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One of Liverpool’s landmark Victorian buildings could be transformed into one of the city’s best – and potentially scariest – event venues.

The mammoth former Royal Liverpool Seamen’s Orphanage, which was latterly Newsham Park Hospital, could open for business next spring if planning approval is granted.

As a taster, the vast neo-gothic complex will open for the first time in 139 years to the wider public in the Heritage Open Days scheme with free entry from today until Sunday.

There will be guided tours of the 99,000sq ft, five-storey 1874 building, which was closed in 1988-98, and visitors can learn about its possible future.

Now owned by property developer Anglefarm Ltd, its business associate John McKenzie said a planning application has been submitted to create a restaurant and function suite.

“The building is basically sound and it will only cost around £200,000 to restore the assembly hall and adjoining rooms,” he said.

“It will make a fantastic suite for weddings, banquets, festivals, exhibitions and events to be become the most important city venue after the Convention Centre and St George’s Hall.”

The ECHO was given a sneak preview of the abandoned building when it joined Liverpool Lord Mayor Cllr Gary Millar on a special visit prior to Heritage Open Days.

With places for 400 orphans and later 400 patients, it presents a truly decayed gothic scene with the assembly hall, chilling mortuary, a warren of corridors, dormitories, nine psychiatric wards, winding staircases (with anti-suicide grills), treatment rooms, a vast kitchen and laundry.

Rusting broken beds, wheelchairs, commodes and trollies still lie scattered around. Memos hang limply on notice boards and rows of lockers display staff names like epitaphs.

A top floor attic corridor is lined with 14 “naughty” cupboards, in which unruly children were held in solitary, pitch black confinement. With this atmosphere no wonder there’s an 18-month waiting list for the ghost tours.

A great bell tower looms over the three and a half acre site which includes a gymnasium, swimming pool, chapel, nurses home and a 1937 school block.

A recent zombie film needed minimal set-dressing for the creatures to emerge from the former psychiatric wing cinema. A Northern Irish military drama has just finished filming here.

Lord Mayor Cllr Millar said: “This building is a tremendous asset for the city and it would be a great loss if it just falls apart.

“But its future requires thinking outside the box. A building this size requires a multi-use solution. When restored it could be of great interest to our events team.”

Steve Corcoran, who reformed the Friends of Newsham Park in 2009, said: “This is the biggest remaining piece of Liverpool’s mercantile philanthropy. With the city’s increasing tourism it could play a huge part in major events.”

Mark Boardman, a Friends of Newsham Park member, said: “I’m so pleased to see such active imagination helping to revive this area.”

Opened in 1874 by the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s second son, the building was visited by her in 1886.

Designed by the top Victorian Liverpool-born architect Alfred Waterhouse, it was built to an incredible standard, ensuring its survival in spite of being derelict for nearly 20 years.

The Orphanage was bankrolled by the city’s biggest ship owners like the McIvers (Cunard), Ismays (White Star), Holts (Blue Funnel), Brockle- banks and Hendersons.

Their philanthropic aim was to house and educate children who had lost seafaring parents. The orphans were evacuated during wartime and in 1948 the building was closed, reopening as Park Hospital in 1954.

Former Liverpool Seamen’s Orphanage, Orphan Drive, Newsham Park, Heritage Open Days, Fri-Sun, 10am-4pm; free.