24-30, Berry Street (Includes 87 Seel Street)

A range of three shops on Berry Street, formerly part of a pair of crosswings belonging to a larger residential and commercial complex known as Warmsley's Yard, built circa 1798–1803. The building was designed and constructed by John Warmsley (circa 1765–1812), a notable Liverpool architect and builder. 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 has an L-shaped plan, with its main frontage facing Berry Street and a shorter return range extending to Seel Street.

The Berry Street elevation rises three storeys across five bays. The central three bays sit beneath a wide, shallow pediment. These bays were originally marked by pairs of pilasters at the upper floor levels, of which three survive; the inner left-hand pilaster has been removed. The ground floor now contains three twentieth-century shop frontages. The south end bay has blocked window openings at first and second floor level, retaining their original dimensions. The north end bay contains two windows on each upper floor fitted with twentieth-century joinery. The central three bays have remodelled openings at the centre and left; the right-hand section retains its original moulded stone surround and cornice beneath a swagged patera. The return to Seel Street comprises three bays with a remodelled ground floor but retains the original pattern of openings to the upper floors, including the upper level of a two-storey semi-circular bay window with eaves cornice.

The interior was not inspected.

Warmsley's Yard was originally an extensive U-shaped complex combining residential and commercial purposes, with a central range set behind an open quadrangle used for business activities. The complex was completed by 1803, as shown on Horwood's map of that year, and is thought to have included ancillary dwelling ranges on Seel Street and Wood Street; the former, at numbers 79–83, survives. The central range was demolished following Warmsley's death in 1812, and its site, together with the quadrangle, was subsequently redeveloped in the nineteenth century with present buildings.

This building forms part of a group with the attached 79–83 Seel Street and its near-identical twin range at 8–14 Berry Street. As one of the surviving elements of an extensive late eighteenth-century residential and commercial complex designed by a significant Liverpool architect and builder, it is of considerable architectural and historical interest. Like the merchant housing with attached warehousing in the Lower Duke Street area, it demonstrates the economic vitality and entrepreneurial character of Liverpool in the late eighteenth century and reflects the city's architectural identity of that period. Despite alterations, this building and its surviving counterpart at 8–14 Berry Street remain significant indicators of the eighteenth-century character of this central Liverpool area and contribute meaningfully to the setting of other historic buildings within the conservation area of which they form prominent components.