Former Liverpool Furnishing Company showroom

Former Liverpool Furnishing Company Showroom

A bespoke furniture sales showroom built in 1899 by W Hesketh and Co, later converted to bank and office premises, with subsequent alterations. The building is constructed in red terracotta and brick with a slate roof, timber windows, and a copper roof to the clock tower.

The showroom occupies a prominent corner site at the junction of London Road and Hart Street, with ranges extending along both streets. Its distinctive V-shaped plan results from the acute angle of the road junction, and the clock tower is highly visible along the approach to the city centre from London Road.

The principal façade facing London Road displays Edwardian Baroque style and comprises three storeys plus an attic and dormer, arranged in three bays. The ground floor is finished in painted white stucco with an entrance at the left, a window, and two tripartite windows each with a blocked opening for an ATM. Between the windows are channel-rusticated pilasters, and the four principal openings feature tall keystones linked by a moulded band below the fascia, which carries a modillion cornice.

The upper storeys are enriched with terracotta ornament supplied by Jabez Thompson of Northwich. Fluted pilasters with composite capitals rise through the first and second storeys, set against a ground with prominent horizontal banding in Gibbs style. The first and second floors contain full-height windows with moulded string course between them and decorated jambs; the second-floor windows have arched heads with figured keystones and decorated spandrels. These windows feature moulded transoms, and the second-floor central lights have swan-neck pediments. Above the pilaster capitals runs a frieze decorated with satyr masks. A modillioned and dentilled cornice crowns this section. The attic floor displays paired blocked colonettes above the pilasters, with single blocked pilasters flanking the outer windows and positioned between the two central windows, beneath a dentilled eaves cornice. At the right angle is a swan-neck-pedimented cartouche bearing the Liverpool Furnishing Company monogram. The dormer is further ornamented with balusters, two keyed-and-festooned oculi, a rinceau frieze, a Flemish gable with Jacobean strapwork, and a broken semi-circular pediment.

To the right on the angle stands a two-stage octagonal clock tower. The lower stage is banded and pilastered; the upper stage carries north-east and north-west skeleton clock faces with opalescent glass, surmounted by an entablature with triglyphs and an ogee copper dome.

The narrow splayed angle is detailed in the same style as the façade, with lancet windows and a corner entrance. Above the second-floor window is a Liver-bird cartouche; the attic features a swan-neck-pedimented cartouche dated 1899.

The return to Hart Street is cranked, with a first bay similarly detailed to the main façade and bearing monogram cartouches flanking the attic floor. Above rises a gabled second attic floor adjoining the tower, with paired balustraded windows flanked by segmental-pedimented cartouches dated 18 / 99 and fluted blocked pilasters. The gable is further decorated with three pilasters supporting a scroll pediment.

To the right extends a five-bay, three-storey façade with stucco ground floor to the first four bays, of which only the first bay is channel-rusticated with a fascia. The remainder is finished in orange brick laid in English Garden Wall bond, with red-brick gables and terracotta dressings. Bays 1 and 5 are gabled and flanked by plain brick pilasters. Windows are segmental-headed with figured keystones; the second floor has a lintel band. Bay 5's pilasters carry large consoles at ground-floor level, flanking a blocked coal-hole opening.

The rear and east return are plain with gables. The east return features white glazed tiles to its lower three floors. Where the east wall of the front range projects above neighbouring buildings it is gabled and bears white-painted lettering, now faint, reading LIVERPOOL / FURNISHING CO.

Internally, original window architraves remain along with cornicing and skirting; later plain doors and partitions have been introduced. The main stair features square vase balusters and plain newels with ball finials; the back stair is similar with stick balusters. The lift retains a wood-panelled interior. The shaped-spreader heads of the structural columns are visible on the second floor. No fireplaces or decorative floors survive, and the banking hall is entirely modern. The basement retains some stone flag flooring, a tiled coal hole and stone steps to a former access from Hart Street, together with modern safes. The clock mechanism remains in situ, apparently converted to electric drive, though some weights survive.