30 Eccleston Street

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement to update text, name and address on the 10 January 2022

SJ 49 SE 6/33

PRESCOT ECCLESTON STREET (south side) No. 30

9.12.85

(Formerly listed as No. 30 (Gas Board Offices)

II

Shop dated 1614, extended by one bay to the left (east) in the 1920s.

The western bay of this building was formerly a house in the heart of the pattern of medieval burgage plots on Eccleston Street, now with successive developments around it. In the mid- to late-C19 many houses along the street were converted to shops and number 30 was converted into a shop with a residence above. Thomas S Miller, also known as Hoppin’ Bob’ and a well-known member of the community, ran a number of businesses from this shop (then known as 22 Eccleston Street) from the 1870s until the early 1900s. He ran a hairdressers and acted at various times as an estate agent, a collector for the Prescot Local Board and a ticket salesman for the Allen Line Steamship company and White Star Line.

By the early 1900s the ground-floor shop front was altered to an Edwardian double-fronted fully glazed shop-front and became the premises of Baker – a hat maker’s and ladies clothing store. In 1923 an additional gabled bay was attached to the east of the C17 building, with substantial alterations. The ground-floor was re-built in stone to form a central door providing access to a shop either side, internal alterations were undertaken and the upper-floor C17 mullion and transom window removed. The C17 gabled bay was occupied by Prescot Gas Company’s showroom and the C20 gabled bay by the Prescot branch of the Midland Bank and it became known as Tudor Buildings. The Midland Bank relocated premises in the 1950s and the gas showroom took over the full building. Around 1981 the shop front was altered, with a refit of internal fixtures and fittings. In the 1990s it became a travel agents, with the loss of a central staircase. Repair works were undertaken to the front elevation in 2008 and in 2013 it became a café.

A shop dated 1614 (the date probably inscribed in the 1920s), extended by one bay to the left (east) in the 1920s. It is a timber-framed two-storey building of two gabled bays with a slate roof. The ground-floor has a C20 shop front and above, on the first floor, is decorative timber framing. The bay to the left (east) is a C20 copy of that to the right, including the splat balusters below the windows. The windows contain C20 casements with leaded glazing. The interior was not inspected but some original beams and daub-and-wattle panelling.

Listing NGR: SJ4667892775