Buildings of Castle Street

Liverpool Town Hall, Castle Street 
1749-54; 1789-92; 1795-1820
Grade I

The present Town Hall, Liverpool's finest Georgian building, is the result of three building campaigns. The original design was by John Wood of Bath, and was built in 1749-54. 

The work was supervised by his son John Wood the Younger. Additions and alterations were designed by James Wyatt and carried out by the elder John Foster in 1789-92; then, following a fire of 1795, it was reconstructed by Foster and Wyatt, the work continuing until c.1820. 

 It was built originally as an Exchange, with an open arcade on the ground floor around a courtyard where business was conducted, and rooms for civic functions above. 

Wyatt added an extension to the rear, and his chaste Neo-Classical north elevation overlooking Exchange Flags contrasts with the Palladian character of Wood's earlier work, in particular the richly carved frieze to the east and west elevations, celebrating foreign trade. 

Wyatt's dome was added in 1802, and the Corinthian south portico in 1811. Surmounting the dome is a Coade Stone figure of Minerva or Britannia made by John Rossi in 1801-2.

Bank of England, Castle Street 
1845-48
Grade I

In the mid 19th century the Bank of England built three branch banks - in Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol. All were designed by C.R. Cockerell, but Liverpool's is the largest and grandest. 

It is a monumental composition in a blend of Greek and Roman Doric, every element majestically and boldly scaled. At the front are three bays, divided by fluted columns, the whole flanked by massive rusticated corner piers, and raised up on a rough granite plinth. 

First and second floors are united by the giant order; the second floor is recessed below a wide broken pediment, and has at its centre a window framed by Ionic columns below a deep blank arcade. 

The Cook Street elevation has three Piranesian rusticated arched windows. The central one marks a tunnel vault, which runs through the original banking hall. 

Norwich Union Building, Castle Street 
1846-7
Grade II

Standing next to the Bank of England, this building represents a more literal interpretation of the classical language than that developed by Cockerell. 

It takes the form of a temple front with four Corinthian columns and a pediment set above a tall ground floor. 

Somewhat overshadowed by its powerful neighbour, it is nonetheless an ambitious and successful commercial building.

48-50 Castle Street 
1864
Grade II

On either side of this building can be seen fragmentary remains of the late 18th century unified rebuilding of Castle Street in a plain classical style. 

The architect James Picton's replacement was originally the Mercantile and Exchange Bank and is a typically robust Victorian design with deeply set round arched openings. 

Above the first floor windows are a set of historical figures, emblematic of Liverpool's sense of importance. 

Trials Hotel, 60 Castle Street 
1868
Grade II

This building was originally built for the Alliance Bank and was later taken over by the North and South Wales Bank, which was one of the most successful provincial banks, catering for rural landowners, farmers and small businessmen, rather than the merchant class of the larger urban centres. 

Their first premises in Liverpool was the present Castle Moat House of 1841 by Edward Corbett (listed Grade II) close by in Derby Square, but after thirty years, this became too small, and they moved to the imposing five storey corner building on Castle Street, designed by Lucy and Littler. 

It is a great mass of stone, enriched with a multitude of carved pilasters, cornices, balustrades, swags and rusticated arches, with prows of ships projecting from the spandrels of the second floor windows. 

The building has recently been converted to a hotel, and the opulent banking hall, faced in marble and mahogany serves as a public bar.

Adelphi Bank, Castle Street 
1890-92
Grade II*

One of the more exotic buildings on Castle Street is the corner premises to Brunswick Street, erected for the Adelphi Bank to the design of W.D. Caroe. 

The façades combine bands of pink sandstone and pale grey granite, decorated in the manner of French and north European Renaissance architecture, mixed with Nordic and eastern European touches seen in the treatment of the dormers and onion dome. 

The bronze entrance doors by Thomas Stirling Lee, one of the principal sculptors to have worked on St George's Hall, with panel reliefs and statuettes on the theme of brotherly love, are of outstanding quality. 

National Westminster Bank, Castle Street 
1900
Grade II*

For their Liverpool head offices, the directors of Parr's Bank, one of the north west's leading banks, wanted something exceptional. 

Thus they went to Richard Norman Shaw with Willink and Thinknesse, who had just completed the striking White Star Line offices in James Street. They were not disappointed, for the building combines an unforgettable exterior with a plan of great functional clarity. 

The ground floor is occupied by a large circular banking hall, completely free from obstruction, lit by a shallow central dome. 

Above are piled lettable offices, supported on massive iron girders to avoid crushing the delicate vault of the banking hall below. 

The monumental classical façade relies on contrasts of colour, with bands of green and cream marble veneer interrupted by bright red terracotta window surrounds, all set above a two-storey granite plinth. 

Like Cockerell's Bank of England it was an uncompromising statement about the prestige of the bank rather than polite street architecture, and it greatly enhances the status of Castle Street. 

British and Foreign Marine Insurance Company Building, Castle Street 
c.1889
Grade II

This is one of several richly decorative late 19th century buildings designed by G.E. Grayson of Grayson and Ould at the northern end of Castle Street. 

The company's inscription can be seen above a colourful mosaic frieze by Salviati showing scenes of shipping. 

The Standard Marine Insurance Company had their offices on the opposite side of the street.