With Wirral Council looking to ‘move forward at pace’ to create a new market in Birkenhead the current market site is set for demolition. Tony McDonough reports
Wirral Council is looking to demolish the current Birkenhead Market building as it pushes on with plans to create a new facility.
Market traders currently operate out of a Victorian building in Grange Precinct where they have been since 1977. However, the council is finally ready to “move forward at pace” on its stop-start plans for a new market.
In November 2025 LBN reported the council was keen to set up a new market in the former TJ Hughes store in the Pyramids shopping centre. The store closed its doors in 2021.
Two two previous projects to create a new market have been shelved in the last two years. Plans for a new facility in the House of Fraser site on Grange Road were scrapped in December 2023.
And, late in 2025, councillors abandoned a £12m plan for a market in the former Argos outlet, despite having already spent £1.3m on it.
On Monday the authority announced it had applied for planning permission to demolish the Grange Precinct site. Notices have been placed on the market building saying the work could start from October – but only after all current market traders have relocated.
Additional options for relocating some traders into individual retail units within the Grange Precinct are also being developed where this is the preference for particular businesses.
This new way forward for the Market follows a number of meetings involving traders and members of Wirral Council’s leadership, and further engagement with traders will continue as plans develop.
Wirral Council said: “Work to obtain robust costings and timelines to demolish the existing market building is currently underway.
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“The demolition of the current building will allow for a second phase of work which will look to repurpose the site, tying into other projects planned in Birkenhead.
“Relocating the market to the former TJ Hughes site will help ensure wider town‑centre improvement work can progress, while plans for the existing market site are developed in line with other projects in the town centre.”