26/07/2026
The Prenton Pub Where A Giraffe Once Looked Over The Wall 🦒🍺
Thousands of people pass the Halfway House at the junction of Woodchurch Road and Storeton Road every week, but this familiar Prenton landmark has a story stretching back more than 150 years.
And beside it once stood something even more unexpected: an animal quarantine station where local people remembered seeing a giraffe’s head rising above the walls. 🧱
A Halfway House appears at this crossroads on the Ordnance Survey map of 1872, and records confirm that a pub was operating here by at least 1878.
Its name is believed to come from its position roughly halfway between Woodside and Woodchurch, making it a natural stopping place for travellers moving between Birkenhead and the surrounding villages.
The first inn was probably smaller than the building we know today. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was replaced or substantially rebuilt as the large black-and-white pub that still dominates the junction.
Its mock-Tudor frontage, tall corner tower and clock made it an unmistakable local landmark. Several nearby brewery buildings once reportedly carried a similar style, but they disappeared as Woodchurch Road was widened and the area changed around them. 🕰️
The architect responsible for the present building has not yet been identified, but its brewery history can be traced more clearly. The Halfway House was once associated with Chester’s Lion Brewery before passing to Bent’s Brewery in 1902. It later became part of the familiar Bass estate and continued serving generations of local residents, workers, football supporters and passing travellers.
During the Second World War, the pub became more than somewhere to drink.
One former neighbour remembered local families taking shelter in its cellars during air raids around 1941. While bombs fell across Merseyside, people gathered beneath the Halfway House, sharing tea and waiting for the danger to pass. ☕
The adjoining property was remembered as 295 Woodchurch Road, and the neighbouring premises had previously been used as Bradshaw’s nursery. Later, that site became connected with Chester Zoo and was used as an animal quarantine station.
Newly arrived animals could be kept apart and observed before being transferred into the zoo’s main collection. Exactly when the station opened and closed remains unclear, but several local people independently remembered animals being housed there. Most memorably, they remembered a giraffe. 🦒
People travelling along Storeton Road could apparently look towards the high-walled premises beside the pub and see its head and long neck appearing above the boundary.
It sounds like the sort of story a dad might tell his children to wind them up.
Mine told me he had driven past and seen giraffes with their heads sticking up. I thought he was having me on, but other residents later described seeing the same extraordinary sight.
Imagine driving through an ordinary Prenton crossroads, stopping at the lights beside your local pub, looking up and suddenly finding a giraffe staring back at you.
The animal building has largely vanished from public memory, but part of the high structure and large metal opening beside the Halfway House may still remind older residents of what once stood there.
The pub itself continued changing with the times. By 1980 it was recorded as a busy, modernised Bass pub. A major £130,000 refurbishment followed in 2016, bringing new sporting facilities, televisions, entertainment areas, pool, darts and improvements to its garden and interior. 🎱
It remains a large, open community pub and is particularly busy when Tranmere Rovers are playing nearby at Prenton Park.
The Halfway House has now also been recognised on Wirral’s Local Heritage List for its architectural character, prominent position and long-standing importance to the surrounding community.
When this photograph was taken, scaffolding covered its tower as further external work was being carried out, protecting a building that has watched this crossroads change for generations. 🏗️
It has served travellers, sheltered families during wartime, welcomed football supporters and stood beside one of the most unusual chapters in Prenton’s history.
A pub, an animal quarantine station and the unforgettable sight of a giraffe peering over the wall.
Did you ever see the animals beside the Halfway House, or do you remember somebody telling you about them? Share this with someone who might remember the story. 🍻
Image note: The giraffe and gates image is an AI-generated visual interpretation based on local memories and a personal description of how the entrance appeared. It is not an original historical photograph and should not be treated as an exact reconstruction.
Sources: Wirral Council Local Heritage List, CAMRA, Stonegate Group, Francis Frith, Prenton Heritage Trail and WikiWirral local recollections.
