Municipal Buildings

Municipal Buildings is a former council office building constructed between 1862 and 1868. The building was designed by John Weightman, though the design was subsequently modified and completed by Edward Robert Robson. The structure is predominantly three storeys with a basement and corner attic pavilions. It is built in a Mannerist style with Northern Renaissance influences, particularly evident in its tower.

The building is constructed of sandstone with a granite plinth, and has slate and lead roofs along with substantial sandstone chimneystacks.

Plan and Siting

Municipal Buildings is an extremely large structure occupying an entire city block bounded by Sir Thomas Street, Crosshall Street, and Dale Street, with its principal elevation facing north-west onto Dale Street. The building has a quadrangular plan consisting of four wings: a north-east wing facing Crosshall Street, a north-west wing facing Dale Street, a south-west wing facing Sir Thomas Street, and a south-east wing facing a rear yard area and what is currently a development site being converted to a multi-storey car park. Lower top-lit sections occupy the central area of the quadrangle.

Exterior

The building displays an eclectic design combining Gothic, classical and French influences. It is built of sandstone with a rock-faced granite plinth. The quadrangular plan incorporates projecting three-bay pavilions at each of the four corners and a clock tower at the centre of the Dale Street elevation. The two rear pavilions are smaller than those facing Dale Street and are rectangular in plan. The land slopes downwards from north-west to south-east, so the basement level appears as a ground floor on the side and rear elevations, though it is hidden by balustrading on the two side elevations.

The building's windows decrease in height from the ground floor upwards. The basement, ground and first floors have casements, whilst the second floor on the north-west, north-east and south-west elevations has plate-glass sashes. Windows on the first and second floors have carved surrounds with raised heads incorporating floral reliefs. Substantial stone chimneystacks survive, some with moulded caps.

Front Elevation

The principal north-west elevation is fifteen bays long, with the bays separated by giant engaged columns and pilasters extending to second-floor height with Corinthian capitals carved by Earp of London. Although Corinthian in style, the capitals depict English ferns rather than acanthus leaves, and each one is different—a Gothic rather than classical feature. A guilloche band runs above the ground-floor windows, and a richly carved entablature above the columns features floral reliefs, egg and dart moulding, and carved modillions. The second-floor windows are flanked by pilasters and statues of allegorical figures surmounting the entablature below, representing Industry, Commerce, Navigation, and different branches of art and science. A further entablature at the top of the elevation has a plain fascia with a moulded band, a frieze with carved floriated roundels, and a dentil band, egg and dart moulding, and small lion's head reliefs to the parapet. Both entablatures continue around and across the north-east and south-west elevations.

The three-bay pavilions at each end of the elevation have curved French-style roofs, balustraded parapets surmounted by urns, small dormer windows, and iron cresting enclosing roof lanterns that cannot be observed from ground level. The bays project forward, as does a wide centre bay incorporating the main entrance. The entrance consists of a tall doorway with a pendant lantern, polished pink-granite surround and panelled double doors with modern glazed inner doors behind, flanked by giant columns and pilasters matching the rest of the elevation that support a projecting entablature, the whole forming a shallow porch. Set behind the columns and flanking the entrance doorway are slender sash windows, and above the entrance are two-light round-arched windows with a Corinthian colonette acting as a dividing mullion, flanked by slender single round-arched windows. Below the central first-floor window is a carved hood supported by three sculptural brackets depicting two eagles flanking a Liver bird, and below are carved panels depicting foliage and shell reliefs.

Above the entrance the bay rises to form a clock tower approximately 200 feet high, designed in 1867 by Robson, replacing an earlier design of 1862 produced by Weightman. The tower's lower stage has elaborate Renaissance detail to each side with pilasters and tall two-light openings with louvres, balustraded balconies and lunettes above. The second-floor stage is balustraded with crocketed obelisk finials and has a large clock face to each side set within surrounds with segmental pediments. An entablature above is surmounted by winged lions at each corner of the tower that project outwards in the style of gargoyles. The tower is topped by a crocketed pyramidal spire with an ornamental balcony incorporating decorative cast-iron railings and a cast-iron finial in the style of a corona.

Side Elevations

The north-east and south-west side elevations are also of fifteen bays and both have projecting pavilions at each end and light wells in front of the basement of the recessed central section. These are enclosed by stone balustrading incorporating square piers surmounted by cast-iron lamp standards with dragon sculptures to the bases. Similarly styled balustrading and identical lamp standards also exist in front of the bays flanking the main entrance on the north-west elevation. The recessed centre bays to the south-west elevation facing Sir Thomas Street are divided by giant pilasters in the same style as those to the front elevation and corner pavilions, but the same bays to the north-east elevation facing Crosshall Street have only two pilasters. Both elevations incorporate two secondary entrances, all with polished pink-granite surrounds and partly-glazed panelled double-doors. One of the entrances on Crosshall Street has paired doorways separated by an engaged hybrid-Doric column with an echinus incorporating egg and dart moulding instead of the usual plain moulding.

Rear Elevation

The south-east rear elevation is in mellow red brick apart from the sandstone corner pavilions, which have single windows to the first and second floors on this side. The elevation's windows are plainer with flat-arched heads and sandstone sills, and consist of two-over-two, two-over-four and four-over-four sashes to each floor. Projecting out from the centre of the elevation at basement and ground-floor levels is a shallow late-19th-century or early-20th-century two-storey extension in engineering brick. Attached to the elevation to the right is a later full-height metal extractor flue.

Quadrangle Elevations

The quadrangle elevations are also in mellow red brick with windows with flat-arched heads and round heads, and stair towers top-lit by roof lanterns set to three inner corners; the stair to the east corner is lit by a mono-pitch section of glazing. The central section of the quadrangle is filled by a two-storey main hall (the former Treasurer's Public Office) with a continuous pitched glazed roof and lower flanking side aisles with roof lanterns over glazed domes. Originally the north-western end of the hall had a narrower roof lantern and four pyramidal roof lanterns, but this was later altered to the present arrangement, probably in the late 19th century or early 20th century when the hall was extended to the rear and internal alterations made. Three single-storey former committee rooms on the south-west side have large roof lanterns; those over the two outer rooms have possibly been enlarged.

Interior

Internally the building's design and layout is tailored for corporation use with suites of rooms that would have originally been occupied by various departments. The principal offices were located on the ground floor with the clerks for the various departments located on the upper floors; thus the ground and first floors have a higher level of decoration. The ground floor is raised and due to the sloping site the four secondary side entrances lead to short stone stairs and cast-iron balustrading leading up to the ground floor; that to the north corner contains the widest stairs, whilst that to the south corner entrance has stone rather than cast-iron balustrading. The stair to the west corner entrance has a stone tablet dating to 1873 affixed to one wall commemorating the life of Sir Thomas Johnson, a former Mayor of Liverpool, who erected buildings previously on the site of Municipal Buildings.

Layout and Access

The internal layout consists of a wide central corridor running around the building with rooms off to each side on the basement and ground floors (the corridor is interrupted by the main central hall on the south-east side of the ground floor), and rooms off mainly to the outside on the two upper floors due to the central part of the quadrangle being occupied by the lower main hall and former committee rooms. The corridors on the ground and first floors have sandstone floors laid in a diamond pattern, with other floorings and modern carpet coverings elsewhere on each upper floor. The walls of the corridors on the ground and first floors are also lined with a glazed-tile dado in various shades of brown that resembles polished parquetry and has a border incorporating Greek key-style decoration; the dado is replicated to the secondary entrance stairs and four main stairwells.

Four stairwells exist to the inner corners of the building. Three are top-lit by roof lanterns with friezes incorporating medallion reliefs of Liver birds and carved brackets depicting the head of Queen Victoria, whilst the fourth to the east corner is plainer and top-lit by a mono-pitch section of glazing. The stairwells contain open-well sandstone stairs with decorative cast-iron balusters, mahogany handrails, and glazed-tile dados; that to the north corner of the building is the largest, whilst the stairwell to the west corner has an Edwardian lift with a balustraded platform and a timber and metal car containing an operator's seat. The east stairwell contains a sweeping stair and does not have a glazed-tile dado. Adjacent to the stairwells are toilets, which have been modernised, although original entrance doors survive. Each stair has large arched and lunette openings on each landing (some with cast-iron and stone balustrading), but some have been blocked up.

Throughout the interior all of the spaces on the ground, first and second floors have very high ceilings, deep skirtings, plain moulded cornicing and some simple moulded cornicing, panelled doors (some partly glazed) with original brass door furniture, and door architraves with raised heads containing patterned ventilators. The corridors mainly have groined and ribbed tunnel or barrel-vaulted ceilings to the ground and first floor, and flat ceilings to the second floor, whilst the rooms to each floor have a mixture of flat, coffered, and jack-arched ceilings. Fireplaces with marble surrounds survive to many rooms, some of which have been painted and many of which have cast-iron inserts with laurel wreath roundels depicting the heads of Queen Victoria, her eldest son Albert Edward (later Edward VII) and his wife Alexandra of Denmark. Some glazed and panelled screens also survive. Numerous strong rooms can be found throughout the building, particularly to the ground floor. Most have barrel-vaulted ceilings and some retain shelving and ladders, and some original doors, whilst others have been converted. On the second-floor corridor is an original concealed Jacob's ladder providing access to the roofspace above (now via a replaced hatch).

The majority of the rooms on each floor are similarly styled, but two rooms on the north-west side and south-east side of the ground floor have marquetry-panel dados and marble fireplaces with roundels depicting a Liver bird in relief; the room to the south-east side (originally two rooms) also has an elaborate ceiling. A large room to the north corner of the ground floor (the former Borough Treasurer's public office) has cast-iron columns and a vaulted and coffered ceiling, whilst a room to the north corner of the first floor has a later mezzanine with an altered front supported by slender octagonal columns with carved detail.

On the first floor of the north-west wing towards the western end is a large room with a dividing wall incorporating a large wide arched opening and a mezzanine level. A plan of 1868 confirms that this is an original arrangement and the dividing wall has not been knocked through later.

On the first floor of the south-west wing a former muniments room has metal shutters to the lower parts of the windows and a bell and string pull at the entrance door for attracting attention. One of the rooms on the first floor of the south-east wing contains a later stair flight up to a mezzanine-level strong room; the top of the stair leading to a room above has been blocked up.

Main Entrance and Hall

The main entrance off Dale Street has a coffered ceiling. The entrance leads through to an entrance hall in the main corridor, which has paired wall pilasters with a marble paint effect and three oval-shaped lobbies on the south-east side with large oval skylights with plaster moulding; those to either side access toilets, whilst that to the centre leads through to a very large double-height top-lit hall with lower flanking side aisles, which is located to the centre of the building and was originally the Treasurer's Public Office (tax office). The space, which was altered and extended in the late 19th century or early 20th century to incorporate rooms at the north-western end, is approximately 40 feet by 60 feet with a basilica-type form incorporating a tall central space with lower side aisles. Four tall Doric columns to each side support a clerestory, with two shorter columns at the south-east end supporting the first-floor corridor of the south-east wing. The roof of the central space is supported by brackets with carved pendants and incorporates five large square, segmented skylights set underneath an extended glazed pitched roof and flanked by coffered panels, with paired sets of three-light windows to each bay of the clerestory. The lower side aisles have coffered ceilings with carved paired brackets and shallow glazed domes to each bay. A panelled oak dado runs around most of the walls, along with cast-iron radiators, including two encircling the columns.

Behind the hall's south-west wall are three former committee rooms with coffered ceilings incorporating large square and rectangular skylights. The committee rooms, which have lost their fireplaces, were originally accessed off the south-west arm of the main corridor arm, but the tall arched entrance has been blocked up, although the top-lit entrance lobby survives with a glazed-tile dado in the same style as that to the main corridor. At the south-east rear of the hall is a probable late-19th-century or early-20th-century oak colonnade with piers incorporating paired Ionic pilasters to each face that leads through into a large room with a jack-arched ceiling and fireplaces at each end. The room's rear wall has been removed to incorporate a small late-19th-century or early-20th-century extension that includes an altered vault in the south corner.

Tower

A narrow stair flight off to the side of a second-floor room located in the main entrance bay overlooking Dale Street provides access up to the clock tower's belfry, which contains five bells provided by John Warner & Sons (a large central bell surrounded by four smaller bells). Two steep stair flights lead up from the belfry to the clock mechanism chamber above and the tower's spire.

Attic Pavilions

Internal stair access to the attic pavilions, which are located to the four corners of the building, is only possible to three of them and not to that to the south corner alongside Sir Thomas Street, which does not have an access stair. The two pavilions to the front of the building at each end of the Dale Street elevation are larger; that to the north corner is accessed via a timber stair flight with a slender octagonal newel post, stick and turned balusters and a decorative cut string, whilst that to the west corner is accessed via a cast-iron spiral stair. The smaller pavilion to the east corner is also accessed via a cast-iron spiral stair. Fire surrounds and fireplace openings exist to the west pavilion, suggesting that it was used as office space, whilst the others appear to have been used for storage. All three pavilions have timber floors and floor hatches, timber-boarded stair lobbies and walls (some of the boarding is missing in places) and modern metal stairs leading up onto the roofs. The north pavilion also has two separate rooms with four-panel doors and large four-pane overlights, which bring light into the rooms from the roof lantern.

Basement

The basement has been modernised in places, particularly on the north-west and south-east sides. The rooms have a mixture of painted-brick and plastered walls, and mainly stone and brick floors. A corridor cuts through the centre of the basement with rooms off to each side. Vaulted and jack-arched ceilings are present in many of the rooms, and both panelled and plank and batten doors survive. Patterned ventilators survive above the doorways (some hidden by later suspended ceilings). A shutter in one of the rooms that could be raised or lowered to alter air flow probably originally formed part of Price & Co's hot-air apparatus for the building's heating and ventilation system.