India Buildings in Water Street Liverpool, was completed
early in the year 1931, the site is bounded by,
Water Street and Brunswick Street and with side frontages on to Fenwick
Street and Drury Lane, the building is
in the heart of the business and banking quarter of Liverpool.
In 1833, the foundation stone of old India Buildings was
laid, and it was built to the designs of Franklin, the Architect, was completed
in 1834. one hundred years before the
date of the completion of the new India Buildings, George Holt conceived the
idea of erecting a block of light and offices, whereas before then the business
transactions of merchants and ship owners had been conducted on the ground
floors of private dwellings, or more frequently in dark and dingy "counting-houses"
partitioned off from warehouses.
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| An early photograph looking up Brunswick Street towards the Bank Of England on Castle Street, the Bank opened in 1848. |
The original India Buildings, although well built was
demolished in 1928, and the old India Buildings occupied less than half the
area of the current one. There was originally a narrow lane called Chorley Street
which crossed the centre of the site. India Buildings, Fenwick Chambers,
Fenwick Court and The Atlantic surrounded a court yard on the upper side of
this lane, while Canton and Commercial Buildings, Seaton Buildings, Cereal
chambers and several buildings came between Chorley Street and Drury Lane.
Liverpool Corporation started negotiations in June , 1922
for a new building, as it was decided that it would be in the interest of the
city to widen Water Street and that Fenwick Street should be increased in width
it was also decided that Brunswick
Street would remain unaffected. It was decided that Chorley Street would be
closed and the new India Building would be built across it, and at the same
time Water Street would be widened by 18feet and Fenwick Street to be widened
to forty-two feet, Drury lane was to be widened by eight feet on the India
Buildings side.
The Associated Architects for the Building were Messrs
Briggs and Thornely F.F.R.I.B.A. and Mr Herbert J Rowse F.R_I.B.A.,Mr J. R.
Sharman M.Inst C E ., acted as Consulting Engineer for the steel framework and
Mr. A. G. Ramsey, AM.Inst.C.E., for the heating and ventilation. The General
Contracts were Messrs. Wm. Thornton and Sons. Ltd., of Liverpool. Messrs
Borman, Long & Co., Ltd., supplied and erected the steel framework.
To accommodate Messrs Alfred Holt and co., and other tenants
of old India Buildings, it was essential that the new building should be
constructed in two separate and independent parts, divided roughly by the line
of the upper side of Chorley Street, so that old India Buildings could remain
intact until the first part of the new building was completed and ready for
occupation. Therefore it was decided that the main entrances for the new
building would be in the centre on Water Street and Brunswick Street. This
design gave rise to the arcade that is there today and houses numerous shops.
The building has two light courts that are formed above
first floor level, running across the main axis of the building. The interior
columns are arranged in lines running parallel to each other so that the two
parts of the building are symmetrical from the first floor level upwards.
In the early hours of Saturday 3rd May 1941, the Luftwaffe
attacked the business centre of Liverpool with land mines. The first two landed
short of the property but the third hit the front of the Corn Exchange
Building, which collapsed and left its debris piled against India Buildings,
completely closing Brunswick Street. The blast of the third mine shook India
Buildings and smashed nearly all the windows, many of the internal walls were
displaced and structural damage was extensive throughout the building. Embers
of burning wood were carried by the wind into the windowless building and
caused numerous small fires on all floors above street level. During the first
few hours the buildings fire fighters extinguished these fires as fast as they
occurred. The pressure of the water supply became so low that water was no
longer available and the fire fighters were rendered helpless. The second floor
was soon gutted and the other floors followed quickly. The fires spread from
the Brunswick Street frontage along the Fenwick Street side of the building
with remarkable rapidity. The strong wind, the draught up the light courts, stairways
and lift shafts, and the dryness of the internal fittings and furnishings
towards the end of a season of central heating all contributed to the rapid
gutting of the upper eight floors of India Buildings The basement shops in
Brunswick Street and Drury Lane and the south west section of the ground floor
and mezzanine were also for the most part burnt out. The remainder of the
building was damaged by blast but the garage in the basement, apart from the
loss of the doors by fire, suffered no fire damage and the cars which the
proprietors had been advised to keep at the back of the premises away from the
doors were intact. Prior to the outbreak of war in 1939 India Buildings was
practically fully let and became fully occupied during 1940.
The opportunity was taken to make such alterations in the
design, planning and equipment of the building which once again make it a
comfortable and up-to-date business centre, cable of competing successfully
with the new commercial buildings.
Reconstruction of the building was finally completed early
in 1953.
Link
India Buildings
Sources
Liverpool Central Library
Liverpool Records Office Archives
Wikipedia
