BUILDERS have finished work on a new sports centre at Merseyside’s top independent school, Merchant Taylors in Crosby.

The Ian Robinson Sports Centre will be used by senior and junior pupils from September.

It will also be open to community groups to use in the evenings and at weekends.

The Liverpool Road school’s new facility was built for a wide variety of sports, including rugby training, football, tennis, hockey, basketball, volleyball, handball, netball, badminton and indoor cricket.

Other facilities include a dance and drama studio, a fitness studio, multi-function classrooms and indoor and outdoor spectator facilities.

Architect Chris Grainger, from North West architect Buttress Fuller Alsop Williams, told the Daily Post the building respects the historic setting of the school.

He said: “It has been built from Derbyshire stone so it fits in with the style of the listed buildings which stand next to it.

“What we wanted to do was to conceal the building as much as possible so it would not impose on the lives of the people who live in the area and I think we managed to do that.

“It followed consultation with neighbours, who have been fantastic during the development.”