A ghost sign on a building in the heart of the Baltic Triangle offers a look back in time.
The grade II listed building at 66 Bridgewater Street was designed by William Culshaw, a renowed Liverpool architect, in 1857.
It was constructed for Stuart & Douglas, a firm of ship owners, coopers and merchants, and is the last surviving element of their once large cooperage established on Bridgewater Street.
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The company used the building as their head office and merchandise store, while the cooperage, where casks and barrels were made and repaired, was based in other buildings centred around a large yard which have since been demolished.
In 1909 the company changed the name of 66 Bridgewater Street to the Queens Stores Company - the name that still remains on the sign outside today.
The survival of the sign, which is painted across the breadth of the brickwork , is a rare feature of the building from the early 20th century that reads "Queens Stores Company, turbine bags, ships chandlers, sailmakers."
Under the name of the Queens Stores Company, the firm traded as a ship's chandlers, a retail dealer who specialises in supplies and equipment for ships and boats, and sail makers.
According to an advert in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce in August 1919, the company were suppliers for the Cunard and White Star Lines.
In 1934 the building was sold to S R Manufacturing Co Ltd who manufactured sacks, bags, lifebelts, soaps and disinfectant, and also continued to trade the Queens Stores Company.
According to trade directories the building appears to have ceased active use in the late 20th century.
Today, the building lies empty and boarded up but it still serves as an important reminder of the industrial heritage of the Baltic Triangle area.
It sits beside Love Lane Brewery which took over its current premises on Bridgewater Street back in 2016, transforming what was once an old rubber warehouse.
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