Holly Lodge started out life in 1828 as a detached Georgian house in West Derby, Liverpool. In 1922 this grand home was eventually repurposed in order to educate young women between the ages of 11-18 after having progressed from primary schools across the city. Numbers soon began to grow, and during the 1930’s the college was drastically extended to accommodate for the new students. Over the next 8 decades the college continued to operate as one of the few girl-only education establishments in the city, with the buildings eventually earning grade II listed status. In 2014 a large grant was issued to the college for a new campus to be built within the grounds - developed as part of the Liverpool Schools Investment Programme. The old buildings were considered too drastically altered to retain their listed protection, so were sadly demolished in 2016 to make way for nearly 60 new homes. These original buildings, Fremont and Sandheys, both feature in the album below. Since its closure, the site was frequently used for filming, including sets for a police station, a prison and a hospital, featuring in programmes such as popular UK soap ’Hollyoaks’. The sets comprised mainly corridors and empty sets, having been mostly cleared by the time we visited the site. At our time of visiting, before demolition had started we were under the impression that the listed buildings at the college would be saved. Having now learnt that they were eventually reduced to rubble just months later, our visit became all the more relevant to have been able to display the true craftsmanship that was once found along these historic corridors.
