History summarised from https://liverpool1207blog.wordpress...william-smith-warehouse-norfolk-st-liverpool/
A four-storey warehouse built in 1881 by merchant William Smith, with a two-storey extension (1882) on the left. It was originally used to store and process waste cordage, bunting, rags, sacking, timber and metal. Smiths’s name or initials can be seen in several places on the building. Sometime in the early 1900s it became part of the Guiness Export Bottling Plant next door, now a Safestore. By the 1930s it was a Seed Merchants, whose name (A S Hooper) can still be seen above the corner doorway along with another name (Walshs Ltd) and the street numbers (61.63.65). It has been derelict for many years but was recently acquired by Baltic Creative to redevelop into a ‘tech hub’.
Scaffolding started to go up last week so I went to have a look inside before the builders gut it completely. It turned out to be much as one might guess looking from street level - empty and rather dangerous. Pictures are ordered from the basement up.
Faded signs over the entrance door and William Smith initials in metalwork over Norfolk St entrance.
Nothing but tyres and some old storage heaters in the basement.
Ground floor rooms, the first behind the Norfolk street entrance.
Roofless extension on Simpson Street, now a bit of a jungle inside.
First floor.
Second floor.
Third floor.
A four-storey warehouse built in 1881 by merchant William Smith, with a two-storey extension (1882) on the left. It was originally used to store and process waste cordage, bunting, rags, sacking, timber and metal. Smiths’s name or initials can be seen in several places on the building. Sometime in the early 1900s it became part of the Guiness Export Bottling Plant next door, now a Safestore. By the 1930s it was a Seed Merchants, whose name (A S Hooper) can still be seen above the corner doorway along with another name (Walshs Ltd) and the street numbers (61.63.65). It has been derelict for many years but was recently acquired by Baltic Creative to redevelop into a ‘tech hub’.
Scaffolding started to go up last week so I went to have a look inside before the builders gut it completely. It turned out to be much as one might guess looking from street level - empty and rather dangerous. Pictures are ordered from the basement up.
Faded signs over the entrance door and William Smith initials in metalwork over Norfolk St entrance.
Nothing but tyres and some old storage heaters in the basement.
Ground floor rooms, the first behind the Norfolk street entrance.
Roofless extension on Simpson Street, now a bit of a jungle inside.
First floor.
Second floor.
Third floor.
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