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This long road forms one boundary
of Toxteth for its entire length. From its start at the summit of one of the two highest
points in Toxteth (at its junction with Upper Parliament Street), to its
termination at the junction with Penny Lane at Smithdown
Place it comprises the usually accepted boundary. Only in one or two places
does this boundary itself stray away from Smithdown Road and even then,
the whole
of Smithdown Road remains within Toxteth.
Directories show
that the full development of
Smithdown Road only began in earnest in late Victorian times. Prior to this
scattered
farmhouses and crofts are shown as being present in the early 1800s, at which
time it was called Smithdown Lane along its entire length (the present
Smithdown Lane is much shorter and only a small part of its
original length, none of which corresponds to the present Smithdown
Road)..
The road begins at the intersection of Upper Parliament
Street with Smithdown Lane (once the name for the entire Road as
well), Lodge Lane and Earle Road.
This is on map 0f.
Note that the boundary actually bends here and passes behind the
aptly-named 'Boundary Hotel', which is thus in Edge Hill
and not toxteth. This point is one of the two highest in the ancient Park (the
other being the summit of High Park Street).
 
The Cullen Street junction, looking both
up and down the hill.
 
Further
down
the hill you pass 'The Mulliner', and opposite
this, 'The Albany'. This
was the supposed crossing point of the Lower Brook however this
is not correct. In fact a small stream probably passed in the opposite
direction at one time. 'The Mulliner' used to be called 'The Brook
Farm', which was the name of a small holding which was still here
in 1855 and perhaps later.
 
Hartington Road
enters from the right hand side, this runs along one edge of Toxteth
Park Cemetery which has an address of 124 Smithdown Road. This
is one of the lowest points on Smithdown Road and is where the Lower Brook
actually did cross Smithdown Road, having flowed first from Edge Lane and then
along a course now traced by Spofforth Road and Webster Road (both outside of
Toxteth). An old Parliamentary Boundary also followed this line and these points
all meet at this point on Smithdown Road
 
Next door to Toxteth Park Cemetery
is number 126, a building that was first of all the Toxteth Workhouse,
and later the Toxteth Infirmary. As its use gradually shifted,
so its name changed again to the Smithdown Institution and finally it became Sefton
General Hospital before its demolition in 2001.
  Shortly after, on the left hand side leaving the
city, are a series of interesting historical sites, pubs and terraces connected with
old farmhouses and crofts now demolished. Here the Toxteth Park boundary leaves
Smithdown Road and wanders a little around what would have been,
Wood Croft, Well Croft and Willow Bank, traces of whose names survive
in local streets and pubs.
 After the passing the Quakers Burial
Ground and the junction with Gainsborough Road, Smithdown
Road becomes
a double-sided shopping street as it seems to have been since its urbanisation in the latter
half of the 19th Century and early 20th. This view is looking
back towards the city.
  Smithdown Road now approaches a major
historical junction with
the ancient Ullet Road. Just before this on the right hand
side it has junctions with Gresford Avenue (far left) and Hawarden
Avenue (left), the latter for many years in the early 20th century,
the home of the Brentons Factory.
  After the Ullet Road junction (left)
it passes the site of St Columbas this
is all more or less at Sefton Park Gate. Carrying onwards it goes gently
downhill now to cross over the course of the Upper Brook, close to
the Brook House Hotel and Greenbank Park. This
is the lowest part of the road here. The
view right shows the scene looking back towards the city and back
along the route taken so far.
Just past the Brook House is
a junction
with Greenbank Road, the boundary of Toxteth Park joins
from behind the Brook House and follows Smithdown Road briefly and then veers left again
having passed around the front of the site of Penketh Hall (which
thus remains outside of Toxteth). The boundary follows a line under
what is now the railway embankment. (it does not, as I have seen suggested,
go down Greenbank Road).
 Just
before the entrance to the Wavertree Playground, Garmoyle Road (a
significant road of the old boundary) joins from the left and opposite is the site
of the old Sefton Park Railway Station. Long since closed,
perhaps in the Beeching era, I gather that there is talk of this
being re-opened. 
Passing
under the railway bridge and looking back towards the city you can
see how the road arrangement looked (perhaps in the late 1950s).
The Wavertree Playground entrance is now just on the right. The
rest of Sefton Park station is in the centre of the screen.
   A
little further along this shows the junction of Dudley
Road in 1905. The Grand Cinema was here from 1913 until its closure
in 1956, the building lasted until at least 1961. The tram shed can be seen in the distance on the two
left hands shots.
Opposite this was the site of the original St Barnabas Church within
Toxteth. (not the modern one at Penny Lane / Allerton Road and not the oldest
of all, the long demolished, St Barnabas
on Parliament Street / Challinor Street).
 The
best view that I have of St Barnabas church is within
the picture shown left, part of a series of photographs taken by
the City Engineering Department of the Smithdown Road Destructor.
This was an early form of recycling and power generation using household waste
as fuel. This site was situated on the left hand side of Smithdown
Road (going our of the city) behind a wall and railings. The
highly ornamental power generation building had its face on Smithdown
Road. The Tram sheds were next door.
  Just
behind the site of the old Smithdown Road Destructor and Smithdown
Road tram sheds, the boundary and the road merge again for their
final passage, past the site of the original St Barnabas Church
(NOT the present, more modern church which has never been in toxteth)
The tram sheds were certainly being built in 1900 (left) and
were finished by the time the City Council took a photograph on
30th October 1902 (right).
One
last look back along Smithdown Road towards the city, in 1905, shows
Kenyon Road under construction with the chimney of the destructor
silhouetted against the skyline and a tiny view (only one of two
on
the site) of the original toxteth St. Barnabas Church. (not
the present later church, outside toxteth, by Penny Lane / Allerton
Road.
Smithdown Road terminates at Smithdown Place (once called Wavetree
Nook). End to end it covers several miles and forms (more
or less) one entire boundary of the Ancient Park. The
boundary of Toxteth carries on along one side of Penny Lane and
that story is available on is another part of the site.
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