Hamilton Square

Hamilton Square is a town square in Birkenhead, Wirral, England. The Georgian square, which was designed by Edinburgh architect James Gillespie Graham, has the most Grade I listed buildings outside London (after Trafalgar Square). It is named after the family of the wife of Scottish shipbuilder William Laird.

Hamilton Square was the first part of a major civic scheme to develop the town of Birkenhead in the early 19th century. But owing to several factors, including a depressed economy and the influx of working-class labourers needing lodgings, the square become the only part of the grand design to be completed.

William Laird wanted to build an urban development similar in scale and style to New Town, Edinburgh. Hamilton Square would have had been at the centre of a planned borough that had wide, straight streets lined with late Georgian stone-clad terraced Townhouses, public buildings, and enclosed parks.