Liverpool Cricket Club Main Pavilion

This cricket club pavilion was designed by Thomas Harnett Harrison in 1880 for Liverpool Cricket Club. It was altered and extended around 1900, with further alterations during the 20th century.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of red brick with decorative timber framing, hung tiles, and small red roof tiles.

Plan and Layout

The three-storey pavilion is approximately rectangular with a projecting eastern wing. On the south-west side overlooking the cricket ground, it features a second-floor balcony, first-floor veranda, and tiered terrace. A large 1970s squash courts extension at the south-east end is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

Exterior

The pavilion sits parallel to Aigburth Road. It is built of mottled red brick in English garden wall bond (three stretchers to one header) with a brick plinth and tall rectangular brick stacks topped with circular pots. Applied timber-framing decoration painted green and hung tiles appear on areas of the second floor, with small red tiles on the roofs incorporating two wide horizontal bands of red fish-scale tiles.

South-West Elevation (Overlooking the Pitch)

The long three-storey elevation facing the cricket ground has a second floor comprising a larger half-hipped bay flanked by two gabled bays to the left and a wing to the right with a jettied gable at the right-hand outer corner. A balcony runs in front of the three left bays and wraps around the left-hand outer corner, with a doorway in the set-back side elevation of the half-hipped bay leading onto the north-west side elevation.

The central half-hipped bay is part brick with a band of diagonally-set stretchers beneath a chamfered timber sill and applied decorative timber-framing above. It has a large central uPVC-framed window incorporating glazed French doors opening onto the balcony (historic photographs show a five-light window with leaded upper panes). The jettied apex features shaped timber brackets, a central circular clock, overhanging panelled bargeboards, and a shaped finial.

The flanking gabled bays are brick with hung tiles above. Both have large horizontal windows with timber architraves featuring outer pilasters and moulded cornices with semi-circular window frames at the centre. The first bay has a three-light uPVC window frame set in the architrave, while the third bay has a uPVC glazed door and two-light window frame (historic photographs show five-light windows with wider central lights and leaded upper panes to the outer lights). A stack sits set back on the ridge of the first bay, with a second larger stack in the valley between the second and third bays.

The balcony has a frame of bolted H-shaped girders with concrete slab flooring overlaid with timber floorboards and bolted metal railings of square-section tubing with metal-strip diagonal crosses. The wing's second floor is timber-framed with a timber sill, closely spaced vertical studs, and an upper rail with timber pegging. The jettied gabled bay at the outer corner has a horizontal five-light window with timber frame.

The first floor is built of brick and partly faces onto the veranda, which also wraps around the left-hand outer corner and is now boarded in to provide storage. The first bay has a wide boarded-up opening with a doorway to the right featuring a concrete lintel and panelled, half-glazed door. The second bay has a long horizontal window with uPVC frame and timber cladding above and below, with a similar but narrower window in the third bay. The wing has a segmental-arched doorway to the left opening onto the veranda with a modern door with decorative glazing, and to the right a long horizontal window with uPVC frame. The veranda has similar railings to the balcony, with a central flight of steps to the tiered terrace and outer steps down to the ground at each end with inner metal railings and outer brick and stone coped walls.

The ground floor is largely obscured by the terrace. At the right-hand end, beyond the veranda steps, is a wide opening with a timber lintel set on a wide brick pilaster, now partially infilled with brick containing a two-light timber casement window.

North-East Elevation (Facing Aigburth Road)

The long irregular elevation facing towards Aigburth Road has a large half-hipped bay at the centre with a shallow full-height canted bay window, decorative brick ground- and first-floor lintel bands, and timber-framing to the second floor with overhanging panelled bargeboards, deep bracketed eaves, and a shaped finial. The bay window has tiling bands at floor levels and multi-paned timber frames with a few leaded upper panes remaining.

Overlapping the left-hand corner is a projecting two-storey extension of brick and timber framing with a red tiled roof, raised on square timber posts at ground-floor level. The brick first floor has a vertical timber casement window (now with an inserted ventilator) set to the right-hand side. The pegged timber-framed second floor has a timber sill and mid rail with closely spaced vertical studs. It incorporates a gable at the right-hand end with a timber-framed double sash window with leaded upper panes and overhanging bargeboards. A tall stack rises from the front roof pitch. At ground-floor level under the extension is a window to the right and doorway to the left. The 1970s brick and flat-roofed squash court extension abuts the left-hand corner and is excluded from the listing.

The right-hand return of the central bay has a segmental-arched window with stone sill and multi-paned timber frame on the first floor. To the right of the central bay are two stepped, recessed bays across which the lintel bands continue. The narrow abutting bay is gabled with a timber-framed second floor featuring a dropped timber-framed window with leaded upper panes, panelled bargeboards, and bracketed eaves. The brick ground and first floors both have segmental-arched windows with stone sills and timber frames with leaded upper panes. A large brick stack sits in the roof valley to the left.

The recessed right-hand bay has a projecting polygonal two-storey extension and a large stair window on the second floor with timber frame and leaded upper panes, a timber-framed gablet over, and deep bracketed eaves. The polygonal brick extension has a decorative band between ground and first floors, moulded eaves, and a brick parapet. The outermost plane has a segmental-arched window on the ground floor with stone sill and multi-pane timber frame. Above is a square-headed window, with two similar narrower windows in the flanking angled planes, all with timber sashes with multi-light timber frames with leaded upper panes.

North-West Side Elevation

The north-west side elevation has a central projecting half-hipped bay of brick with timber framing to the apex, panelled bargeboards, and bracketed eaves. On the ground floor is a porch of shaped timber posts and braces set on a stone plinth and supporting a red tiled lean-to roof. The wide central doorway has a worn stone step and is flanked by two narrow vertical windows. High on the first floor is a row of single-light windows (now blocked) with a red tiled canopy on shaped timber brackets. The second floor has a blind arcade with brick nogging, a small horizontal row of timber-framed windows above, and a jettied apex.

Recessed on the left-hand side is the polygonal extension with a segmental-arched window on the ground floor and square-headed window on the first floor, both with multi-pane timber frames with leaded upper panes to the first-floor window. Recessed on the right-hand side is the return elevation of the long south-west side with the balcony on the second floor and veranda on the first floor. The boarded-in veranda has a short stretch of original timber railing remaining. On the ground floor is a canted bay window with brick base, stone sill, timber window framing, and felted roof. The tiered terrace projects at the outer right-hand corner.

South-East Side Elevation

The ground floor is obscured by a modern flat-roofed extension. Above, the end wall of the wing has a central slightly projecting chimney with decorative diaper pattern beneath the eaves, flanked by small windows, and a tall stack abutting a tile-hung gablet. To the left the second floor has timber framing with brick on the first floor featuring a narrow single-light window. To the right is brick with a similar first-floor window. The first floor continues to the right with a lean-to red tile roof and is abutted by the squash court extension. Set back behind the lean-to roof is a half-hipped bay with timber-framing to the second floor incorporating a large multi-pane window, with panelled bargeboards and a finial.

Interior

The general layout of the building remains, although some smaller rooms have been opened up to provide larger spaces and to link the earlier building with the 1970s squash court extension (which is excluded from the listing). The central bay with the full-height canted bay window contains a full-width ballroom on the first floor (now a function room), with a full-width former billiards room above on the second floor (now part of the changing rooms), and a large room on the ground floor.

On the north-west side is a long stair hall accessible via the external doorway in the porch or from within the building. It contains a full-height open-well staircase with floor landings and a swept timber handrail, square timber balusters, a square moulded newel post with squared finial, and shaped curtail step. The first-floor stair window on the north-east side is blocked by the polygonal extension (the first-floor committee room in the extension is named in commemoration of Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse VC, the most highly decorated British soldier of the First World War).

A second smaller staircase runs between the first and second floors on the south-east side of the building, with a ramped timber handrail, square timber balusters, and turned and moulded newel posts with ball finials. At a lower level there is a late-20th-century staircase with square metal tube and timber board balustrades and a ground-floor stair hall containing the timber war memorial board commemorating those who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The first-floor lounge in the south corner contains a timber board listing presidents and captains.

Partial roof trusses with butt purlins to each side and bolted metal strengthening straps are visible in the former billiards room. The second floor of the eastern wing has two similarly strengthened trusses with arched braces beneath. A number of doorways have reeded architraves, though doors have been replaced, and the original windows on the north-east side also have reeded architraves. Moulded cornices survive in a number of first-floor rooms.

Elsewhere the building has been extensively refurbished and original fixtures and fittings, including fireplaces, have been removed.