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‘The Visible Embodiment of Modern Commerce’: Speculative Office Buildings in Liverpool, c. 1780–1870

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2018

Joseph Sharples
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Abstract

As one of the world's great centres of trade, the port of Liverpool developed a dedicated office district from an early date. In the 1780s, lettable offices were built by the Corporation near the Georgian Exchange (later known as the Town Hall), making possible the separation of home and workplace. The creation of the public square called Exchange Flags, and the erection of the first Exchange Buildings (1803–08), led to the rapid concentration of business activity in the surrounding streets. Early buildings combined offices with warehousing, but changes in the cotton trade resulted in their replacement with offices only. The first major speculative block was India Buildings (1833), and its success heralded a wave of rebuilding from the 1840s to the 1860s. Many office developers were merchants, but banks and insurance companies also incorporated lettable space into their premises. Classical styles predominated, but traditional fenestration was modified to ensure good natural lighting. The result was an exceptionally imposing business district, symbolising the immense commercial importance of Victorian Liverpool.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 61 , 2018 , pp. 131 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2018 

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References

NOTES

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8 Sharples, Joseph, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Liverpool (New Haven and London, 2004), pp. 42–48Google Scholar. The arcaded courtyards of the Liverpool and Bristol buildings derive from London's Royal Exchange of 1667–69, which in turn derived from its predecessor of 1566–69, and ultimately from the two Antwerp exchanges of 1515 and 1531.

9 LRO, 352 MIN/IMP I 1/1, Select Improvement Committee minutes, 13 April 1786.

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11 LRO, Herdman Collection, 368B and 127.

12 LRO, 352 CLE/CON 3/4, Register of Leases ‘C’, entry 13 under letter D. Gore's Liverpool Directory for 1787 gives Dunbar's address as ‘Dale-street, near the Exchange’.

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24 LRO, Hf 942.72 BIN, Binns Collection, vol. 30, p. 165.

25 Times, 13 October 1802, p. 2; Picton, Memorials, II, p. 31.

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30 Ellison, Gleanings, p. 208.

31 Views in Modern Liverpool by William Herdman: In Chromo-lithography, by James Orr Marples and the Artist, with an Introduction, and Descriptive Letter-press, by J.A. Picton, Esq., F.S.A. (Liverpool, 1864), pp. 31–32Google Scholar. For the Exchange, see Whitty's Guide to Liverpool (Liverpool, 1871), p. 33Google Scholar. An undated view of the rear of the Exchange, showing the taking-in doors, is in LRO, Hf 942.7213 EXC, Liverpool's Three Exchanges, p. 11.

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34 Views in Modern Liverpool, pp. 31–32.

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48 Lancs. RO, DDX 162/56/20–DDX 162/56/24, drawings by William Culshaw for Messrs McGregor's premises, Brunswick Street.

49 ‘Alarming & Destructive Fire in Liverpool’, Daily Post [Liverpool], 4 July 1863, p. 5.

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72 ‘Castle Street: A Century Ago and To-day’, Liverpool Review, 25 February 1888, p. 11; ‘Brother Sam in Lord Street’, Liverpool Review, 1 January 1887, p. 11.

73 LRO, Hf 942 721.3 IND contains a memorandum of association of the India Buildings Company Limited, 10 April 1872; Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum and Archives, B/LHPC 1/3, Liverpool Hydraulic Power Company records, report 242 names the owners of Brown's Buildings in 1896 as the ‘Brown's Buildings Co.’ and report 274 names the owners of Drury Buildings in 1897 as the ‘Drury Buildings Co.’.

74 LRO, 352 CLE/CON 3/9, lease dated 22 January 1853.

75 An exception was Parana Buildings in Tithebarn Street, designed by William Culshaw in 1864 (Lancs. RO, DDX 162/52/73–DDX 162/52/80). It had five storeys above the basement.

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82 ‘York Buildings, Liverpool’, Building News, 3 (1857), pp. 582–83 (p. 582)Google Scholar. See also ‘Opening of Brown's Buildings’, Liverpool Courier, 7 January 1863, p. 6, for similar comments on that building. For Peters’ Buildings, see ‘New Buildings in Liverpool’, Building News, 15 (1868), p. 90Google Scholar. T. Mellard Reade, however, thought that J.K. Colling had achieved remarkable ‘breadth and solidity’ at his Albany Building in Old Hall Street, despite the small amount of solid wall between the large windows: [T. Mellard Reade], ‘The Architecture of Liverpool: Article VI’, The Porcupine, 7 (1865–66), pp. 380–81Google Scholar.

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97 ‘The Growth of Liverpool’, The Builder, 26 (1868), p. 296Google Scholar. But this unity of effect was not to everyone's taste. The Liverpool architect T. Mellard Reade saw a lack of imagination in the streets around the Exchange: ‘First, Mr. A. puts up a building with a handsome stone front. Then, Mr. B.’s clients, not to be outdone, put up another handsome building, with another handsome stone front, alongside, and the process is repeated from street to street, from year to year, in the most unvarying manner. […] There is no life — no break — no skyline — no roof to be seen; nothing but a dull, level uniformity’: [Reade, T. Mellard], ‘The Architecture of Liverpool: Article IX’, The Porcupine, 7 (1865–66), p. 416Google Scholar.

98 Views in Modern Liverpool, p. vii.