Castle Street may not be anywhere near the longest street in Liverpool but it certainly manages to pack a lot in. You could easily walk its length in just a couple of minutes but to do so would mean missing out on some real treasures. Today it is home to bars, restaurants and cafés but Castle Street was formerly the place for banking and commerce in the city. Its financial importance is reflected in the grand architecture of its buildings, seventeen of which are Grade II listed.
Castle street is one of the original seven streets of the city (along with Water St, Chapel St, Dale St, High St, Tithebarn St and Old Hall St) and can date its history back to the thirteenth century. It was the main route from the river to Liverpool Castle, which stood where Derby Square and the Law Courts are found to day. It would have originally been much narrower, it was widen to its current width around 200 years ago. Most of its buildings date from the middle of the nineteenth century.
Castle Street was the location of the old medieval market and the boundary is marked by the Sanctuary Stone embedded in the pavement on the western side of the street. Medieval markets and fairs had their own rules and laws and were quite separate from those of the town. An individual being sought for breaking laws in the town could seek sanctuary in the market and so the boundaries of markets were marked with stones.
On the corner of Castle Street and James Street is the grand building of the old Alliance Bank, built in 1868. It later became home to the North and South Wales Bank followed by the Midland Bank. It is now a hotel going by the name of 62 Castle Street.
On the corner with Cook Street stands the Bank of England building built between 1845 and 1848 as one of three branches of the bank. It now sadly stands empty and is awaiting redevelopment.
27 Castle Street 1848 
44 Castle Street 1890s
Two fine buildings frame the junction with Brunswick Street. On the south side is the old Adelphi Bank, built in 1892, which has some superb decorative features. The doors are well worth investigating, designed by Stirling Lee, they are made from bronze and show pairs of famous friends along with the name of the bank. The Adelphi Bank incorporated with Martins Bank which in turn became part of Barclays in the late 1960s. The building later became a branch of the Co-operative Bank and is now home on the ground floor to Café Nero.
31 Castle Street 
31 Castle Street
To the north, at 36 Castle Street, is the former home of the Leyland and Bullins Bank. Designed by Grayson and Ould and opened in 1895 the ground floor now houses a Brazilian restaurant but the buildings is an important part of the city banking history. Thomas Leyland, a merchant of the city, won a considerable sum of money in a lottery at the end of the eighteenth century and went on to open the bank with his nephew in the early part of the nineteenth. The bank prospered and became part of the North and South Wales Bank in 1901 which in turn was absorbed by the Midland Bank, later to become part of HSBC.
Across the street is another building designed by Grayson and Ould. Built between 1888 and 1890 to house the offices of the British & Foreign Marine Insurance Company it is a fine Victorian piece of architecture and looks very imposing with its red sandstone and terracotta facade. The building incorporates some fine mosaic work by Frank Murray.
Queen Avenue on the eastern side of the street looks, at first glance, like the entrance to a Victorian shopping arcade. However looks can be deceiving and you find yourself here looking down one of the most picturesque streets in the whole of the city and one so often missed by visitors. It is home to a small gallery and a rather fine wine shop.
As you look up Castle Street from Derby Square the centrepiece of the street appears to be the rather grand Town Hall. If you think it looks slightly left of centre you would be correct as it was never designed for what today is a rather iconic view, being initially obscured by other developments. Built between 1749 and 1754 it actually is on Dale Street but no stroll down Castle Street would be complete without it.
