Birkenhead U-Boat Story museum plans unveiled

The three-storey building will showcase the U-534 submarine

Plans for a new interactive U-Boat Story museum have been unveiled as part of a government-backed £19.6m regeneration programme for Merseyside.

A planning application has been made for the site next to the Woodside Ferry Terminal in Birkenhead, Wirral.

According to Big Heritage, the museum will have three storeys and include a riverside café and event space.

Matt Giles, from MGMA Architects, said a series of exciting heritage projects for Birkenhead could follow.

Visitors will be able to "encounter from multiple levels" a German submarine from World War II.

One of only four surviving U-boats - and the only one in Britain - U-534 has not been accessible to the public since a former museum on the site closed in 2020 due to problems with the roof and waterproofing.

The plans will be considered by Wirral Council at a later date

According to planning documents, U-534 would be retained "at the heart of a visitor attraction dedicated to the Battle of the Atlantic, connecting Birkenhead with this world-shaping story".

The submission continues: "Together with the sister venue at Western Approaches, a new campus across the Mersey will be formed, bringing together the Allied HQ with the enemy submarine, the hunter and the hunted."

Dean Paton, chief executive officer at Big Heritage, said they were "honoured to be building a fitting venue to tell that story in Birkenhead alongside Western Approaches in Liverpool where the conflict was directed from".

Mr Giles said the new museum would bring "millions of pounds to the area, create jobs and put Birkenhead on the national map as a heritage hot-spot for the UK".

The proposal is being funded by £19m of Levelling Up funding provided by the government to regenerate the area around Woodside.

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