The Lyceum, Liverpool
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The Lyceum is a Neoclassical
Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
located on
Bold Street, Liverpool Bold Street is a street in Liverpool, England. It is known for its cafés and for the Church of St Luke, which is situated at the top end. The bottom end leads into the area surrounding Clayton Square, which is part of the main retail district ...
. It was constructed in 1802 as a news-room and England's first subscription library (1758–1942) and later became a gentleman's club. After the club relocated in 1952 the building was left unoccupied for many years, eventually falling into a state of disrepair. Calls were made for its demolition in the late 1970s, sparking a campaign to save the building. It reopened as a post office, and then a branch of
the Co-operative Bank The Co-operative Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester. The Co-operative Bank is the only UK high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy which is incorporat ...
. As of November 2019, its tenant is a Chinese restaurant.


Construction

In 1757 members of a small literary club met in the house of William Everard, a teacher, to discuss reviews, periodicals and later books, which they circulated amongst themselves. On 1 May 1758 the Liverpool Library was established and the books which were originally stored in a large chest in Everard's parlor were moved to a number of different premises around the city centre as the collection increased. A proposal was put forward on 12 May 1800 to club members for the construction of a purpose built library in order to house their overflowing collection which had outgrown its current home on Lord Street. A design was accepted from architect Thomas Harrison of Chester which showed the building facing Church Street; this was later modified to fit local circumstances. Each of the library's 892 subscribers contributed 12
guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...
(£12.60) each towards its construction. A 50-year lease on the land was purchased and construction work began in 1800 under the guide of William Slater. Completed two years later at a cost of £11,000 the deed was then signed. Signatories included John Lightbody; John Currie; John Yates, minister of Paradise Street Unitarian Church; and most notably abolitionist
William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children ''The Butterfly's Ball, and the G ...
. The Lyceum opened on 17 December 1802 with both the newsroom and library acting as separate institutions offering shares priced at 12 guineas for the newsroom and five guineas for the library. Selling of these shares raised £2089 10 s. The newsroom contained a coffee room and reading room were members had access to provincial, London and Irish newspapers, magazines, reviews and maps. Members were charged 10s 6 d annually while proprietors paid one guinea and could admit a stranger for two months. The library was housed in a circular room which was estimated in 1807 to contain upwards of 10,000
volumes Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The defi ...
. Other rooms in the building were used for giving lectures and as meeting rooms for committee members. Over time the newsroom expanded, eventually taking over most of the building to become known as the Lyceum Gentlemen's Club.


Decline

The library part of the building closed in 1942 and its collection of books was given to Liverpool Public Library. Ten years later, after a century and a half in the building, the club moved into new premises in the city centre while the Lyceum became Grade II
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on 28 June 1952. The building was sold to developers, who in 1971 submitted an application to Liverpool City Council to demolish it, to make way for a shopping development and an extension to Liverpool Central Train Station. A petition called 'Save the Lyceum' and the involvement of
SAVE Britain's Heritage Save Britain's Heritage (styled as ''SAVE Britain's Heritage'') is a British charity, created in 1975 by a group of journalists, historians, architects, and planners to campaign publicly for endangered historic buildings. It is also active on the ...
forced the government’s
Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
to purchase the building. In 1984 the Lyceum was bought by the
Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
for £320,000 with a view of turning it into the city's PO headquarters and a
philatelic Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...
museum. However, a major national restructuring, resulting in a private company called Post Office Counters Ltd meant the plans could no longer go ahead due to limited resources. Post Office Counters Ltd sold the Lyceum back to the developers, who again requested consent for its demolition. With opposition from Liverpool City Council and
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
, a compromise with developers resulted in part of the restored building being leased back to the Post Office and other parts converted to retail outlets. The lower floor became a
building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingd ...
while the ground floor along with the post office became a changing succession of different bars/cafes under various names including 'Life Bar', 'Prohibition', 'The Bar and Grill' and the 'Lyceum Café'. It was announced in March 2004 that the post office branch was to close following a downsizing of Post Offices. After its closure other outlets soon followed, leading to the whole building being left empty except for a branch of
The Co-operative Bank The Co-operative Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester. The Co-operative Bank is the only UK high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy which is incorporat ...
on the lower floor. Two years later, property developer Landlord Harbour View Estates bought the building for £7.8m only to put it up for sale again in 2008 for £4.25 million after the company went into administration. In 2010 John Doyle, a director of a property investment company, negotiated acquisition of the freehold, purchasing it from Anglo Irish Bank for £2.85m, a significant discount to its previous sale price of £7.3m. In April 2017 the Co-operative Bank finally left, leaving the building entirely vacant. The building is now re-let as a city centre Chinese restaurant.


Architecture


Exterior

Thomas Harrison's original plan was for the building to face Church Street with a flight of steps leading up to the entrance but this plan was altered to meet 'local circumstances'. The exterior is neoclassical in style and built with ashlar stone topped with a slate pitched roof that is part
mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
. Its plan consists of a rectangle with a recessed portico held up by six ionic columns which face
Bold street Bold Street is a street in Liverpool, England. It is known for its cafés and for the Church of St Luke, Liverpool, Church of St Luke, which is situated at the top end. The bottom end leads into the area surrounding Clayton Square, which is par ...
. The building's main entrance consists of 4 six-panel doors with architraves, cornices and consoles frames. On each side of the portico are three slightly recessed windows divided by Doric columns. On the left side facing Church street are five evenly spaced half length windows with the first and fifth having
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...
s. The center three windows are divided by four ionic columns and topped with
alto relievo Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
images of Greek characters by F.A. Legé. The left relief is a seated geographer with a divider measuring distances on a globe, this is speculated to be Eratosthenes. In the middle is
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
the god of art, music and poetry. And on the right is
Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...
the god of commerce and communication. The lower third of the building has full length windows and two doors. Historically this part of the building had a semi-circular area with trees, this has since been flagged over and railings added. The overall exterior was restored in the 1980s removing
soot Soot ( ) is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed ...
which had built up on the stone.


Interior

The former newsroom which faces Church Street has a segmental-vaulted ceiling and an arched recess with
frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
s facing the windows. The friezes are painted in
grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...
to imitate classical relief sculpture and are said to be adapted from
Parthenon The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
and the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae. Harrison's original ceiling was thought to be lost after a floor was added above in the early 1900s but was later restored by
Edmund Percey Edmund Charles "Ted" Percey (6 April 1929 – 25 May 2014) was a British architect with Scherrer and Hicks and later a partner in that firm, who was responsible for the design of several notable concrete constructions for the English water indus ...
Scherrer & Hicks in 1990 when design plans were found in the Liverpool Planning Department. Opposite the newsroom stands the former library, a circular room topped with a dome measuring 59 feet in diameter. During its use it was furnished with a gallery running around it, featuring vases, books and busts of historic figures including;
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
, Milton, Locke, Bacon,
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
and
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
. By 1841 the library had upwards of 30,000 volumes. Entered from the North West, the lower floor has
Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
style plasterwork and woodwork.


See also

*
Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool – City Centre There are over 2500 listed buildings in Liverpool, England. A listed building is one considered to be of special architectural, historical or cultural significance, which is protected from being demolished, extended or altered, unless special p ...
*
Architecture of Liverpool The architecture of Liverpool is rooted in the city's development into a major port of the British Empire.Hughes (1999), p10 It encompasses a variety of architectural styles of the past 300 years, while next to nothing remains of its medieval ...
*
List of works by Thomas Harrison Thomas Harrison was an English architect who flourished in the last two decades of the 18th century and the first three decades of the 19th century. Little is known of his early life, and his precise date of birth is not known. He wa ...
*
Liverpool Central Library Liverpool Central Library is the largest of the 22 libraries in Liverpool, England, situated in the centre of the city. History The library is located in several adjoining historic buildings on William Brown Street. Its first building was the ...


References


External links


BBC Documentary: People's Palaces: Liverpool's Lyceum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyceum Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool Thomas Harrison buildings Greek Revival architecture in the United Kingdom Libraries in Lancashire Neoclassical architecture in Liverpool Gentlemen's clubs in England Unused buildings in Liverpool