Great Crosby is an area of the town of Crosby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England and is historically, part of Lancashire.

Location

In 1907, the Victoria County History described Great Crosby's location thus: 'The ancient township of Great Crosby, which includes Waterloo, lies on the northern shore of the estuary of the Mersey, with a level sandy beach extending over three miles (5 km) from north-west to southeast; it stretches inland some two miles (3 km), and has an area of , of which belong to the present diminished township. The village, which lies more than a mile inland, is becoming modernized and growing quickly, especially along the principal road, that from Liverpool to Southport, which crosses the township in a northerly direction, with roads branching off to the shore and to Thornton. The Liverpool and Southport line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, opened in 1848, with stations at Waterloo and Blundellsands, also passes through the township. An electric tramway connects Great Crosby with the Seaforth terminus of the Liverpool Overhead Railway.'

History

Great Crosby was a small village of Viking origin until the arrival of the railway in the 1840s. The village grew rapidly during the late 19th and early 20th century and merged with a number of distinct areas with their own character, to form the Great Crosby urban district. These areas included:

  • Crosby Village, the main area for shopping, pubs and restaurants
  • Blundellsands, a middle class residential area close to the seafront
  • Brighton-le-Sands
  • Thornton, a residential area of semi-detached and detached housing which dates mainly from the 1930s.

Great Crosby was formerly a chapelry in the parish of Sephton, in 1866 Great Crosby became a separate civil parish, in 1894 Great Crosby became an urban district, the urban district annexed Little Crosby in 1932. On 9 November 1937, the district was combined with the Waterloo with Seaforth urban district to form the municipal borough of Crosby, On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished and it became part of the new Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. In 1951 the parish had a population of 26,982. These boundary changes defined the town of Crosby in its modern borders and shrank down the modern area of Great Crosby from the old urban district, making it an area of the modern town of Crosby which today is a separate area of Crosby to Blundellsands, Brighton-le-Sands, and Thornton.

Amenities

Great Crosby has three fee-paying schools (Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Merchant Taylors' Girls' School, St Mary's College), a number of state schools (including Sacred Heart Catholic College) and parks facing the sea. In nearby Waterloo there is a cinema, the Plaza Community Cinema, which is run by volunteers.

In the past, Crosby had five cinemas: the Corona, and the Regent were in the northern part of the district. The Corona, almost opposite the Library, in College Road, was part of the Gaumont chain, and after merging with the Rank Organisation became a second-run house, as Rank already had taken over the Plaza in Waterloo, which became an Odeon and had the first run policy. The Corona played the Bill Hayley film 'Rock Around The Clock' just before the cinema closed in 1957 and demolished before the end of that decade.

Waterloo had two independent cinemas, the Queens on South Road and the Winter Gardens in Church Road. The Queens closed in the late fifties, and the Winter Gardens closed nearly ten years later.

Another cinema in the Great Crosby area was the Regent on Liverpool Road at the junction of Endbutt Lane; it became part of the ABC group, closed in 1967 to become a bingo hall, and has since become part of St. Mary's College. Land had been purchased in Crosby Village, across the road from the Crown Buildings, to be redeveloped into a Super Cinema. This never happened due to the onset of World War II. By the time building restrictions were lifted in the mid-1950s, cinema admissions were in decline. The land remained derelict until the 1960s when the Midland Bank and Satterthwaite's shop, amongst others, were built on the site.

Above the College Road shops, from the Corona Cinema to the corner with Brompton Avenue, was the Corona Ballroom, mostly used for ballroom dancing. The entrance to the ballroom was in Brompton Avenue. Another musical venue was St. Lukes Church Hall on Liverpool Road, where regular Saturday night dances were held.

Alexandra Hall, completed in 1888 and situated at the junction of Mersey Road, College Road and Coronation Road was originally the Town Hall for the Crosby Urban District Council. When the Great Crosby and Waterloo with Seaforth Urban Districts were merged into the Borough of Crosby, the council offices were transferred to Waterloo Town Hall. The frontage of the red brick Alexandra Hall had an ironwork and glass canopy, which was removed in the late 1950s because of rust erosion. Alexandra Hall played host to The Beatles, before they became superstars, in January 1961.