Gordon Working Lads Institute Now Kirkdale Community Centre

SJ 3493 16/1210

STANLEY ROAD L4 No 238a, Gordon Working Lads Institute, now Kirkdale Community Centre

(Formerly listed as Kirkdale Community Centre, STANLEY ROAD)

GV II

Working Lads' Institute,1886, by David Walker of Liverpool. Common brick with red brick dressings, slate roof. In a form of North European Late Gothic. Two storeys with attics, 9 x 5 bays; two bays at each end break forward under shaped gables. Windows have elliptical heads with blind tracery in the tympana and small-paned casements. Gables contain two oeil-de-boeuf windows. First three bays of the return have stepped gables.

History: It is thought to be Britain's oldest surviving purpose-built Boys’ Club and set the standard for many clubs that followed it. The Institute was erected at a cost of £50,000 by William Cliff, a Liverpool merchant, as a memorial to his eldest son who died at 11 years of age in 1853. The Institute was so named to commemorate and perpetuate the memory of Major General Charles Gordon, who was killed in battle at Khartoum in 1885, prompting an outbreak of national mourning and hero-worship. The ethos of the Institute was to promote educational, recreational and sporting facilities to poor and disadvantaged boys of Liverpool and so help them to live 'happy and useful lives' (as stated on an extensive marble plaque in the vestibule).

The building closed in 1995 but was revived in 2000 by a local action group. An £800,000 grant from the European Regional Development Fund provided the means for extensive restoration of many of the internal features.

Listing NGR: SJ3467493460