Birkenhead is a town on Merseyside, England, situated on the Wirral peninsula in the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, just across the River Mersey from Liverpool. It is not a tourist destination in its own right but can make for a rewarding afternoon trip from Liverpool, and is well worth a couple of hours of anybody's time. The town grew around the huge Cammell Laird's shipbuilding works, its population peaking in the 1921 census when it was the 20th most populated town in England. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was so impressed by Birkenhead's public municipal park after a visit in 1850, he incorporated many of its features into his work on New York's Central Park.