Listing Text

392/0/10295 CHEAPSIDE
04-FEB-08 2
DALE STREET
(North side)
87-95

II
Terrace of 5 buildings with ground floor shop premises and living accommodation above, c.1819, brick with sandstone dressings, Flemish Bond to front elevation, random English Garden Wall Bond to rear, shallow Welsh slate roof, three storeys plus basement.

PLAN: Large open room to ground floor with main stairs to rear outriggers. Front and rear rooms to upper floors with side hallway.

EXTERIOR: 5-bays to Dale Street elevation, 3-bays to Cheapside, splayed bay to corner junction containing panelled door with bolection moulding to no.87. Stone sills, wedge lintels, sill band between ground and first floor (stops at corner to Cheapside), block parapet and eaves cornice to roofline continue around to no.2 Cheapside. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Tie bars to front of nos.87 & 89. Dale Street elevation: Single bay buildings, ground floor shopfronts (boarded over), windows above. Altered shopfront to no.89. Moulded timber baluster decoration to pilasters flanking shopfront of no.91, carved Greek Revival style consoles to nos.93 & 95, timber dentil cornice with anthemion style decoration to fascia (timber above has been lost) of no.93, original brick stall riser to no.95. Upper 4-pane sashes survive to second floor of nos.91 & 93, other windows with later casements or boarded over. Cheapside elevation: Shopfront to right adjacent to splayed corner, blind recessed windows above. Cast-iron hopper to left inscribed '1819'. No.2 Cheapside to left is same building as no.87 Dale Street, domestic appearance, arched doorway with original cast-iron fanlight, replaced door. Bricked up window to right. Blind recessed windows to above right and boarded up windows to above left. Rear elevation: Full height outriggers in rear yards (yard to no.95 infilled with later development), paired bullnose outriggers to nos.89 & 91. 1 1/2 storey infill between outriggers of nos.87 & 89 provides accommodation for both properties. Two later single storey lean-tos to yard of no.89. Outrigger to no.2 Cheapside provides access into neighbouring nos.4 & 6 Cheapside. Original multipaned sash windows of varying sizes including 3-over-6 to infill between nos.87 & 89, 6-over-3 sash to first floor of no.89, 6-over-6 sash to first floor of no.91, 6-over-6 sash to first floor of no.93 and 3-over-3 sash to second floor. Segmental and flat arched heads, missing sashes but surviving box frames to no.87 and second floor of no.91, tall stair window with some surviving multipaned glazing to no.91, bricked up windows to outriggers of nos.89 & 91, enlarged first floor window to no.95. Ground floor doorways (that to no.91 partially bricked up). Chimney stack to roof of no.95.

INTERIOR: Later stud partitions to ground floor of nos.87 & 89, moulded cornice to entrance hall of no.2, arched openings to upper floor landings, lath and plaster ceilings. Chimneybreasts survive to upper floors and rear of ground floor (chimneybreast to latter of no.89 removed), fire surrounds lost. Doors inserted into ground floor party walls between nos.89, 91 & 93 to connect the properties. Cellars to nos.89 - 95 accessed by hatch in ground floor shop. Original curved main dog-leg stair to no.87/no.2 with half-landings, timber handrail, slender stick balusters, carved brackets to open string, boarded up windows to landings on Cheapside side. Additional stair in outrigger leads to basement with front and rear room, rear room with range alongside party wall with no.89, front room now bricked up. Later stair in lean-to to yard of no.89 rejoins original stair at first half-landing level (bottom part of original stair missing), upper sections of original stair in same style as that to no.87/no.2. Replaced stair to no.91. Ground floor section of original stair to no.93 removed.

HISTORY: Nos.87-95 Dale Street/2 Cheapside lie on one of the oldest roads within Liverpool. Up until the C18 Dale Street was the only access route into and out of the city from London and Manchester. It was also one of the economic and commercial hubs of the developing port during the C18 and C19.
Dale Street was widened in 1808, 1819 and 1828 and it is believed that the terrace was constructed during this second phase in 1819.
During the mid-late C19, large-scale development took place along Dale Street with many large commercial and civic buildings erected which characterise the area today.
The Dale Street terrace remained in use until the 1990s when all but no.95 became vacant.

SOURCES:
Sharples J. 2004. 'Pevsner Architectural Guides: Liverpool'. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Unpublished: Corbett S. 2007. 'Nos.87-95 Dale Street, Liverpool: Historic Buildings Survey'.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: Nos.87-95 Dale Street/2 Cheapside are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The terrace is an unusual survival of the shop house, a building type that is nationally rare, especially outside of London, and shows the development of new forms of retail premises in late Georgian England
* The original floor plans of the properties remain intact with some internal features, and are unusual for the location of stairs and the size of shop space
* As pre-1840 survivals the buildings possess intrinsic interest as examples of Georgian terraced houses, with the added interest of their plan form
* The terrace has group value with other nearby listed buildings in the Dale Street/Cheapside area, such as the Bridewell and Municipal Offices. Together these buildings epitomise the changes in the physical fabric of the city during the C18 and C19, and represent the city's changing wealth and development as an international port city.