College of Technology and Museum Extension (now World Museum)

1896-1901
Grade II*

By the end of the nineteenth century the museum collections had grown considerably. The Town Council considered it prudent to combine the urgent need for additional storage and display space with a growing demand for a new School of Science, Technology and Art. 

A limited architectural competition was launched in 1896 and won by the experienced London architect, William Mountford. 

The opportunity to use the land to the west of the museum meant that the removal of old buildings at the junction of the old Shaw's Brow and Byrom Street could be completed and that William Brown Street could be terminated with a building befitting its civic grandeur. 

The design he proposed for the competition was realised with hardly any changes and is rather more Edwardian Imperial than Classical in style. 

Two main facades are used: on William Brown Street the roof level of the museum is maintained, interrupted only at each end by grand projecting bays, embellished by sculpture, and continues round to the broad, bowed elevation to Byrom Street. Here steps lead up to a central pedimented entrance door. The dual use was accommodated at two levels skilfully reflected in the exterior decoration. 

The Technical College was housed in the lower levels, which are rusticated and accessed through the Byrom Street door, whilst the new museum galleries lay behind the upper, where Ionic columns enliven the Byrom Street façade. 

Bomb damage meant some reconstruction of the roof of the Upper Horseshoe Gallery in the 1960s but the dignity of the top-lit vault is still clear. The Observatory Tower incorporated into the building, complete with domed roof with sliding panels, escaped damage and is still in use. 

The building reopened as part of World Museum Liverpool in 2005.