Exhibition showcases Birkenhead business on 170th docks anniversary

A new exhibition celebrating Birkenhead's business community is set to launch at the Williamson Art Gallery.

The exhibition, Trees • Work, features a series of photographic portraits of businesses that operate close to the historic docks and to recent tree planting locations. It features engineers, designers, mechanics, craftsmen, brewers, machinists and bus drivers.

"It's an exhibition of portraits," explains photographer and writer Len Grant, "but what the project is really about is trees. Birkenhead and Bidston has benefited over the last two years from a Mersey Forest tree-planting programme. The portraits and my accompanying interviews have been a way of engaging with the business community and investigating the impact of the trees."

Grant's four-month project has seen him photograph on shop floors, showrooms, factories and offices; and in garages, workshops and breakers' yards. His images reflect a diversity of industry and commerce that until now has gone unnoticed, unrecorded.

Ben Greenaway, Green Streets Coordinator at The Mersey Forest said "Len's exciting new work focuses on the businesses in the area we are greening with trees as part of the Wirral Green Streets programme.

"We believe that a better looking business environment will lead to the creation of more jobs in the Wirral area, helping to improve business and encourage further investment in the people and place that is this part of the Wirral. We know that around 90% of businesses stated that they would like to see more trees planted locally.

"We are working with a range of funders and partners in Birkenhead and Bidston and to encourage more people to walk and cycle to places of education, training and employment. These trees will help us adapt to climate change by shading and cooling the air, as well as filtering out pollutants and intercepting rainfall."

Trees • Work marks the 170th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone for Birkenhead Docks in 1844. The exhibition runs from 24 October until 23 November.