Caffe Bien is a Grade II listed building in the Wirral local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 June 1992. Former bank. 1 related planning application.
Caffe Bien
- WRENN ID
- tattered-thatch-falcon
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Wirral
- Constituency
- Birkenhead MP: Alison McGovern (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 June 1992
- Type
- Former bank
- Address
- Caffe Bien, 257, Grange Road, Birkenhead
- OS grid reference
- SJ 315 885
- Coordinates
- 53.38894, -3.03026
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Caffe Bien is a former bank building, purpose-built around 1900. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings and ashlar bands, topped with a Westmorland slate roof. The building is designed in a free classical style and stands two storeys high with an attic, situated on a corner site with two bays on each side of the angled entrance, plus an additional bay on the return elevation to Oxton Road.
The entrance block features a bold segmental pediment supported by full-height attached Ionic columns, topped by a small open pedimented block flanked by volutes and ball finials. The doorway is set within a pedimented architrave, featuring banded Ionic shafts and an exaggerated keyblock, with low relief figures on either side. Above the entrance, there is a 12-pane sash window in an architrave with a shallow segmental entablature and an iron balcony.
The attic storey has a similar window beneath a modillion cornice of the pediment. The return elevations have renewed windows in their original openings on the ground floor, accented by stressed quoins and voussoirs. The first floor features 12-pane sash windows with a modillion cornice and a high blocking course, topped by a stone balustrade in front of segmentally pedimented dormer windows. On the right side of the Oxton Road elevation, there is a lower bay with a casement window set in an ornate stone lugged architrave, featuring an incised panel below and a panelled parapet above.
Local climate
Caffe Bien sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,080 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 86% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 75% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 19 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 9 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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