The history of development in Birkenhead is very much that of a Victorian ‘new town’, developing hugely during the years of the 19th century. The oldest buildings in the town date back to 1150. They include Birkenhead Priory, a Benedictine monastery, which survived until 1536 when King Henry VIII began the closure of all monasteries throughout England and Wales. The Priory is now popular as sister site to the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum.

Once the monastery had closed the land was farmed by a series of Lords of the Manor, who also had the rights to operate the ferry. There was, however, no more than a sparse scattering of houses in Birkenhead. The growth of Liverpool to one of England’s major ports mostly took place during the 18th century. Once the first steam ferry ran across the Mersey in 1817, it became easier for Liverpool merchants to travel over the river to Liverpool’s centre than by road from the outskirts of the town. Thus the growth of Birkenhead began.

It was in this atmosphere of enterprise that the intellectuals of the town felt a museum and art gallery was important for the prestige of Birkenhead. History was already being preserved: in the 1890’s the ruins of Birkenhead Priory were bought by public subscription, fully restored and presented to the Borough Council.

The first building for a museum and art gallery came available in 1909 with the opening of a new Public Library, funded by Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish philanthropist. With the old library now vacant, the Birkenhead Art Club, which had many rich and influential members – many of them town councillors – brought pressure to bear. The old library was converted in 1912, and a collection began to be formed. The Mayor of Birkenhead, A.W. Willmer, from the family that owned the town’s principal newspaper the Birkenhead News, devoted his £500 mayor’s salary to the purchase of paintings for the new art gallery and many of the ‘great and good’ gave items from their own collections.

Some significant paintings had already been presented to the town for exhibition in the magnificent Town Hall in Hamilton Square.  These included T.S. Cooper’s huge vision of the Battle of Waterloo, painted in 1847, and the one-time Royal Academy president C.L. Eastlake’s Brutus exhorting the Romans to revenge the death of Lucretia, painted early in his career in 1813 and severely neo-classical. Both of these were given to the town by John Williamson, a Scottish-born Birkenhead resident who made his considerable wealth from shipping, insurance and trade with South America, and as a director of the Cunard shipping line.

It was a bequest from Williamson, and a further one from his son Patrick, that gave Birkenhead the money to build a new art gallery.

Opened in 1928 the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum – named after its benefactors – is a single-storey, unobtrusive classical building. It is not in the town centre, in a grand square or even a park, but in the residential suburb of Oxton, which made it convenient for its intended middle-class audience.

Henry Meynell Rheam, “Green & Blue”

It was designed without windows to maximise display space (with discrete top lighting with blinds) and – almost unique for its date – a humidifying system to protect the works of art.

The collection that was moved in to the new gallery had developed considerably since its inception. The works of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, heavily collected by local patrons, were given generously to both the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Williamson.

Watercolours are particularly well represented in the Williamson’s early collections. This was particularly influenced by Dr S.H. Nazeby Harrington, Deputy Chairman of the Libraries, Museum & Arts Committee of Birkenhead Borough Council, who collected and wrote about art himself. In the 1920’s and 1930’s a huge number of British watercolours were purchased, to make the collection as comprehensive as possible. Efforts were always made to cast the net as wide as possible, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, to show the range and variety of work produced in the medium.

Less well represented in the collections is the 20th century, as the curators of the time did not feel confident in purchasing modern work. However many exhibitions of contemporary art are – and always have been –  regularly held in the galleries.

 

Nowadays, the Williamson’s specialism lies in artists with local connections. Artists who have been prominent on Merseyside – many of whom have been students or teachers in Liverpool or Birkenhead – are well represented. We also have strong links with galleries and artists in Wales. The Fine Art collection represents these artists well, accompanied by a selection of work by some famous names, which together give a fascinating art-historical overview of the region’s art.

The development of the museums in Birkenhead came at a time when a generation of wealthy collectors had such civic pride that many made donations and bequests to the museum. As a result, the collection in many areas grew in a haphazard way. Oriental ceramics, West African woodcarvings, Irish glass and Cretan antiquities all figure in the collections.

Of particular significance are the developments connected directly to the Merseyside area. Local ceramics include the Knowles Boney collection of Liverpool Porcelain, from the second half of the 18th century, and Della Robbia Pottery. And the maritime gallery opened in 1963, which brought models, pictures and artefacts from shipping lines with offices in Liverpool together with an equivalent collection drawn from Cammell Laird and items from the history of the Mersey Ferries.

This local aspect is vital to the success of the Williamson. When the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral was formed in 1974, the Williamson ceased to be purely for Birkenhead and instead become the focus of artistic activity for the entire borough. The gallery’s role developed as a concert and meeting venue, which it maintains today alongside our active exhibition programme. We’re proud to host a range of groups meeting for varies purposes throughout the week.