Alfred Dock , Wallasey Dock and East Float, as well as quaysides on
50-470: A national base for marine engineering research and development and survival training as well as providing business accelerator space for the maritime sector. The project will cost £23m. Peel Holdings announced on 6 September 2006 the Wirral Waters project. This would allow for a £4.5bn of investment in the regeneration of the dockland area. This equates with an investment of over £14,000 for each of
75-607: A new public body was as a result of pressure from Parliament, dock merchants and some rival port operators. At one point the MDHB railway totalled 104 miles (166 km) of line, with connections to many other railways. A section of the line ran, unsegregated from other road traffic, along the dock road. Today only the Canada Dock Branch is used. In 1972, the MDHB was reconstituted as a company to allow it to raise money for new building initiatives and projects, including
100-478: A southern bridge, known as the "C" bridge, which was replaced with a modern flat-deck fixed concrete slab in 2017. Renovation work in the same year also replaced the "A" bridge with a lifting bridge powered by hydraulic rams. Work was expected to be completed by November 2017 but, due to complications, the bridge was not reopened until 28 June 2018. Joining the southern end of the Poulton district of Wallasey with
125-798: Is available. Great Float The Great Float is a body of water on the Wirral Peninsula , England, formed from the natural tidal inlet, the Wallasey Pool . It is split into two large docks , East Float and West Float , both part of the Birkenhead Docks complex. The docks run approximately 2 miles (3 km) inland from the River Mersey , dividing the towns of Birkenhead and Wallasey . The Great Float consists of 110 acres (45 ha) of water and more than 4 miles (6 km) of quays . Unlike in Liverpool , where
150-443: Is estimated to create over 27,000 permanent new jobs, aside from the employment required for construction and other peripheral employment. The Wirral Waters Baseline Study of July 2008 has been endorsed by Wirral Borough Council . In February 2009 the first stage of the planning application for the first major mixed use development masterplan/quarter was submitted. The development would be expected to take up to 30 years. The scheme
175-593: Is included in the Wirral Local Plan 2020–2035. Mersey Docks and Harbour Company The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool , on the River Mersey , England. These include the operation of the enclosed northern dock system that runs from Prince's Dock to Seaforth Dock , in
200-639: The Central Hydraulic Tower and Engine House (the tower is an accumulator tower ). Providing power for the movement of lock gates and bridges at Birkenhead Docks, it was completed in 1863. The design of the building was based on the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza Della Signoria, Florence , Italy. In March 2021, it was announced that the building would be brought back in to use as a Maritime Knowledge Hub and will be
225-708: The Liverpool Standard newspaper. Designed by James Meadows Rendel , protégé of Thomas Telford , the scheme was managed by the Birkenhead Dock Company until a financial crisis in 1847. The docks were taken over by the Liverpool Corporation in 1855. By 1858, the rights to dock ownership and revenues were transferred to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board , based in Liverpool. Graving docks were built in 1864 and 1877, on
250-645: The Old Dock , which was the world's first commercial wet dock . By 1750, the old Dock Committee was replaced by the Liverpool Dock Trustees . In order to provide stone for the construction of the expanded dock system, from 1830 the trustees (and later the MDHB) operated large quarries at Creetown , Scotland. The MDHB took over running of Liverpool's docks from the trustees in 1858. The need for Liverpool Corporation to divest its dock interests to
275-636: The new container dock at Seaforth . Four lightvessels in the approaches to the River Mersey were maintained by the MDHB until 1973. The UK Government had retained a 14% shareholding in MDHC which was sold on 30 March 1998. The company operated a private lifeboat station that was involved in a number of incidents over the years. The MDHC was accused of "macho management" by the Financial Times regarding its treatment of some of its staff in
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#1732791725153300-560: The 1990s, which resulted in the Liverpool dockers' strike . On 22 September 2005, the MDHC was acquired by Peel Ports, part of the property and transport group Peel Group , which owns a minority stake in Liverpool John Lennon Airport . Cammell Laird Dock is a dock at Birkenhead , on the Wirral Peninsula. It exits directly onto the River Mersey . The dock was built as part of an expansion of
325-479: The 320,000 population of Wirral. At the East Float and Vittoria Dock, the development would include several 50-storey skyscrapers, 5,000,000 square feet (465,000 m ) of new office space and 11,000,000 square feet (1,000,000 m ) for new residential apartments. A retail and leisure quarter at the former Bidston Dock site would encompass another 571,000 square feet (53,000 m ) of space. The whole project
350-467: The Great Float and Alfred Dock, one between the Great Float and Wallasey Dock and one between the Great Float and Egerton Dock. When originally built, all four were hydraulic swing bridge types. In the 1930s, most were replaced by bascule bridges. Only two bridges remain, but they remain known collectively as "Four Bridges": a northern red girdered bascule bridge , known as the "A" bridge, and
375-431: The Great Float in 1879. In the early 20th-century, Birkenhead Docks became an important flour milling centre, with numerous companies, including Joseph Rank Ltd and Spillers , located on the Great Float's quaysides. In the 1990s, long after the industry had gone into decline, most of these buildings were demolished. Two large warehouses remain, which have now been converted into residential apartments. The Great Float
400-603: The Great Float: In addition, three graving docks existed in the Great Float for ship repairs. Bidston No.3 Dock remains in use as part of the facilities of Cammell Laird Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders Ltd . The other graving docks were filled in during the 1980s. Historically, four movable bridges existed along the A554 Tower Road connecting the Seacombe district of Wallasey with Birkenhead: two between
425-495: The River Mersey. Wallasey Dock was infilled in 2001, to expand the land area of the site. The area was an artificial island , until the infilling of the Morpeth Dock entrance. Twelve Quays includes the former Wallasey Dock Impounding Station, and the Central Hydraulic Tower . Several bridges connect Twelve Quays to Birkenhead and Seacombe , two of these being along Tower Road and one at the entrance to Egerton Dock. Another of
450-598: The bridges along Tower Road was removed, when the East Float entrance to Egerton Dock was infilled. The ferry terminal was opened in Summer 2002 at a cost of £25m. It is used for transporting passengers and freight between Merseyside and Belfast , in Northern Ireland and freight to Dublin. Until 2023, it also served passengers to Dublin , in the Republic of Ireland . Owned by Mersey Docks and Harbour Company ,
475-689: The city of Liverpool and the dock facilities built around the Great Float of the Wirral Peninsula , located on the west side of the river. Peel Ports , the MDHC's parent company, owns other maritime facilities in the area, including the Cammell Laird shipyard, Tranmere Oil Terminal and the Manchester Ship Canal . Liverpool Common Council's Dock Committee was the original port authority. In 1709, it had been authorised to construct Liverpool's first enclosed ship basin,
500-579: The docks were built along the coastline of the River Mersey , Birkenhead Docks were designed as an inland system by enclosing the tidal inlet of Wallasey Pool . The construction of a cofferdam enabled land reclamation and excavations to take place. After the establishment of the Great Low Water Basin, Morpeth Dock and Egerton Dock , the Great Float was formed between 1851 and 1860 from most of what remained of Wallasey Pool. The plans for its construction were originally shown in 1844 in
525-542: The north end of Birkenhead, Duke Street bridge is also a bascule bridge but with painted green girders. Originally, it was a swing bridge. Furthest upstream is the Penny Bridge, on Wallasey Bridge Road, which crosses the head of the pool to connect Poulton with Bidston in Birkenhead. Replacing an earlier wooden bridge of 1843, the name derives from the 1896 one penny toll to cross in one direction. The bridge
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#1732791725153550-410: The south side of West Float. Established in 1853, Thomas Brassey 's Canada Works was built to the east of the Great Float. The entrance to the Great Float was originally through the Great Low Water Basin, which was enclosed in 1877 as Wallasey Dock . After this date, access from the river was provided via Alfred Dock and Morpeth Dock. The Resurgam , one of the first submarines , was tested in
575-561: The terminal replaced facilities at Brocklebank and Canada docks at Liverpool & reduces voyage times between Liverpool and Ireland by 90 minutes. Twelve Quays has a floating landing stage in the river that can take two ro-ro ferries at the same time. The terminal provides vehicle parking space on the site of the former Wallasey Dock . A courtesy bus operates from the terminal to a stop outside Birkenhead Hamilton Square railway station (and vice versa) in connection with Stena Line ferry sailings to and from Belfast. Through ticketing
600-462: Was replaced again in 1926 and provided access to Bidston Dock . The bridge was replaced by a new swing bridge in 1996 but since the dock itself has been filled in the mechanism has fallen into disrepair through lack of use and the bridge is now effectively a static structure. Jesse Hartley , who was responsible for many of Liverpool's maritime structures – including the Albert Dock , designed
625-664: Was the site of the Warship Preservation Trust 's exhibits from 2002 until its closure in February 2006. LCT 7074 Landfall is the last remaining tank landing craft which had served during D-Day . The landing craft was one of the Warship Preservation Trust exhibits and had sunk in East Float following the liquidation of the trust in 2006. The craft was refloated on 16 October 2014. The following docks were originally accessible from
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