Speke (/ˈspiːk/) is a suburb ofLiverpool,Merseyside, England. It is eight miles (thirteen kilometres) southeast of the city centre. Located near the widest part of theRiver Mersey, it is bordered by the suburbs ofGarston andHunts Cross, and nearby toHalewood,Hale Village, andWidnes. The rural area ofOglet borders its south.
The name derives from theOld EnglishSpec, meaning 'brushwood' or from Middle EnglishSpek(e), meaning 'woodpecker'.It was known asSpec in theDomesday Book, which gaveSpeke Hall as one of the properties held by Uctred. Today Speke Hall, now aTudor wood-framed house, is open to the public.
In the mid 14th century, themanors of Speke,Whiston,Skelmersdale, andParr were held byWilliam Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre.[1]
Speke was formerly atownship in the parish ofChildwall,[2] in 1866 Speke became a separatecivil parish, on 1 April 1932 the parish was abolished and merged with Liverpool.[3] In 1931 the parish had a population of 384.[4]
Until the 1930s development bySir Lancelot Keay, Speke was a small village with a population of 400; by the end of the 1950s more than 25,000 people were living in the area. The localAll Saints Church was built by the last resident owner of Speke Hall, Miss Adelaide Watt.[5]
From 1795 until 1921, the Speke estate had belonged to the Watt family; when the family died out, the estate was placed in trust.[6] It was bought by theLiverpool Corporation in 1928 for £200,000; the corporation's intention was to build a complete self-contained satellite town (at a time when thegarden city movement was underway). Theparish of Speke became part of thecounty borough ofLiverpool in 1932, having previously belonged to theWhiston Rural District.[7]
Constructed between 1930 and 1933, by the start ofWorld War II,Speke Airport was the second busiest in the UK. Retention of control by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in London after the war meant that it had lost its leading position in the UK by the 1950s. The industrial rise of Speke continued until the mid-1970s, when an equally rapid decline ensued over the next 20 years, particularly during the recessions of the early 1980s and early 1990s. The closure of theBryant and May match factory in December 1994 was a noted example of these problems, as was the closure of theTriumph car plant more than a decade before. The area has however retained a cluster of pharmaceutical facilities, with companies operating there includingEli Lilly and Company (Elanco),MedImmune, andNovartis.[8]
When the2000 Index of Multiple Deprivation was published, Speke was revealed to be the second most deprived of all 8,414 wards in England and Wales. OnlyBenchill in Manchester had a higher level of deprivation.
Speke is known forSpeke Hall, aTudor wood-framed house now owned by theNational Trust and open to the public. It is also notable as the location ofLiverpool John Lennon Airport, known until 2001 as Liverpool Speke Airport. From the mid-1990s the re-development of the original airport site, enabled by the construction of the new airport complex and runway, had left land available for the construction of a business park. The completion of theA5001 road consolidated the rise of the airport and improved communications in the area. TheSpeke Liverpool local history website shows a lot of the developments that changed Speke the village into Speke the estate with photographs and documents from the 1870s onwards.
TheNew Mersey Shopping Park was re-developed in 1999 from an older retail site. It houses many large retail and textile outlets as well as mainstream restaurants.[9] The New Mersey Retail Estate is situated between Speke and Garston, directly opposite to the Old Liverpool Airport main terminal building, which is now a hotel complex.
The area also features the Mersey Wave, officially opened on 15 December 2003, a 200 ft-long (61 m) and 100 ft (30 m) high illuminated sculpture comprising two sets of sixaluminium fins.[10] The sculpture, designed by Peter Fink, was removed for repairs within weeks of opening, a problem causing its fins to move dangerously in high winds having been discovered.[11] It was rebuilt in June 2005 and the structure, 30 ft (9.1 m) taller than theAngel of the North atGateshead, is visible from as far as Winter Hill,Horwich,Greater Manchester.
In 2011, planning was submitted and subsequently granted for Estuary Banks, a £6 million business park scheme developed byCapital & Centric Plc and Barnfield Construction. Constructed started on 80,000 sq ft (7,400 m2) of speculative construction in November 2011.[12] The latest phase (120,000 sq ft) has been completed with 80,000 sold toBusiness First in June 2012.[13]
Recent developments in Speke have seen a multimillion-poundMorrisons superstore,[14] situated directly next to the A561 Speke Boulevard, which is located only metres away from the Mersey Wave. Planning was granted in May 2012[15] for Speke Business Park on Goodlass Road. It comprises 45,000 sq ft (4,200 m2) of business units and was developed by Manchester-based developerCapital & Centric Plc.
Speke South Liverpool, a local amateurfootball side, was founded at the Austin Rawlinson Sports Centre, Speke. However, late 2005 saw the club relocate a short distance away toMossley Hill. The leading amateur football club in the area now is St Christophers FC, who are located at Central Way Playing Fields.
The main road network in Speke is theA561 Speke Boulevard which links the area to Garston, Aigburth, Dingle/Toxteth in the West and Widnes and Runcorn in the East. Close by is theA5300Knowsley Expressway which provides links to theA562 to Widnes and Runcorn, theM62 motorway and eventually becomes theM57 at Tarbock Interchange.
The Speke estate was generally built around two notable roadsWestern Avenue andEastern Avenue which linked to a former shopping parade in Central Way in more recent years this was replaced by an extensive shopping and retail development off Eastern Avenue and Speke Boulevard.
Speke is also approximately 8 to 9 miles away from the western terminus of theM62,Rocket Roundabout inBroadgreen.
Speke has a fairly extensive bus network which use theAigburth Road/Park Road andAllerton Road/Penny Lane corridors in South Liverpool and are mostly provided byArriva North West. Services 80/80A, 82/82A, 86A and 500 link Speke to Liverpool City Centre and these services provide links to Dingle, Toxteth, Aigburth, Mossley Hill, Allerton, Grassendale and Garston with the 82A continuing further afield to Widnes and Runcorn. The most notable of these services are the long established 80/80A and 82/82A which have linked Speke to the city centre for many, many years. Other notable bus services in the Speke area the 81/81A (Speke/Liverpool John Lennon Airport to Bootle) which links the South, East and North of Liverpool via theA5058Queens Drive. and 89 (Liverpool John Lennon Airport to St Helens) which have both operated for many decades. There is also the 3A service which links Speke/Halewood to Huyton the 201 which on an infrequent service links Speke to theRoyal Liverpool University Hospital along with variousindustrial andschool bus services which pass through the area too.
Hunts Cross station on theMerseyrail network is the nearest National Rail station to Speke, roughly a mile apart from each other. Hunts Cross is also served byNorthern andEast Midlands Railway services which run toWarrington,Manchester and various towns and cities further afield.Liverpool South Parkway in nearbyGarston could also be considered a rail and bus link to Speke and this also includes services fromLondon Northwestern Railway which generally go to theWest Midlands with connections toLondon Euston via theWest Coast Main Line andTransport for Wales who operate a two hourly service toChester along with a single early evening service extended toWrexham General. Liverpool South Parkway is also served by bus services 80/80A, 86A, 166, 188, 201 and 786 by Arriva, and also services 82 and 86 by Stagecoach. Some of these bus services also provide links toLiverpool John Lennon Airport.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is also located at the base of the Speke estate near theRiver Mersey and has undergone growth and expansion in recent years. The airport's strategy is to cater largely for 'low cost' operators andeasyJet andRyanair run the majority of routes at the airport. Services are also provided byLoganair,Lufthansa andPLAY and the airport serves various destinations in mainlandEurope with some toNorth Africa and theMediterranean/Middle East.
