In 1884, the Liverpool Inner City Zoological Park and Gardens opened on what is now the Cavendish Retail Park. Its star attraction was "Pongo", a
chimpanzee who lived in the Monkey House. The zoo itself was known for its large bronze
Liver birds which sat atop of the entrance gates, and its splendid beauty. The gardens closed in the early 1900s and the only surviving remains is the Ticket Booth, which is now a pizza takeaway beside The Plough function rooms (formerly a public house). Rice Lane City Farm is also in Walton, at the end of Rawcliffe Road, occupying the land that once was Liverpool Parochial Cemetery. The Prince of Wales pub on Rice Lane was nicknamed "The Sod House" by
Edward VII, after making a royal visit to the zoo and entering it for refreshments, perhaps because the landlord used clods of earth ("sods") draped over the beer barrels to keep them cool. The former
Shell garage on Rice Lane (now a used car dealership) was once the official workshop of
Ferrari for their race team when competing at
Aintree Grand Prix course in the 1950s. Walton Town Hall was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the
Queens Drive fly-over. The side wall, which includes the name etched in stone, still stands on the northbound side of the
A59 at the fly-over. The wall is currently owned by Croppers garage which occupies the space. Walton was also once the location of Walton Hospital, on Rice Lane. Several famous Liverpudlians, including
Paul McCartney and
Joe Fagan, were born at the hospital. The hospital was also once a regional centre for
neurology and
neurosurgery. As demand for services continued to increase the capacity for patients at the relatively small Walton Hospital site decreased and in 1998 all neurosurgical services were transferred to the newly built
Walton Centre, on the same site as
Aintree University Hospital in
Fazakerley. Walton Hospital started life in the late 19th century as West Derby Union Workhouse and nearby Walton Parochial cemetery contains many tens of thousands of unmarked and uncelebrated "common" graves of the poor who depended on it for sustenance. This cemetery, which now houses the City Farm, also holds the grave of Robert Noonan, also known as
Robert Tressell, who fell ill and died in Liverpool while waiting for a ship to emigrate to America. In 2019, Tressell was commemorated with a march to his graveside led by a brass band.
Clock View Hospital is a psychiatric facility standing near the old grounds of the original Walton Hospital. It is a medium level facility consisting of 5 inpatient wards and a neurological unit within the same building (
Walton Centre). It was purpose built in 2014 as a state of the art psychiatric care facility and opened to patients in 2015. Since then, it has won many awards for outstanding care and treatment for patients and in 2018 Clock View won a Sustainable Health and Care award (Capital Projects) for its building design efficiency. Walton is home to
Goodison Park football stadium, which was built in 1892 as the first purpose built football stadium in England and the home of
Everton Football Club, who have remained there ever since; although little of the original stadium structure now exists. They had previously played at
Anfield Stadium on the opposite side of
Stanley Park, which then became the home of
Liverpool Football Club. ==Governance==