Trident House

Trident House, Nos. 31 to 33, Dale Street

A range of offices with ground floor shops, formerly a political club. Built in 1879 with late 20th-century remodelling. Designed by Edmund Kirby, a prominent Liverpool architect, for the Reform Club of the Liberal Party.

The building is constructed in smooth red brick laid to Flemish Bond, with ashlar sandstone and polished granite dressings. It features wide gable chimney stacks and Welsh slate roof coverings.

The plan comprises parallel ranges running to the street frontage and to the rear, with a linking range at right angles to the frontage.

The symmetrical south-facing front elevation presents 2 storeys with attics across 7 bays. An advanced entrance bay at the centre is defined by an open flat-roofed porch with Tuscan columns and corbelled capitals supporting a balustrade balcony. The principal doorway has double 8-pane doors below a 3-pane fanlight. A first floor doorway is set within polished granite pilasters flanked by tall sash windows. A complex frieze incorporates bulbous carved capitals to pilasters. Above this sits a tripartite window behind a low balustrade, with a deep bracketed cornice between the second floor and attic levels. Late 20th-century shop fronts with deep planted fascias flank the entrance bay at ground floor level, obscuring original detailing. At first floor level, tall sash windows beneath shallow segmental gauged brick arches sit behind a continuous balcony carried on coupled stone corbels rising from a wide ashlar band with Greek key decoration. Ornate metal railings form the balcony frontage. A wide dog-toothed brick storey band sits below the second floor sash windows, with attic windows set beneath a moulded eaves cornice.

The west side elevation returns frontage detail onto its first bay of a 9-bay facade. Moulded ashlar string courses define the storeys. Four doorways, two with granite surrounds, are present. Above these, 2-storeyed recesses beneath shallow segmental arches house inset windows, mostly glazing bar sashes.

The interior has been remodelled in the late 20th century but retains many original elements. These include an elaborate cantilevered principal staircase with a serpentine moulded handrail and ornate cast iron balusters rising from curved side brackets. The entrance screen to the stair hall features panelled flanking walls to the staircase and moulded semi-circular heads to openings beneath the ground floor flight. Tall sash windows with moulded architraves light the half landings, with the penultimate landing featuring stained glass heraldic panels. Doorways to landings have moulded surrounds and semi-circular arched heads. The entrance to the former first floor reception room has a reeded marble surround with Greek key decoration and inset columns of polished granite. Some rooms retain carved panelling and fixed furniture designed by Kirby and made by Gillow and Co.

The Liverpool Reform Club was formed in June 1878 at the Royal Hotel and this building was opened in 1879 by Lord Hartington. Political clubs were first established in London, following the fashion for imposing purpose-built premises set by Nash's United Services Club and Decimus Burton's Athenaeum in the 1820s. The London Reform Club was a liberal institution, named in celebration of the Reform Act of 1832. The Liverpool Reform Club, designed by a prominent local architect, reflects the commercial and political vigour of the city at the height of its influence and prosperity, and represents an important element of Liverpool's most significant 19th-century street frontages.