UPDATE (01 July 2010) SORRY TO REPORT THAT THE DEVELOPER DEMOLISHED THE BUILDING ON FRIDAY 25th JUNE BEFORE WIRRAL BOROUGH COUNCIL'S PLANNING COMMITTEE COULD MEET ON THE SITE TO SEE THE FORMER PUB FOR THEMSELVES. 

UPDATE (11 November 2012) AS OF NOVEMBER 2012, NO BUILDING WORK HAS STARTED. THE SITE IS OVERTAKEN BY WEEDS AND IS FENCED OFF.

THIS PETITION IS NOW CLOSED

ORIGINAL TEXT:

The Great Eastern Pub is located in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />township of New Ferry on the Wirral peninsula side of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool.  The pub was built as a pub/hotel in the 1860s near to the river as the area grew as a tourist resort.  In 1888/9, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's ship "The Great Eastern" was broken up for scrap on the shore behind the pub.  Most items from the ship were recycled, but some artefacts such as its bar and a stained glass window were sold at auction and bought by the pub's then owners to be fitted into the building.  The pub was renamed "The Great Eastern Picnic Hotel" in honour of this, although those artefacts were removed during subsequent refurbishments. 

The pub closed down in 2007 and has remained vacant ever since. It was sold at the end of 2009, and last week (24th Feb 2010) a planning application was submitted by Worksharp Eco Homes Ltd to demolish it to make way for 10 no. 2 storey homes.  Members of the community are alarmed that no effort has been made to retain the pub building as part of the development.  No new buildings can ever be as visually distinctive as the pub which is the only major landmark in this part of New Ferry, and the only remaining historic building remaining from New Ferry's days as a tourist resort in the latter 19th century.   <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />