10, Bold Street

Number 10 Bold Street is a shop originally constructed as a private residence in the early 19th century, with later remodelling. It is a narrow 2-bay building of 4 storeys, constructed in brick with a stuccoed facade to the upper two floors of the main front elevation, and has a late 19th century 2-storey shopfront with a rear outrigger.

The exterior features a late 19th century 2-storey shopfront with stall risers and slender cast-iron mullions and frame to the ground floor, though a modern fascia now hides the upper part of this section. Two-storey pilasters flank the shopfront, partly fluted to the lower part at ground floor level with shield-shaped reliefs. The pilasters are more decorative at first floor level, with fluting to the lower part and carved foliage designs above, surmounted by carved consoles. The first floor has a shallow 6-light canted bay shop window with slender cast-iron mullions and decorative spandrels featuring geometric patterned leaded glazing. A canted 3-panel fascia with dentil cornice above reads '10' on the outer panels and 'John Byrne & Sons Ltd' on the centre panel, all in gold lettering. Windows to the upper floors have replaced glazing, with those to the third floor being smaller. All windows feature moulded eared and shouldered architraves with carved shell and floral decoration above the centre. The building has a moulded eaves cornice. Some original multipane sash and casement windows survive to the rear, though others have been replaced. A small 3-storey outrigger extends to the rear.

The interior at ground and first floor level has been largely modernised and is now open plan. A modern stair inserted to the front of the ground floor alongside the right party wall rises to the first floor, while a late 19th century stair to the rear of the ground floor also rises to the first floor. The first floor outrigger has been converted into a staff room or office. Part of the original main open-well stair survives between the first and second floors to the rear of the property, though it has replaced coverings and stick balusters hidden under later plywood. A half-landing with three steps leads into the second floor of the outrigger, now an office. The second floor features a corridor alongside the right party wall with rooms to front and rear. A timber winder stair between two rooms leads up to the third floor, which has two large rooms to front and rear separated by the winder stair. Chimneybreasts remain throughout the upper floors, with fireplaces removed from the second floor and a large bricked-up fireplace to the front room of the third floor. Original floorboards and lath and plaster partition walls survive to the upper floors.

Number 10 Bold Street was constructed in the early 19th century as a private residence. It does not appear on Horwood's map of 1803 but is depicted on Gore's map of 1814. From around the 1830s onwards, Bold Street became the most fashionable shopping street in Liverpool, as former residences were converted into retail premises. It is likely that number 10 Bold Street was converted into a shop in the mid 19th century in common with the rest of the street. The 2-storey shopfront is believed to date to the late 19th century. The building was occupied from the late 1860s by an iron-mongering firm and subsequently in the 1870s by Tiedemann & Byrne, watchmakers who later became jewellers and diamond merchants and eventually became known as John Byrne & Son Ltd. Other professions that occupied part of the building at the same time included dressmakers and milliners, a servants' agency and a dental surgeon. John Byrne took over the whole building in the 1890s. The building was largely modernised at ground and first floor level in the late 20th century but remains in retail use.