8 And 10, Benson Street

A house and attached warehouse built between 1844 and 1848, with later 19th and 20th century alterations. The building was likely designed by Arthur Hill Holme, an architect from Liverpool, and constructed for Samuel and James Holme, a prominent Liverpool building company known for their work on St George's Hall and the County Sessions House. The building is constructed from ashlar sandstone and red brick, with a slated roof.

The building has an elongated T-shaped plan, with a front facing Benson Street and a rear warehouse range extending north-eastwards. The front of the house features a two-story, three-bay range with a cornice to the ground floor, a cill band at first floor level, an upper frieze and pediment. The ground floor originally had three semi-circular headed windows, now boarded over, with panelled aprons and flanking doors within projecting flat architraves topped with pediments. First floor windows are framed by architraves, the central one having a flat design with a Greek hood and acroteria. The tympanum of the upper pediment features foliage and three acroteria. A panelled parapet is topped with four finials.

The rear elevation has a canted end to the house and spans two bays to the south-east. A further narrow domestic bay is present, retaining some sash window frames before leading into a three-story warehouse range. The first five bays of the warehouse were initially built as a two-story structure, with double taking-in doors to each floor at the south-east end. An additional eight bays extend from this section, initially a single-story timber storage shed with tall arched openings to a yard, now infilled with metal window frames. Later upper stories were added.

The interior of the house has suffered damage from water ingress and vandalism, but retains much of the original floor plan, with fragments of decorative plasterwork, some panelled doors, and the base of the stair structure. Parts of the ground floor are constructed with fireproofing, using brick jack arches supported by Hodgekinson metal beams. The warehouse range retains roof trusses within the ground floor of the final eight bays, which were originally a single story, and now support the upper floor structure. The building was originally constructed for Samuel and James Holme, Liverpool building contractors.