Tower Buildings, Liverpool
Encyclopedia
Tower Buildings is a former office block in the city of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, Merseyside, England. It stands with its longer front on the east side of the Strand, and extends round the corner into Water Street. The building is located directly opposite the Royal Liver Building
Royal Liver Building
The Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building located in Liverpool, England. It is sited at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's Three Graces, which line the city's waterfront...

, which was designed by the same architect. Earlier buildings on the site have been a sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

, and a later fortified house known as the Tower of Liverpool. After this was demolished in 1819, it was replaced in 1846 by the first structure to be named Tower Buildings. The present structure is one of the earliest steel-framed
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...

 buildings in England, and details of its architecture reflect the earlier fortified building on the site. It has been converted into apartments, and into units for commercial and retail use.

History

The building stands on a historic site in the city. The first structure on the site had been a sandstone mansion, built in 1256 on the shore of the River Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....

. Its first owner is not known, but by 1360 it was owned by Sir Robert Lathom. By beginning of the 15th century it was owned by Sir John Stanley
John I Stanley of the Isle of Man
Sir John I Stanley, KG was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and titular King of Mann, the first of that name. The Stanley family later became the Earls of Derby and remained prominent in English history into modern times.-Early years:...

. In 1406 Sir John gained permission from King Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

 build a fortified house, which was named the Tower of Liverpool. The Stanley family later became the Earls of Derby
Earl of Derby
Earl of Derby is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end of the reign of Henry III and died in 1279...

. By 1737 the house was being leased from the Earl of Derby by Liverpool Corporation. In 1745 part of it was converted into a prison, and the upper rooms were used for civic functions. In 1774 the Corporation bought the building outright. A new prison was built in Great Howard Street, and the building ceased to be used for this purpose in 1811. It was demolished in 1819 to allow widening of Water Street. The site was used for a row of warehouses, until in 1846 the first structure to be known as Tower Buildings was built to a design by Sir James Picton
James Picton
Sir James Allanson Picton was an English antiquary and architect who played a large part in the public life of Liverpool. He took a particular interest in the establishment of public libraries.-Biography:...

. The present building was designed in 1906 by Walter Aubrey Thomas
Walter Aubrey Thomas
Walter Aubrey Thomas , was a British architect.Walter Aubrey Thomas was born in 1859 at Tranmere, Birkenhead. He was the son of Humphrey Glegge Thomas who listed as an architect and engineer....

, and its construction was completed in 1910. Thomas also designed the Royal Liver Building
Royal Liver Building
The Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building located in Liverpool, England. It is sited at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's Three Graces, which line the city's waterfront...

. Tower Buildings was one of the first steel-framed buildings in England. In 2006 it was converted into apartments, and into units for commercial and retail use.

Architecture

Tower Buildings is constructed on a steel frame. It is clad in grey granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

, and faced with white glazed terracotta made by Doulton
Royal Doulton
The Royal Doulton Company is an English company producing tableware and collectables, dating to 1815. Operating originally in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries, where it was a latecomer compared to Spode, Wedgwood and Minton...

. The Strand front has eight storeys and is in nine bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...

, the Water Street front has five storeys plus attics and is in three bays, and there is a curved bay on the corner. The bays are divided by polygonal turret
Turret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...

s. On each end of the Strand front is a two-storey tower, and above the central bay rises a three-storey tower. A balustrade
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...

 runs along the top of the building and around the two lateral towers. At the corners of the towers are castellated
Battlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...

 turrets, which create a link with the former Tower of Liverpool. Tower Buildings has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a Grade II* listed building.

External links

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