Wirral Transport Museum

Transport museum and former heritage tram depot in Birkenhead, closed since 2023 for redevelopment, with trams, buses and vintage vehicles.

Temporarily closed

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Temporarily closed. The museum and heritage tramway have been closed since April 2023 for redevelopment by the operator Big Heritage. A planned reopening has not taken place and the future of the project is uncertain after a funding dispute with Wirral Council in 2025.

About the museum

Birkenhead has a special place in tram history: in 1860 the American George Francis Train opened the first street tramway in Europe here. The Wirral Transport Museum grew out of a heritage tramway that Wirral Council created as a visitor attraction in 1995, with European funding. The Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society, formed by Liverpool University students in 1960 to save a Liverpool tram, ran heritage trams on the line, including two trams built in Hong Kong.

The museum is housed in a former stable and mineral-water factory building on Taylor Street, whose oldest part dates from 1892. The tramway was extended to Taylor Street in 2001, and the museum and trams moved into the building. From 2014 volunteers of the society managed the museum on behalf of the council. It closed for a major refit in 2017 and reopened in 2018 with a new entrance, a lift, tea rooms and a gift shop in restored Mersey ferry ticket booths.

The museum and tramway closed in 2023, when management passed to the social enterprise Big Heritage, which planned a larger museum and a restored tramway to Woodside. A dispute over council funding followed in 2025, and several historic trams were moved away. The museum has not reopened and its future is uncertain, so visitors should check with the operator before travelling.