Spike Island, Cheshire

Spike Island today from the Catalyst Museum

Spike Island is an island in the estuary of the River Mersey, in North West England, flanked by the Sankey Canal.[1] It is a reclaimed toxic waste site, considered a birthplace of the British chemical industry, and forms a part of Widnes in the Halton borough of Cheshire.

Its maze of abandoned chemical factories, rail lines, canal and industrial dockage, and industrial pollution, which had declined into a rust belt toxic wilderness, was reclaimed as woodland, wetlands and green space between 1975 and 1982. A surviving warehouse is now the home of the Catalyst Museum, the only science museum in the UK solely devoted to chemistry.

Spike Island was the site of a famous outdoor concert by The Stone Roses in May 1990. A film about the concert was released in 2012, and is called Spike Island.[2]

References

  1. "Spike Island and Widnes Lock - Sankey Canal". penninewaterways.co.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  2. Wright, Jade (26 March 2012). "New film to relive The Stone Roses’ classic gig at Spike Island in Widnes - ECHO Entertainment News - Entertainment". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 31 March 2012.

External links

Coordinates: 53°21′14″N 2°43′50″W / 53.35389°N 2.73056°W