Schooner Street Tenements

This is a block of tenements built between 1881 and 1884 by Paley and Austin of Lancaster, with the main contractors being Smith and Caird of Dundee (Trescatheric). Constructed of red brick with graduated slate roofs, the building is four storeys high, with a 2:14:2 bay facade and a slightly-recessed central section. The windows are primarily 4/2-pane sashes, with alternate paired and single windows. The ground floor windows have flush sills and triple-header segmental arches. First-floor windows have projecting sills. A patterned brick band is located below the second floor of the centre and the third floor of the outer bays, and a moulded string course runs along the building; second-floor windows interrupt this string course. The central section of the third floor is treated as an attic storey with hipped-roof dormers within a mansard roof, while the end bays rise four full storeys and have hipped roofs. A string course and terracotta corbel table support cast-iron ogee gutters. Projecting lateral stacks are visible on each return, and plain ridge stacks are present on the party walls. The rear elevation, facing Schooner Street, is four storeys high for the entire range, featuring nine staircases with half-landing balconies, iron railings, and round arches. Utility wings, previously with unglazed openings, now have casements and hipped roofs. The tenements were built as part of a notable development to house workers for the Barrow Iron Shipbuilding Company. They are located behind the sandstone Devonshire Buildings on Michaelson Road, and are similar to four other blocks on Barque Street, Brig Street, and Ship Street. The site is flanked by more elaborate brick tenements backing onto Sloop Street and Steamer Street. This is a well-preserved example of a tenement block type that is uncommon in England. The building plans register references 1435 and Trescatheric’s “How Barrow was Built” provides further details on pages 26-27.