Historic park lodge to be auctioned off after plans fall through

North Park Lodge was built in the late 19th century but is now deemed surplus to council requirements having been unused for some time.

by Lisa Rand

A historic building in a popular Bootle park could be sold at auction after a decision by Sefton Council to dispose of it as surplus to requirements.

North Park Lodge on Stanley Road in Bootle is set to be marketed for disposal after Sefton Council recommended the building be sold as part of wider asset savings plans.

A delegated decision report published on May 11 states there is ‘no prospect’ of a community group proceeding with a lease on North Park Lodge, which could have brought the disused building, now in need of work, back into use.

The Gateway Collective, which runs a community café at a community garden adjacent to the site in North Park next to Bootle Leisure Centre, had, according to the report, hoped to lease the building.

However, the report continued: ‘a representative of the Gateway Collective confirmed on 12 February 2026 that there is no available grant funding for refurbishment and their focus remains on their existing offer which includes a garden, kitchen and café site.’

Council officers said the organisation had made ‘significant efforts’ to develop proposals around the building but concluded the plans were not financially viable.

The decision means the lodge could now be placed up for auction as part of the council’s wider disposal programme.

North Park itself was laid out during Bootle’s rapid 19th century expansion and formed part of a wider network of Victorian public parks developed as the town’s population and dock economy grew.

Buildings such as North Park Lodge originally formed part of the civic infrastructure surrounding those parks and were typically used to house park keepers and other staff. Pictures held by Sefton archives show events taking place near the lodge in years past, including sheep dog trials held in the park during the 1930s. The Monitor obtained a copy of the image using reader donations.

Like many older council-owned buildings, however, the lodge has faced long-running maintenance pressures in more recent decades.

Gateway Collective became involved with the site in recent years through community gardening, workshops, environmental projects and activities intended to encourage wider public use of the park.

A planning application linked to the construction of the community café, built from converted shipping containers, referred to hopes the project could help support a future lease of the lodge. However, the council said this now appeared ‘unlikely’, leading to the recommendation to sell the building.

The decision follows a report brought to Sefton Council’s cabinet in December as part of a wider plan for unused property and asset disposals.

Gateway Collective was approached for comment.

before you go …

By popular demand, well at the request of my youngest son, I’ve also included a picture he took of some beautiful wildflowers on the approach to Gateway Collective we spotted during our visit to North Park earlier this week. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

in case you missed us …

This week the Monitor has been talking about why we exist at all, and how we’d love you to get involved too in this slightly cheekily named number:

Brown envelopes, a simple idea and a call to action

The Mersey Monitor was founded on a pretty simple belief: that people taking part in local public life is crucial to a thriving democracy, and further, that people are better able to take part in that public life when they understand how the places they live actually function (or don’

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

Continuing a bit of a Sefton theme this week, we also took a look at the first part of the borough’s annual council meeting, with an emotional speech by the outgoing mayor Cllr June Burns, who lost her seat at recent elections:

‘Class act’ mayor found out seat was lost while at Buckingham Palace

Sefton’s outgoing mayor said she was ‘at Buckingham Palace with 8,000 people‘ when she found out she had lost her council seat. Outgoing Sefton Mayor, former Cllr June Burns, who represented Park ward before losing her seat in the new Maghull East ward at the recent local elections,

The Mersey MonitorLisa Rand

We’ve also got a bank holiday themed piece coming out tomorrow, which will be sent to members signed up to receive emails, so please do consider joining if you’d like a slice of Liverpool life and a taste of history dropping in your inbox. If not, of course, you can just check back on the site - and if you like what you see, give us a share and help spread the word the Monitor is in town.

one last thing …

Here at the Monitor, we’d love you to get involved in any way you can. Whether you’ve got ideas for stories we should be looking at, are interested in becoming a contributor, or just by taking the time to have a nose, we’re grateful for you being a part of what we’re doing here.

You can always email us in confidence at themerseymonitor@outlook.com or call 07442 402 023.

If you’d like to make a donation, we’d be very grateful for your support and it will help keep the Monitor sustainable. We don’t - and won’t - have wealthy backers or thirsty shareholders, nor will you find any paywalls cajoling you to stump up to read half an article. We are truly and only reader funded and we’d love your help. Any donation is welcome, and you can do that by clicking here: https://www.merseymonitor.com/#/portal/support

You can also set up a regular donation here: Donate

We have set the donation pages so that we aren’t notified of who has donated, this is to help safeguard editorial independence, but also means we can’t individually thank you for your contributions to help keep the Monitor sustainable. Please know your support means a lot, we appreciate you helping sustain local public interest journalism and helping to ensure free access to all.