Wikimedia Commons
The Bank of England Building is a Grade I listed buildingStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. in Liverpool, Merseyside designed by the architect and archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell, built between 1845 and 1848.[1] One of the three provincial branches of the bank he designed,[2] the architectural historian Richard Pollard has described the building as “one of the masterpieces of Victorian architecture”[3]
The Bank of England left in 1987, following which the TSB used the building for a few years in the 1990s. It was occupied for almost two weeks in April 2015 by political activists, who turned it into an illegal homeless shelter. The building remained empty after their eviction, until Liverpool developer JSM secured planning consent in 2023 to convert it into a restaurant and private dining facility.[4] The Ivy restaurant group opened a brasserie in the building in November 2024.[5]
Architecture
The building combines elements of several neoclassical architectural styles, including Greek, Roman and Renaissance. The ground and first floors are “tied together” by Roman Doric-style columns.[3] The front of the building held accommodation for the bank’s agent, and the sub-agent had a similar layout at the rear; the banking hall was in the centre of the building.[6]
The three-storey building is built of stone, with three bays to the front on Castle Street and seven bays deep.[1]