Hydraulic Engine House

As part of the redevelopment for Everton Football Club’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium, BDP restored and secured the building, bringing it back into daily use as an exhibition space and café and opening it to visitors for the first time.

The project retains the vast majority of the building’s original fabric, including its masonry, stonework and wrought iron structure, while carefully introducing new elements needed for its future use. New entrances and internal connections improve access and allow visitors to understand the building as a whole, while restored windows bring daylight back into spaces that had been closed off for decades. A new brick skin protects the damaged west façade, while a biodiverse roof landscape references the building’s former role alongside the elevated coal railway.

Restoration took place alongside major stadium construction, requiring detailed structural assessment and continuous monitoring to protect the historic fabric. The result is a carefully considered piece of heritage-led regeneration, setting the Engine House against the scale and ambition of the new stadium while reconnecting visitors with Liverpool’s dockland history.

• Highly Commended Heritage Project of the Year, Insider Property Awards 2025