Buildings at Risk success stories

Every year we include in the Buildings at Risk Catalogue a section covering some successful restorations we have recorded during the year. Here is one example in Liverpool which appears in the 2019 catalogue we have just published.

60 Seel Street/ 30 Slater Street, Liverpool
Photos: Smith Young

60 Seel Street / 30 Slater Street is a former watchmakers works, built in circa 1850 in red brick with cement rendering and dressing. From 1855 to 1876, it was occupied as watchmaker’s premises by Richard Shearer and Thomas Russell and, from 1895, it was used as a cash register manufactory. The building forms one of the best known examples, in this area, of workshops associated with watch and clock-making, an industry that reached its peak in Liverpool in the mid 19th century. When we added it to the register in 2003, the building was in very poor condition with a damaged roof and was braced by a scaffold retention framework. This was erected by the owner following the serving of an Urgent Works Notice in the same year.

This building has been brought back into use and converted into student accommodation by
architects, Smith Young in a sympathetic and well executed scheme. The project was helped by funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and support from the Council and involved some internal new build due to the extent of loss of fabric internally. The result is strikingly beautiful.

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