30 Eccleston Street

This is a shop dating to 1614, extended to the east in the 1920s. Originally a house within a pattern of medieval burgage plots on Eccleston Street, the building was converted to a shop with a residential upper floor in the mid- to late 19th century. From the 1870s to the early 1900s, the shop, then known as number 22 Eccleston Street, hosted a succession of businesses run by Thomas S Miller, including a hairdresser, estate agent, and ticket salesman.

By the early 1900s, the shop front had been altered to a double-fronted, fully glazed Edwardian design, becoming a hat maker’s and ladies' clothing store. A further gabled bay was added to the east in 1923, accompanied by substantial alterations. The ground floor was rebuilt in stone, creating a central entrance with shops on either side. Internal alterations were made, and the original 17th-century mullion and transom windows on the upper floor were removed. The 17th-century gabled bay was used as a showroom for the Prescot Gas Company, while the 20th-century bay housed a branch of the Midland Bank, and the building was renamed Tudor Buildings. The Midland Bank relocated in the 1950s, and the gas showroom occupied the entire building. A shop front refit occurred around 1981. In the 1990s, the building became a travel agent, with the loss of a central staircase. Repair works were carried out to the front elevation in 2008, and in 2013 it became a café.

The building is a timber-framed two-storey structure with two gabled bays and a slate roof. The ground floor has a 20th-century shop front. Above, the first floor features decorative timber framing. The eastern bay is a 20th-century replica of the western bay, including splat balusters below the windows. The windows contain 20th-century casements with leaded glazing. Although the interior was not inspected, it is reported to contain some original beams and daub-and-wattle panelling.