Report (Permission Visit) Toxteth Reservoir 11th September 2015

[The Man In Black]

High Park Street Reservoir, Grade II listed High Park Street Reservoir was built in 1845 and lies just south of the City Centre in the Dingle area of the city. The Reservoir was designed to provide clean water in order to improve health and sanitation for the rapidly increasing population of the City.

It is a vast, solidly built, rectangular structure enclosing approximately 2600m2 with a tower at one corner. It has massive external walls of sandstone that decrease in thickness with height, brick floors and high vaulted brick ceilings supported on cast iron columns. A series of brick columns and arches form a ‘cloister’ around the main space. The roof is covered in earth and provides spectacular views across Liverpool, the River Mersey, and beyond. Until 1997, it was used for the storage of water, but it has become redundant. The structure has the potential to become a landmark building for the benefit of the local community, and the City of Liverpool. The building is managed by a Social Enterprise, Dingle 2000, who are looking at potential options for transforming the Reservoir from a ‘monument’ to a working building.

 

[ACID- REFLUX]

Looks an interesting place Is this a permissive visit ? going off the lighting inside or did you just flick the switch

If you can add the correct image links to the pics on Flickr or whatever you use then we"ll be actually able to view them without going into your folder or whatever it is.

Edit That's a lot better

The local area seems to offer quire a few underground experiences , which I must add are generally a lot more tidy than then streets above them

 

[Bolts]

Any chance you could sort out your pics?
Looking good though

 

[dweeb]

OK pics sorted.

And very nice pictures they are too...

 

[Speed]

That's a nice one.

 

[The Man In Black]

Sorry guys I should have said at the start this was a permission visit of a kind I was allowed in but not for picture I did get questioned when I was almost done taking them there is a way in if you can climb and use a rope to lower

 

[cruachan]

Pic #4 is a belter. That would look fantastic printed on A3+.

J

 

[The Kwan]

Cheers for posting this up mate, it is feckin Glorious!

 

[Lord Oort]

Very nice processing there mate! Thanks for sharing

 

[Will Knot]

Well this is pretty AWESOME....nearly as good as the trip we did to Fletchers together
Great lighting and pics mate.....

 

[skgogosfan]

Thanks for posting - this is a fascinating place to get inside,not just to see the scale of it but to look at the quality of building work that went into such a functional structure that the public would never see...even the floor is paved! I'm very fond of this place as it got me into UE ; we were told as kids that the old school was inside it,behind those doors,and it was of course haunted too! Neither,obviously,are true,but "what's hiding behind that door?" stuck!

Come Heritage Open Days then,I too had to go and look! What's not too obvious is where the water goes - if you look on Street View there's a big tower* in one corner. This houses all the filters and purification equipment and after it goes through that it enters the reservoir through a big black U-pipe in that corner - but originally through the stone incline you can see in the last but one shot. It goes out through some valves in the floor in another corner. In the second picture you can see some railings - they're around a massive "plughole" which is an emergency drain for emptying the reservoir quickly,maybe if it sprung a leak**. I couldn't see the plug lol ; I assume it's actually a big metal plate somewhere down the drain they open from the control tower.

The doors,incidentally,aren't original but [perhaps excepting the one by the tower] were added later. The original access into the reservoir is from a manhole in the roof and down some scarily narrow spiral stairs in the same corner the water leaves. If you look on Street View's aerial shots,you can see it clearly. The local scallies also use the roof to play football on,or so I've been told.

*that wasn't open to the public-the usual H&S reasons. Grr.
**which is why it closed - it started to leak once the water level got too high,despite sealant being pumped in between the inner and outer walls.

Dave.

 

[The Man In Black]

Thanks for posting - this is a fascinating place to get inside,not just to see the scale of it but to look at the quality of building work that went into such a functional structure that the public would never see...even the floor is paved! I'm very fond of this place as it got me into UE ; we were told as kids that the old school was inside it,behind those doors,and it was of course haunted too! Neither,obviously,are true,but "what's hiding behind that door?" stuck!

Come Heritage Open Days then,I too had to go and look! What's not too obvious is where the water goes - if you look on Street View there's a big tower* in one corner. This houses all the filters and purification equipment and after it goes through that it enters the reservoir through a big black U-pipe in that corner - but originally through the stone incline you can see in the last but one shot. It goes out through some valves in the floor in another corner. In the second picture you can see some railings - they're around a massive "plughole" which is an emergency drain for emptying the reservoir quickly,maybe if it sprung a leak**. I couldn't see the plug lol ; I assume it's actually a big metal plate somewhere down the drain they open from the control tower.

The doors,incidentally,aren't original but [perhaps excepting the one by the tower] were added later. The original access into the reservoir is from a manhole in the roof and down some scarily narrow spiral stairs in the same corner the water leaves. If you look on Street View's aerial shots,you can see it clearly. The local scallies also use the roof to play football on,or so I've been told.

*that wasn't open to the public-the usual H&S reasons. Grr.
**which is why it closed - it started to leak once the water level got too high,despite sealant being pumped in between the inner and outer walls.

Dave.

Cheers for that Dave I may try a none permission visit through the old way sometime