Brunwick, James and Chapel Street

Heywood's Bank, Brunswick Street
c.1800
Grade II

This is the earliest surviving bank building in Liverpool, and one of the first purpose-built banks in the country. 

It was erected for Arthur Heywood in an austere but refined classical style, with a rusticated ground floor and central entrance. 

The family's original house is attached at the side. 

White Star Building (Albion House), James Street 
1898
Grade II*

Thomas Ismay, proprietor of the White Star Line, commissioned Richard Norman Shaw to design new headquarters for the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company in 1894. 

Shaw had already built Dawpool, the great tragically demolished house, overlooking theDeeestuary at Thurstaston for Ismay in 1882-86. 

The White Star Building was the first of the new breed of giant office blocks built in the city. 

For the exterior, Shaw reworked his design for New Scotland Yard, facing the building in contrasting bands of brick and Portland stone, set on a granite base. 

The interior is especially remarkable for its raw display of iron girders, stanchions and jack arches lined with fireproof bricks, with all the rivets and bolts emphasised for effect, although it is currently hidden by suspended ceilings and partition walls. 

This would not have been possible in London where regulations required the cladding of structural   ironwork for fire safety, but under Liverpool's more commercial and laissez-faire regimen, such restrictions were not applied. 

Hargreaves Building, Chapel Street 
1859
Grade II

Sir James Picton, prominent local politician and historian of Liverpool, was a prolific architect. 

His buildings are characterised by a robust and eclectic classicism. Hargreaves Building, in the manner of a Venetian palazzo is one of his finest. 

In the roundels above the deeply recessed round arched windows of the first floor are busts depicting figures connected with the history of South America. 

Until its demolition in 1967 there was a yet finer palazzo-style building by Picton, Richmond Buildings, on the opposite side of the street. Fragments of it can be seen in the first floor entrance hall of the modern development that stands on the site. 

Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas
This is the parish church of Liverpool, which occupies a site where a church has stood since c.1360.. The site was originally built on the river bank and is known as the Sailor's Church. 

The oldest part of the present church is the gothic steeple of 1810 by Thomas Harrison of Chester, with an open lantern and ship weather vane. The nave was damaged during World War II and was replaced to a design by Edward C. Butler in 1952 in perpendicular gothic style.