Lost shopping city arcade behind building thousands of shoppers pass everyday

The Grade II listed building was once home to a stunning shopping mall

Thousands of people walk past this grand, red and white brick building in Liverpool city centre every day.

But many are unaware of the lost shopping arcade that was once behind the building's stunning façade on Lord Street. It's unique frontage with three giant arches and pointed gables was the vision of architect Walter Aubrey Thomas, who went on to design the Royal Liver Building.

Photos from the ECHO's archive show inside the lost Victorian shopping mall with a domed ceiling and rows of shops. The building, which was awarded Grade II listed status by Historic England in 1975, narrowly missed annihilation during the blitz in World War II as buildings nearby were reduced to rubble.

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In 1935, it underwent significant changes as the ground floor of the grand Victorian shopping mall was completely reconstructed to accommodate a British Home Stores (BHS). In what now seems like an unforgiveable act of sacrilege, an article in the Liverpool ECHO in December 1935 documents the building's renovation.

It describes hundreds of people "going about their daily duties" in the three storeys above as major construction on the building was completed below.

It read: "The old Lord-street Arcade, which has seen so many changes of fortune and which has been a city landmark for generations, has now disappeared, and in its place have appeared the extensive premises of the British Home Stores. Ltd., which will form the largest of this firm's many branches throughout the kingdom.

"How the old Arcade and its double line of shops, its open daylit space and its large basement, were converted into one composite store of two doors forms a story which provides a tribute to modern constructional engineering.

"Walls and supports were cut away piece by piece, hundreds of tons of debris being removed, and simultaneously shorings were erected in their place on an intricate system of cantilever-age."

For many years, the old arcade was also known as ‘The Penny in The Pound Building’ with the Merseyside Hospitals Council being tenants from at least 1936 through to the 1970s. In the late 1980s, there were plans to reopen the arcade allowing shoppers to walk directly through from Mathew Street as Lord Street, Paradise Street and Whitechapel became pedestrianised.

A story in the Liverpool Echo in October 1986 documented the proposed plans that sadly never came to fruition.

It read: "[The] Lord Street arcade which dates back to Victorian times and is hidden away in the Penny In The Pound Building. We want to open that up so there is a through route to the Mathew Street area from Lord Street. The scheme will be linked into British Home Stores. It is a fantastic arcade, but I wonder how many people know it is there?"

To this day, what original features of the magnificent old arcade survive behind the façade is unknown.

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