21-23 Eccleston Street

This range of cottages comprises a late 16th-century to early 17th-century timber-framed north range, with a south range added in the late 18th or early 19th century and converted into shops with residential accommodation above. The building has undergone further alterations from the 19th to 21st centuries.

Materials and Construction

The north range is timber-framed with sandstone foundations, later encased and infilled with local red handmade brick. The south range is built of red handmade brick. The building has slate roof coverings and cast-iron downpipes.

Layout

The building consists of two east-west aligned ranges subdivided north to south into two premises (numbers 21 and 23). The principal frontage facing Eccleston Street is the later south range—a late 18th-century or early 19th-century three-bay red brick structure attached to the south elevation of the earlier timber box-framed range. The ground floor accommodates two shops, while the upper floor of number 21 provides residential accommodation.

Exterior

The building stands two storeys high under a double-pitched slated roof with three chimneystacks at the gable ends: two to the south and one to the north, all partially rebuilt in the early 21st century. The north-west chimney is inset on the ridge.

Front (South) Elevation

The front elevation features two reproduction 19th-century shop frontages recreated from a circa 1910 photograph. These have pedimented and carved scroll brackets ornamented with swagged fruits, and awning boxes. The first floor is built in irregular English garden wall bond (partially repaired in the early 21st century) with a straight joint midway down number 23, indicating two separate construction phases. Number 21 occupies two bays and number 23 a narrow single bay. The first floor has three segmental-headed windows with brick headers and stone sills, fitted with replica 19th-century sash glazing, beneath a simple eaves gutter.

East Elevation (Number 23)

The east elevation of number 23, visible from the ginnel (Stone Street), displays two gable ends. The north gable provides the clearest visible evidence of the timber-framed building. The south gable end belongs to the late 18th-century or early 19th-century range and is built in irregular brick bond with stone quoins to the lower south-east corner (set behind the shop frontage). This gable contains a bricked-up opening (a former loading door) to the south and an off-set cast-metal wall tie displaying the crest of the Stanleys (the Earls of Derby, Knowsley Hall). A distinct joint and change of alignment around the valley between the gables corresponds to the original southern limit of the timber-framed range.

The exposed timber-framed north gable of the late 16th-century or early 17th-century range has a box frame with square-panel infills in stretcher and header brick bond. The lower timber framing is concealed by a boundary wall, with bitumen roofing bridging the narrow gap between them. The wall posts rise to square-cut jowels supporting the exposed tie beam, wall plates, and an upper king-post truss. The truss was formerly a queen-post truss, but following repairs in the 1980s the queen struts were removed, leaving the collar beam and a subsidiary vertical strut. The principal purlins and a subsidiary purlin are exposed and trenched into the principal rafters.

Rear (North) Elevation

The timber frame of the rear elevation is concealed behind a brick skin wall mostly rebuilt in the late 20th century, except for the north-east corner and the partial ground floor of number 23. This section is built in English garden wall bond and retains a late 18th-century to early 19th-century segmental-headed doorway with an early 21st-century door, and a similar elongated window (now blocked). The first floor of number 23 has two narrow early 21st-century windows.

Number 21 has two ground-floor doors: an eastern door from the 21st century provides access to a first-floor apartment, and the western door accesses the rear ground-floor room (kitchen as of 2021). The first floor has a narrow 21st-century window and a 21st-century replica sash window to the west.

West Elevation

The west elevation abuts number 19 Eccleston Street.

Interior

Number 21

The two-room floor plan consists of two western bays of the south range and four timber-framed bays of the north range. Much of the interior is hidden (as of 2021) behind 21st-century boarding and fittings.

Ground Floor

The southern ground-floor room (shop floor) has a 19th-century metal moulded rail running along the north wall and a short 20th-century north-south aligned stair at the eastern end, which gives access to the ground-floor room in the north range (kitchen as of 2021).

In the north room, one timber post is known to survive within the northern outer wall, cut away approximately 50 centimetres from ground level with surrounding brickwork. A 21st-century ceiling conceals oak ceiling joists, which are trenched into a north-south aligned chamfered oak spine beam. This beam is supported by vertical timber posts buried in the north and south walls of the room. The survival of timber framing in the south wall is not known.

A butt joint in the brickwork of the west chimneybreast (now concealed) indicates that the original chimneybreast was extended eastward (probably in the late 18th to early 19th century) to insert a first-floor quarter-winder stair behind (aligned with the west wall). The west gable end was rebuilt and the chimneystack built inset on the roof ridge. Aligned against the south wall of the room (the former south wall of the late 16th-century or early 17th-century range) is a boxed-in timber quarter-winder stair, which formed a central stair and landing between first-floor rooms. The stair is now blocked and adapted on the ground floor into a cupboard, with four quarter-winders still visible. A 20th-century lavatory has been inserted on the north side of the chimneybreast, and to the east there is an external door in the north wall.

First Floor

The first floor is accessed externally from a 21st-century north door and stair aligned against the internal late 18th-century to early 19th-century east wall. The stair rises to a quarter landing with a north room (en-suite bedroom as of 2021) and south room (lounge and kitchen as of 2021). The south room has 21st-century boarding and fittings.

In the north room, four vertical timber posts are known to survive within the outer north wall. The most easterly post is a structural part of a former dividing wall between numbers 21 and 23, with sockets for staves existing in the underside of the wall plate. A re-used 16th-century north wall plate (with evidence of mortices and peg holes from a previous structure) is not continuous and has a short bridging length of re-used timber inserted between the main post and an adjoining post to the west.

In the inner southern wall of the room, two posts are known to survive; the eastern post again marks the former timber-framed internal dividing wall between numbers 21 and 23. This arrangement suggests that the north range was originally two late 16th-century or early 17th-century single-cell cottages, each cell three bays wide.

The west wall of the north room is late 18th-century to early 19th-century plastered brick, into which is re-set the western end of the north timber wall plate. The remains of a late 18th-century to early 19th-century stair remain concealed behind the room's chimneybreast. A 21st-century ceiling conceals two unchamfered structural oak binder beams running at 90 degrees to the floor below, which carry oak joists. The timber joists are re-used, with notches and peg holes for mortice and tenon joints. Access to the south range's attic is now through a ceiling hatch in the north room.

Number 23

The two-room floor plan of number 23 consists of one bay of the south range and two bays of the north range.

Ground Floor

The ground-floor shop floor is the product of 20th-century alterations with late 20th-century boardings and fittings. A folding door in the north wall accesses a mid-20th-century stair with a small kitchenette inserted beneath.

A narrow mid-20th-century L-shaped quarter-winder stair abuts the north and east walls of the north range, with a quarter landing giving access to an external north door. The stair rises into the centre of the former late 18th-century to early 19th-century north room, with 20th-century stud walls inserted to provide two cupboards, a lavatory, and a temporary kitchen.

An exposed chamfered beam (aligned east-west) runs from the south end of the chimneybreast on the east wall through to number 21. The beam forms part of the timber girders of a framed triple floor carrying binders and floor joists above.

The south room of the south range has a chimneybreast to the east wall. Its north wall has a visible north-west square-cut late 18th-century to early 19th-century wall post with birdsmouth notch supporting a wall plate and coved lath and plaster ceiling, probably concealing the north range's roof rafters.

Roof Structure

North Range

The roof structure of the north range was formerly interconnected but has since been separated to create an attic for each of numbers 21 and 23. The roof consists of a principal rafter roof of two bays with an off-set central king-post truss with subsidiary struts forming the late 16th-century or early 17th-century division between numbers 21 and 23. Some wattle and daub infill panels remain.

The subsidiary north strut of the central king-post truss was cut away in the late 18th to early 19th century to allow access between the two attics (fixings for a door remain in situ). It is now boxed in behind modern plasterboard following the early 21st-century separation of the attic spaces. The east gable end of number 23 has an off-set brick chimneystack.

Chamfered principal purlins are trenched into the principal rafters of the trusses, with straight braces between the truss and principal purlins at the gable ends, and slimmer common rafters above.

South Range

The roof structure of number 21's south range contains a principal rafter roof where the rafters are jointed at the apex and trenched into the purlins.

The south range's roof in number 23 has a principal rafter roof re-using late 16th-century or early 17th-century timber framing (with evidence of mortices and peg holes) as principal and ridge purlins. These run through an internal brick gable wall dividing numbers 21 and 23. Common rafters are strengthened by 21st-century timber, and the joists are set into the south brick elevation, with a chimneystack abutting the east gable.