Reasons for Designation
* It is an important survival of one of the earliest fireproof warehouses associated with the international port city of Liverpool and constructed c.1842-4
* It is an imposing and highly prominent building situated at the heart of the north docks complex next to the original C19 dock road, Clarence and Victoria Docks (now filled in), and Waterloo and Trafalgar Docks
* It is well-preserved and retains the majority of original features including brick-vaulted ceilings, tile floors, sheet-iron loading doors, internal doors and shutters, cast-iron supporting columns and beams, lintels and sills, and the original enclosed fireproof stair
* It possesses a wrought-iron roof structure similar to that of Jesse Hartley's Albert Dock warehouses (1841-5) and is unusual in incorporating roof slates that rest directly upon iron batons without fixings
* Its innovative fireproof construction not only reflects the wealth of the warehouse's builder/owner and the importance of the goods contained within, but also technological advances in warehouse construction during the C19 and the changing face of the port of Liverpool
Details
LIVERPOOL
392/0/10346 WATERLOO ROAD
07-MAY-08 68
WAREHOUSE
II
Also Known As: WAREHOUSE, 27, VULCAN STREET
Fireproof warehouse, c.1842-44, mellow red brick with cast-iron frame, 6-storeys plus basement, pitched wrought iron roof structure with slate coverings.
EXTERIOR: Flemish Bond to front and left side elevations, English Garden Wall Bond to rear and right side elevations (irregular to right side). Raised ground floor. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Front (W) elevation facing Waterloo Road: 3 bays. Pedimented gable with scrolled stops, shallow arched and keyed alcove to centre of tympanum, deep horizontal dentil eaves cornice. Altered ground floor openings, inserted late C20 roller shutters (later timber double doors behind that to far left), original stone entrance steps to central and left bays. Original barred segmental headed windows to upper floors; those to top floor slightly shorter. Original recessed glazing (damaged in places), segmental arched cast-iron lintels with slightly projecting cast-iron keystones, cast-iron sills, curved brick sides to window surrounds. Left side (N) elevation fronting Vulcan Street: 9-bays. Loading bay to bay 2 set within full-height recess, raised shallow gabled head with scrolled kneelers forming jigger loft, tiered sheet-iron loading doors survive (left half of door to 3rd floor missing) including that to basement (hidden underneath later external stair flight between pavement and raised ground floor loading door). Stair bay to bay 1 with doorway to raised ground floor, arched brick surround incorporating moulded console-shaped keystone, original sheet-iron door and semi-circular cast-iron head survive underneath late C20 roller shutter. Windows in same style as those to front elevation, two to raised ground floor are altered and converted into loading doors. Blind right side (S) and rear (E) elevations.
INTERIOR: Brick-vaulted ceilings supported by cast-iron columns, beams and tie rods. Recessed windows with chamfered sides. Original tile floors (some tiling to lower floors hidden under later removable raised floors), some tiles stamped with maker's name 'W HANCOCK & CO MANUFACTRS HAWARDEN'. Large open-plan warehouse spaces to basement, fourth and fifth floors. Partition walls and suspended ceilings inserted to remaining floors, original fabric survives behind. Sheet-iron doors and window shutters (some removed and in storage). Enclosed spiral stone stair to rear left corner of building, sheet-iron doors set within cast-iron frames lead off at every floor level. Inserted mid-late C20 timber stair between ground and first floor to centre right of building, late C20/early C21 dog-leg stair to front right of building. Wrought-iron roof trusses, slates (some missing) directly rest upon iron batons connected to trusses with no fixings. Iron mezzanine jigger loft to E end of top (fifth) floor supported by slender cast-iron columns containing hoist machinery, accessed by cast-iron stair rising from fifth floor landing at top of stone stair. Lower basement to front of building, accessed by sliding sheet-iron door from main basement behind.
HISTORY: A number of Building Acts introduced in the early-mid C19 stipulated the use of a number of structural features in warehouse design that would make collapse less likely in the advent of fire, such as cast-iron columns, an enclosed stair bay and timbers of a certain thickness. However, unlike in textile mills, these acts were not enforced and many warehouses continued to be built with either very limited or no provision throughout the C19. The exact date of construction of the warehouse at no.68 Waterloo Road is unknown, but it is believed to be in the early-mid 1840s, probably shortly after the Formby Street fire of 1842, which led to an increase in construction of fireproof warehouses in Liverpool, and shortly before the construction of the fire-proof Clarence Warehouses of 1844. Historic maps show that in the 1850s the building was divided into three units that were probably let individually with two small units to the front (probably to the ground floor) and one larger one to the rear. A map of 1891 depicts the building as two units with the previous two front units merged into one. Gore's and Kelly's directories from the late 1850s to the late 1920s show that the building has been used by merchants and ship-owners, a passenger broker, emigration agents, distillers and wine/spirit brokers, and a removal carriers. The chambers and offices of the merchants and agents appear to have occupied the front part of the building (possibly just to the ground floor) with the upper floors and rear as warehousing. In the mid-late C20 the property was used as a furniture warehouse and in 1984 it was partly converted for use as music studios.
SOURCES:
C Giles & R Hawkins. Storehouses of Empire: Liverpool's Historic Warehouses. London: English Heritage.
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England. 1998. Liverpool Historic Warehouse Survey (unpublished).
J Sharples. 2004. Pevsner Architectural Guides: Liverpool. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The warehouse at no.68 Waterloo Road/27 Vulcan Street is designated at grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is an important survival of one of the earliest fireproof warehouses associated with the international port city of Liverpool and constructed c.1842-4
* It is an imposing and highly prominent building situated at the heart of the north docks complex next to the original C19 dock road, Clarence and Victoria Docks (now filled in), and Waterloo and Trafalgar Docks
* It is well-preserved and retains the majority of original features including brick-vaulted ceilings, tile floors, sheet-iron loading doors, internal doors and shutters, cast-iron supporting columns and beams, lintels and sills, and the original enclosed fireproof stair
* It possesses a wrought-iron roof structure similar to that of Jesse Hartley's Albert Dock warehouses (1841-5) and is unusual in incorporating roof slates that rest directly upon iron batons without fixings
* Its innovative fireproof construction not only reflects the wealth of the warehouse's builder/owner and the importance of the goods contained within, but also technological advances in warehouse construction during the C19 and the changing face of the port of Liverpool
