8-14 (even) Berry Street

A range of 4 shops, formerly one of a pair of crosswings of a residential and commercial complex known as Warmsley's Yard, built between approximately 1798 and 1803 by John Warmsley (c.1765–1812), an architect and builder. The building has undergone later alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of painted stucco on brick with ashlar sandstone dressings, brick ridge stacks, and a hipped roof covered in Welsh slate.

The building follows an L-shaped plan, with its main frontage facing Berry Street and a short return range to Wood Street.

The Berry Street elevation rises to 3 storeys across 5 bays. The central 3 bays are set beneath a wide, shallow pediment and are delineated by pairs of pilasters at the upper floor levels. The ground floor is now occupied by 4 twentieth-century shop frontages. The south end bay and most sections of the 3-bay centre have blocked first and smaller second floor window openings of original dimensions. The north end bay contains 2 windows to each upper floor, fitted with twentieth-century joinery. The right and left-hand bays of the pedimented centre have moulded ashlar window surrounds with cornices. The left-hand opening is now blocked and has a swagged patera above it. The right-hand opening has a twentieth-century multi-pane frame with a smaller blocked window above. The wide centre bay features a blind first floor opening below a blind Diocletian window. The 3-bay return to Wood Street has a remodelled ground floor but retains the original pattern of openings to the upper floors, now with twentieth-century joinery components.

The building was originally part of an extensive U-shaped residential and commercial complex developed by John Warmsley. The complex was centred on a rear open quadrangle used for commercial purposes and was completed by 1803, as shown on Horwood's map of that year. It is thought to have included ancillary dwelling ranges on Seel Street and Wood Street, of which those numbered 79–83 on Seel Street survive. The central range of the complex was demolished after Warmsley's death in 1812, and its site, along with that of the quadrangle, was subsequently redeveloped in the later 19th century with present buildings.

This building forms part of a group with the nearby St Luke's Church and its almost identical twin range at nos. 24–30 Berry Street to the south.

Nos. 8–14 Berry Street is of special architectural and historic interest as one of a surviving pair of elements from an extensive late 18th-century residential and commercial complex designed by a notable Liverpool architect and builder. Like the merchants' housing with attached warehousing in the Lower Duke Street area, it demonstrates the economic and entrepreneurial vitality of Liverpool in the late 18th century and reflects the architectural identity of the city at that period. Despite alterations, this building and its surviving counterpart at nos. 24–30 Berry Street remain significant indicators of the 18th-century character of this area of central Liverpool and contribute to the settings of other historic buildings within the conservation area.