Barque Street Tenements

The Barque Street Tenements are a tenement block built between 1881 and 1884 by the architectural firm Paley and Austin of Lancaster, with main contracting by Smith and Caird of Dundee. Constructed from red brick and topped with graduated slate roofs, the building stands four storeys high and features a near-symmetrical facade with 2:14:2 bays and a slightly-recessed center. The windows are a mix of paired and single 4/2-pane sashes, with the ground floor showcasing a chamfered plinth and windows that have flush sills and triple-header segmental arches. The first floor mirrors this design but includes projecting sills. Below the second floor, there is a patterned brick band at the center, while the second-floor windows interrupt a moulded string course. The central third floor is treated as an attic storey, featuring hipped-roof dormers within a mansard roof, while the end bays rise to four full storeys and have hipped roofs. The building is adorned with a string course and a terracotta corbel table supporting cast-iron ogee gutters, along with projecting lateral stacks on each return and plain ridge stacks on the party walls. The rear of the building, facing Barque Street, also consists of four full storeys across the entire range. There are nine staircases with half-landing balconies, iron railings, and round arches above. Utility wings feature casement windows in previously unglazed apertures and have hipped roofs. This tenement block is part of a significant development intended to house workers from the Barrow Iron Shipbuilding Company and is one of four identical blocks located behind the sandstone Devonshire Buildings on Michaelson Road. The site is bordered by more elaborate brick tenements that back onto Sloop Street and Steamer Street, making it a well-preserved example of a building type that is rare in England.