Red brick warehouses are probably Liverpool’s most characteristic type of building, and there used to be 100’s of them when the city was a major Victorian port, storing all types of goods.
Over the last few years I’ve been slowly working my way through the handful of remaining examples - mostly ones which are derelict, unused or in the process of being converted.
Warehouses are admittedly not the most exciting of buildings, being little more than containers with the main point of interest usually the lifting gear used to hoist goods up to the higher floors.
The earliest types of hoists were powered by a group of men turning a crank or handles attached to a big wheel - these were sometimes modified later by adding an electric motor, or replaced completely with an electric winch.
Alternatively, manual hoists were replaced with hydraulic devices (‘jiggers’) running on pressurised water delivered in pipes under the streets.
Blackstock/Ford Street. A long warehouse built in 1886, originally two buildings spanning two streets in the Vauxhall area, north of the city centre.
It’s shown as a bean mill on an 1891 map, one of numerous factories in the area most of which have now been demolished.
From 1950 onwards it appears as part of a transport depot and currently has planning permission (2019) to be turned into offices.
The building is close to the hydraulic main which ran along Vauxhall Road, so the lifting gear might have been hydraulically powered.
In the event only the basement looked original, the rest seems to have been rebuilt and there was no sign of any lifting gear, hydraulic or otherwise.
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Jamaica/Watkinson Street. A big warehouse on a corner with a smaller one next to it in the Baltic Triangle area, dated 1870 and 1877 on canopies over the lift bays (channels on the outside where the goods were hauled up).
These originally belonged to The Phoenix Oil Mill Co., with headquarters in Rumford Street.
The bottom floors are in use but there was scaffolding up one side a couple of years ago so I had a look at the top floors before they were converted.
The warehouses are of semi-fireproof construction with metal doors and stone stairs, but wooden floors and roof beams.
Each warehouse has a lift bay so there are two hoists - fairly common purpose-built electric ones as it turned out.
Duke Street. This is a listed warehouse called ‘Humyak House’, currently being converted into offices plus restaurant.
The building is protected because it “is a relatively unspoiled example of a mid-C19th warehouse that still retains its original plan form, timber floors, cast iron columns, stairs and many of its original cast iron window and door shutters….
...a good example of a relatively small warehouse built at the time of Liverpool's ascendancy to a port of international significance.” https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1392665.
I knew there was an original hoist in here since the listing also mentions “a small `jigger loft' housing the pulleys and winding machinery”.
The trouble was it was never accessible until one day I noticed scaffolding going up….and then forgot all about it.
It was only when dropping someone off at the hotel next door about six months later that I saw the scaffolding was still there and went for a quick late night excursion.
Heading up to the jigger loft…
Oh dear, too late, the only things left were the ‘jibs’ - the metal bits that stick out over the haulage bays with pulleys for the ropes.
I eventually found the hoist mechanism in the basement, in bits, although most of it seems to be there.
It looks like an early manual one that was converted to electricity - I wonder what will happen to it.
Over the last few years I’ve been slowly working my way through the handful of remaining examples - mostly ones which are derelict, unused or in the process of being converted.
Warehouses are admittedly not the most exciting of buildings, being little more than containers with the main point of interest usually the lifting gear used to hoist goods up to the higher floors.
The earliest types of hoists were powered by a group of men turning a crank or handles attached to a big wheel - these were sometimes modified later by adding an electric motor, or replaced completely with an electric winch.
Alternatively, manual hoists were replaced with hydraulic devices (‘jiggers’) running on pressurised water delivered in pipes under the streets.
Blackstock/Ford Street. A long warehouse built in 1886, originally two buildings spanning two streets in the Vauxhall area, north of the city centre.
It’s shown as a bean mill on an 1891 map, one of numerous factories in the area most of which have now been demolished.
From 1950 onwards it appears as part of a transport depot and currently has planning permission (2019) to be turned into offices.
The building is close to the hydraulic main which ran along Vauxhall Road, so the lifting gear might have been hydraulically powered.
In the event only the basement looked original, the rest seems to have been rebuilt and there was no sign of any lifting gear, hydraulic or otherwise.
Jamaica/Watkinson Street. A big warehouse on a corner with a smaller one next to it in the Baltic Triangle area, dated 1870 and 1877 on canopies over the lift bays (channels on the outside where the goods were hauled up).
These originally belonged to The Phoenix Oil Mill Co., with headquarters in Rumford Street.
The bottom floors are in use but there was scaffolding up one side a couple of years ago so I had a look at the top floors before they were converted.
The warehouses are of semi-fireproof construction with metal doors and stone stairs, but wooden floors and roof beams.
Each warehouse has a lift bay so there are two hoists - fairly common purpose-built electric ones as it turned out.
Duke Street. This is a listed warehouse called ‘Humyak House’, currently being converted into offices plus restaurant.
The building is protected because it “is a relatively unspoiled example of a mid-C19th warehouse that still retains its original plan form, timber floors, cast iron columns, stairs and many of its original cast iron window and door shutters….
...a good example of a relatively small warehouse built at the time of Liverpool's ascendancy to a port of international significance.” https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1392665.
I knew there was an original hoist in here since the listing also mentions “a small `jigger loft' housing the pulleys and winding machinery”.
The trouble was it was never accessible until one day I noticed scaffolding going up….and then forgot all about it.
It was only when dropping someone off at the hotel next door about six months later that I saw the scaffolding was still there and went for a quick late night excursion.
Heading up to the jigger loft…
Oh dear, too late, the only things left were the ‘jibs’ - the metal bits that stick out over the haulage bays with pulleys for the ropes.
I eventually found the hoist mechanism in the basement, in bits, although most of it seems to be there.
It looks like an early manual one that was converted to electricity - I wonder what will happen to it.
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