Each year all over the country, hundreds of places that are not usually open to the general public throw open their doors and allow people to look around at the hidden treasures that we walk past each day without knowing. 

Karen, Tom and Steve were up for going to investigate so we headed off to the Toxteth Reservoir.  The Reservoir was completed in 1853 and originally had a tower with a pretty spire, this was struck by lightning and destroyed in the 1960’s and replaced with a dome –but it is still a sight to see.

 

It was built to cope with the mass immigration due to successive Irish Potato famines – the number of people in the area meant that the water supply was becoming polluted and it was critical to provide a safe, clean and reliable source of water for people.  Also, it was the firefighting water supply for Liverpool’s South Docks.

The reservoir inside is hauntingly beautiful and has a chill in the air, the thick walls that were built to hold 1,750,000 gallons of water keeps out the warmth of the sun.  The reservoir has been used as a film location for various things, but most famously Peaky Blinders.  The reservoir stopped holding water in 1997 and was returned to the local social enterprise Dingle 2000 Development Trust who have spent over 20 years regenerating the area.  Why don’t you become a friend of Toxteth Reservoir on www.thereservoir.space and find out when you can go for a look round too.

Afterwards, we went to Toxteth Town Hall and listened to a really interesting presentation about the restoration of the main hall by Denise Bernard.  The Thompson Community Hall is a real hidden gem and truly stunning and it was really interesting to hear the story of the work that went into restoring it to its former glory. 

We then went into the basement which used to house a mortuary and is believed to be haunted by a ghost that whistles and we saw the secret tunnels that snake their way around the building to who knows where! 

Toxteth Town Hall has allotments behind it and we went there, Laura and Leo from Sola Arts showed us how to make seed bombs so that we can sow wild flowers on patches of waste land, everyone really enjoyed getting their hands dirty!  Thank you to everyone for making our day really enjoyable and what amazingly beautiful places we have right on our doorstep.

If you would like to know more about Natural Breaks and what we do we would love to hear from you!