Waterloo Warehouse, Waterloo Road

Circa 1868
Grade II

The Corn Warehouses at East Waterloo were nominally completed in 1868, though 'snagging' dragged on until 1872. They were the first warehouses in the world built to handle bulk grain entirely from a central power source, which drove all the elevators and conveyors. 

There were originally three blocks, of which the north block was destroyed in the May Blitz (1941) and the west block was demolished in 1969 to make way for a new coastwise container terminal. 

The east block was converted into flats in 1990, which entailed the removal of all the machinery, but saved the exterior of an important building almost entirely unaltered. 

No firm evidence exists for the architect but it is believed to be the work of George Fosbery Lyster. 

The design was well received at the time, as James Picton, Liverpool architect and historian, said of them: "The design is a great improvement on the massive ugliness of the Albert Warehouses"! 

Built mostly of brick, it has six storeys and 43 bays divided into six compartments by five full height vertical loading bays and two hoist towers of an additional two storeys. 

The ground floor has a colonnade of rusticated stone arches and square piers arches, and the windows are all paired and have iron frames.