'Beautiful' former hospital set for demolition

Park House in Waterloo, which dates back to 1878, will make way for apartments for older people

A former hospital and 19th Century Victorian villa is set to be demolished after plans were approved to develop new homes for older people.

Park House in Waterloo, Merseyside, has been subject to a series of failed planning applications since the building was closed in 2015.

The property had been described as one of the town's most beautiful buildings, but fell into dereliction in recent years and was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 2022.

Plans are now in place to demolish the building to make way for 106 apartments, which have been approved by Sefton Council's planning committee.

In new plans submitted to the council's, the current applicant, Anchor Limited 2022, outlines a commitment to carry out the demolition and ensure minimal environmental impacts.

It gave a deadline of 15 March for delivering the project.

'Increasingly untenable'

A spokesman for the firm said Anchor planned to develop the former hospital into "homes for social rent for older people"

Park House was built in 1878 as a home for a wealthy Liverpool corn merchant and his family.

The house, in the quiet district of Waterloo Park, is set in two acres of peaceful gardens and has its own fishing lake.

It was later converted into a convalescence and nursing hospital, then a guest house, which was run by the Augustinian Sisters from 1902.

Back in 2015, the trustees of that site carried out a review of its operations and "reluctantly" decided to close and sell off the Haigh Road site after the trustees said the property had become "increasingly untenable".