Castle Street is one of the seven streets of the medieval borough of Liverpool, founded by King John in 1207. It ran from the river towards the town’s castle and market place, and it was once so narrow that two carts could barely pass. Widened in the 18th and 19th centuries, it became the city’s address for banks and insurance companies. Today it contains seventeen Grade II listed buildings and one Grade I, and many of its old banking halls serve food and drink.
From the castle to Derby Square
Liverpool Castle stood at the southern end of the street, on the site now occupied by Derby Square. One of the sanctuary stones that once marked the boundary of the old market survives on Castle Street. The northern end meets Dale Street and Water Street, two more of the original seven streets.
The banks that became dining rooms
At the Dale Street corner, No. 1 Castle Street was built as a bank in the 1880s to designs by E. Salomons, in red brick over a stone and granite ground floor, with an iron balcony on its canted corner. It is Grade II listed and now houses Riva Blu.
A few doors along, Nos. 3 and 5 were built in 1889 by the architects Grayson and Ould for the British & Foreign Marine Insurance Company. A mosaic frieze of sailing ships still carries the company’s name above the first floor; the building is home to Rudy’s Pizza Napoletana.
Further south, Heritage at No. 40 sits between two more Grayson and Ould buildings, No. 36 of 1895, built for Leyland and Bullin’s Bank, and No. 42, the former Victoria Chambers of 1893. San Carlo is at No. 41, and at No. 47 Bacaro opened in 2014 as a Venetian-style bàcaro, a wine bar serving cicchetti, fitted with a long bar of reclaimed Venetian wood.
Side streets and passages
Queen Avenue, a passage between Castle Street and Dale Street, is framed by listed buildings, including the Grade II* Royal Insurance Building of 1839 by Samuel Rowland. Queens Wine Bar & Bistro is on the avenue. On Cook Street, Piccolino is next door to 16 Cook Street, Peter Ellis’s Grade II* building of 1866, noted for its floor-to-ceiling glazing.
Round the corner on Water Street, Gaucho occupies a Grade II listed former bank, begun in 1896 by Grayson and Ould with its Water Street block rebuilt in 1934, and Hawksmoor is in India Buildings, the Grade II* office block built between 1924 and 1932 for the Blue Funnel Line’s owners, Alfred Holt & Co.
Visiting
The northern half of Castle Street was pedestrianised in 2020, and the nearest stations are James Street and Moorfields. Every venue named here has its own page in the Register, with opening hours, directions and the history of its building.
Sources: Historic England, National Heritage List for England (entries 1356307, 1062579, 1218481 and the Castle Street, Queen Avenue and Cook Street list entries); venue histories as published on each Old Town Liverpool page.