Liverpool Conservation Areas 3 & 4

Grassendale & Cressington Parks, St Michael's Hamlet

 Introduction & Contents 

CONSERVATION AREA 3

Grassendale & Cressington Parks

These two adjacent private residential parks were laid out in the early to mid-nineteenth century in the form of a tree-lined grid of roads leading to an elegant riverside promenade.  Detached and semi-detached villas were set in large plots of land, and a strong design discipline was applied to boundary walls, building lines, external materials and other details of the development.


Very few houses are of the same design, the most attractive being those of the 1840s in Grassendale Park.  These are classical in style, with fine iron balconies and beautifully proportioned windows, doors and stucco details.

The later Victorian and Edwardian houses, through not as architecturally distinguished, have a robustness and interest that makes up for any loss in refinement.

The whole area achieves unity and grace through a wealth of generous planting and mature trees.


 Contents 
The Grassendale and Cressington Parks Conservation Area was designated on 13th November 1968.
It is considered 'outstanding' in the national context by the Historic Buildings Council.

Cressington Park Station
Cressington Park had its own station when the Cheshire Line opened in 1861

North Road, Grassendale


North Road, Grassendale   

Binbrooke   'Binbrooke' on Cressington Promenade
Grassendale Promenade...

Cressington & Grassendale Parks 34 Knowsley Road, Cressington Park

34 Knowsley Road, Cressington Park
 

Liverpool Conservation Area 4

St Michael's Hamlet

 Introduction & Contents 

CONSERVATION AREA 4

St Michael's Hamlet      Map 

St Michael's in the Hamlet   John Cragg, proprietor of the Mersey Iron Foundry, settled here in the early nineteenth century and built a group of five houses and the church.
These buildings are of considerable interest for their extensive use of cast iron.  The architect for the church, Thomas Rickman, had met Cragg in 1812, and between them they developed the use of cast iron for church design.  Rickman, also designer of the remarkable Church of St. George, Everton, was a scholarly architect, whose published work had a very important influence on the great nineteenth century Gothic revival.
The Conservation Area also includes a variety of attractive detached, semi-detached and terraced properties and a modern Training College.
St. Michael's Hamlet Conservation Area was designated on 12th December 1968.
St. Michael's Church 1814-15
The houses built by Cragg are stuccoed and are designed in a semi-Tudor style, but windows, door frames, fireplaces, and other features are of cast iron.  Spacious gardens, mature planting and narrow roads give the area a peaceful and secluded character.
The fine fluted Doric porch of No.4 St. Michael's Road >


St Michael's in the Hamlet No. 22 Southwood Road is a large eccentric Gothic style villa now used as the Norwegian Fishermen's Church.  All windows have pointed arched heads, and most retain Gothic iron glazing bars. 		St Michael's in the Hamlet
St Michael's in the Hamlet Hollybank, the large house with its stables and coach house stretching along St. Michael's Road, and garden adjoining the church-yard, was John Cragg's own house.  The garden entrance is marked by elaborate Gothic gate piers with open decorated tracery.  Also of iron is a canopy with cresting over the side entrance to the house..
The Hermitage is set back from the road.  Ironwork details include an attractive delicate verandah, with cresting where it reaches the garden front.

 St Michael's in the Hamlet
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