Heritage Profile / Castle Street District
Castle St Townhouse, and the lawyer's house it lives in.
Breakfast is served from 9am, every day, inside a Grade II listed building of 1846 — on a street that was laid out on the orders of King John in 1207.
27 Castle Street · Liverpool L2 4TA · Breakfast · Brunch · Bar
The Building
An address that has always meant business.
27 Castle Street went up in 1846 for Ambrose Lace, a Liverpool solicitor and property developer, at the moment the city was at the height of its commercial power. The design is attributed to Arthur Hill Holme (1814–1857), an architect who worked almost entirely in the neoclassical manner the city's merchants preferred.
You can read his intention from the pavement. The facade carries a full-height run of Corinthian columns and a pediment above the entrance — the language of a bank, a courthouse, a temple. It was designed to make a client feel that money left here was money left safely. Later, it became a branch of the Yorkshire Building Society, which is the name under which the building is still recorded on the national heritage register.
Holme also designed the School for the Blind on Hardman Street, which today houses a restaurant of its own. Two of Liverpool's dining rooms, one architect, dead at forty-three.
Statutory Record
- Address
- 27 Castle Street, Liverpool
- Heritage category
- Listed Building
- Grade
- II
- NHLE entry
- 1068336
- List entry name
- Yorkshire Building Society,
27 Castle Street - Built
- 1846
- Built for
- Ambrose Lace, solicitor
- Architect
- Arthur Hill Holme
(attributed) - Authority
- Liverpool
- Current use
- Restaurant & bar
Recorded on the National Heritage List for England, entry 1068336. Attribution of the design to Arthur Hill Holme follows Sharples.
The Street
One of the seven streets Liverpool began with.
In 1207 King John chartered a borough on the Mersey, and it was built on seven streets: Castle Street, Water Street, Old Hall Street, Chapel Street, High Street, Tithebarn Street and Dale Street. Every one of them still exists. Castle Street was the most consequential of the seven, because it ran from the river to the castle and to the market — the three things that made the place worth founding.
Its line was marked out at the creation of the borough by a representative of the King. The street you walk down to reach breakfast is, in the most literal sense, a decision taken eight hundred years ago and never reversed.
The medieval street was narrow enough that two carts could barely pass. It was widened at the end of the eighteenth century under the Liverpool Improvement Act of 1786, a project overseen by John Foster Sr. that required the entire west side to be pulled down and rebuilt. The east side — where number 27 stands — kept its older line.
The boundary of the medieval market was marked with three Sanctuary Stones. One of them survives, set into the surface of Castle Street. Most people walking to work step over it without knowing. It is a two-minute detour from the door.
Breakfast
From 9am, every day of the week.
Castle St Townhouse takes its identity from the three mirrors behind its bar, and from the idea that you are not the same person at breakfast that you are at brunch, or after work. The room is set up to hold all three.
The kitchen serves breakfast from 9am daily, with bottomless brunch running from midday. It is one of the few places inside the old borough where you can eat a first meal of the day in a listed building rather than beside one.
On the plate: [DISH ONE] · [DISH TWO] · [DISH THREE]. Coffee is made to order.
If you want the building to yourself, come on a weekday before ten. The commercial district has not yet arrived, the light comes in from the east side of the street, and the room is quiet enough to look up.
Plan your visit
- Breakfast
- From 9:00 daily
- Bottomless brunch
- From 12:00 daily
- Mon – Wed
- 09:00 – 00:00
- Thursday
- 09:00 – 01:00
- Fri – Sat
- 09:00 – 01:30
- Sunday
- 09:00 – 00:00
- Telephone
- 0151 363 7509
- Address
- 25–27 Castle St,
Liverpool L2 4TA
Questions
What people ask before they come.
Is Castle St Townhouse in a listed building?
Yes. It occupies 27 Castle Street, a Grade II listed building recorded on the National Heritage List for England under entry number 1068336, listed as "Yorkshire Building Society, 27 Castle Street." The building dates from 1846.
What time does breakfast start?
Breakfast is served from 9am, every day of the week. Bottomless brunch begins at midday.
Who designed the building?
The design of 27 Castle Street is attributed to Arthur Hill Holme (1814–1857), a Liverpool architect who worked mainly in the neoclassical style. It was built in 1846 for Ambrose Lace, a solicitor and property developer. Holme also designed the School for the Blind on Hardman Street.
Where is the best historic breakfast in Liverpool city centre?
Castle St Townhouse is one of the few places where you can eat breakfast inside a listed building within Liverpool's original medieval borough. It sits on Castle Street, one of the seven streets laid out when King John chartered the town in 1207, a short walk from Liverpool Town Hall and the surviving Sanctuary Stone.
How old is Castle Street?
Castle Street is one of the seven original streets of Liverpool, laid out when the borough was founded by King John in 1207. It ran from the River Mersey to Liverpool Castle and the town's market. It was substantially widened in the late eighteenth century under the Liverpool Improvement Act of 1786.
What else is worth seeing on the same street?
Liverpool Town Hall stands at the top of Castle Street. The Grade I listed former Bank of England building by C.R. Cockerell (1845–48) is a few doors away. Next door at 25 Castle Street, another Grade II listed former insurance office is built directly over the entrance to Sweeting Street — the alley passes underneath it.
OldTown Premium
Your venue is standing in a story. Most guests never hear it.
We research the building, write the record, and put your venue in front of visitors arriving from Brazil, Portugal, the UAE and the United States — and in front of the AI assistants they now ask for recommendations.
Feature your venueListing data from the National Heritage List for England, © Historic England, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.