Old fire engine station in 'famous' village 'brought back to life'

A former fire engine station located in one of Merseyside's most beautiful and famous villages has been "brought back to life." For decades, many from across our region and beyond have paid as visit to Port Sunlight - an idyllic village which was one of the first towns built for the workers.

The area looks like something out of a history book and was founded by William Hesketh Lever, Lord Leverhulme, in 1888, for the "Sunlight Soap" factory employees. Lord Leverhulme wanted his workers to thrive rather than just survive and today, Port Sunlight has retained much of its 19th century charm, with more than 900 Grade II-listed homes.

And now one of them, which has been been unused for years, has had new life breathed into it. The former fire engine station, situated in a lane that runs between Park Road and Wood Street, has been transformed into a studio, workshop and exhibitions space.

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Known for her sculptures, including the statue of Cilla Black in Liverpool’s Mathew Street, acclaimed artist Emma Rodgers started moving into the site last October. The building, which boasts many original features, has had repairs and renovation work to bring it into the next chapter of its long history.

Port Sunlight Village Trust marketing and communications manager Brian Pilkington said this is part of a wider project from the trust to reawaken some of the empty or under-used buildings around the village. For the Liverpool ECHO How It Used To Be series, Brian, 32, told the ECHO: "The fire engine station was built in 1902 and it was designed by William & Segar Owen.

"When William Lever was creating a place for his soap factory workers to live, they were one of the most prolific architects who kind of realised his vision. Through this, there were various different aspects to the village that created provisions for the people who lived here.

"You had the hospital, you had retail like shops, but you also had the fire engine station. It was originally used as stables and then it officially became a fire engine station in 1906.

"The horse drawn appliances were replaced by motorized vehicles in 1914. It mainly served the village, but also the factory as well, as obviously with it being a factory, there was a lot of fire risks, so it was situated purposefully very close to the factory."

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There was also a fire station within the factory, built in 1885. They were both operational until 1957 when Cheshire Fire Brigade built a new station off New Chester Road to serve the area instead.

But the building was most recently used as offices by a security company before becoming empty. Brian said: "We've got a few different buildings in the village that have kind of been empty or underused for a number of years, so it's kind of part of a wider project to bring those buildings back to life again.

"It was just perfect really for what Emma needed and we had links already there, so it just felt like a really perfect fit. Since we've both residents and visitors, everyone's buzzing with excitement."

Artist Emma Rodgers, from Noctorum, has been visiting Port Sunlight since she was a child and "fell in love" with the fire engine station the first time she walked inside. Emma, 50, told the ECHO: "I know some of the team from the trust.

"I've exhibited in the Lady Lever on and off over the last 20 years and I've been working with National Museum Museums and galleries for over 25 years. I know the area, but I didn't actually know this building.

"The trust want to breathe new life into some of the empty buildings on the estate, so I was invited to come and have a little tour with the trust of some of the buildings. I just fell in love with this particular one because the light was fantastic.

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"The history is really quite exciting and it lent itself really beautifully to a work space. I've got a use for every room in the building and the flow of it's perfect as well for what I wanted to achieve.

I'm quite a big animal lover, so knowing that one half of it was stable just added that little extra to me." Emma said the space will constantly be changing, depending on pieces she is working on.

There will also be a studio for group workshops, which will connect with Port Sunlight Village Trust as an extended space for them to work with the community. Emma has also forged an artistic partnership with comedian and artist Johnny Vegas, who will occasionally be making use of the fire engine station as a studio space.

She said: "It's a two part building. so the part that I'll be doing a lot of my own work in that won't be open every day because sometimes my projects are a bit complex. But I want the gallery side of it to be really accessible and as open to the public as often as possible really to really breathe a bit of life into this part of the village.

"Johnny, he loves all the intricacies of the architecture and the room that he's got, one of the walls was very damp when we first moved in. When they removed the plaster, it revealed over a hundred years worth of history of the layers of paint and patina on it - it was just beautiful.

"So that's just perfect for him because he actually collects bricks and similar things and uses them in his artwork. It's like the room was made for him really."

So far, Emma said the feedback has been extremely positive from people living in the village and visitors. She said: " I was in painting on Saturday and cars were just pulling up to look at the building to see how it was going.

"People were just wishing us all the best and saying it's great to see like life coming back into the village. A lot of the neighbouring houses knock offering off me a cup of tea, just saying that they love that it's occupied, that something quite positive is happening here."

A pivotal moment in Port Sunlight Village Trust’s work to reawaken some of the empty or under-used buildings around the village, the ECHO recently reported how the old NatWest bank building on Greendale Road is also being transformed.

Preserving the integrity of the Grade-II listed building, the new café and bookshop comes from the team behind Nettle Wirral and renovations are expected to be complete by spring this year. Brian added: "The village as a whole is what we say one of the finest surviving examples of an industrial worker village.

"There's very few other similar kind of industrial settlements that were purposely built for workers that are in such a good condition. The fire engine station has been mostly untouched, apart from the inside that has been changed a bit to kind of fit its needs.

"But the outside of it is pretty much being perfectly preserved. That's kind of what's special about the village as a whole."

To find out more, visit the Port Sunlight Village Trust website here. To see work from Emma Rodgers, click here.