Flat Iron Building, also known as 72 Ecclestone Street, is a historic building in
Prescot
Prescot is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It lies about to the east of Liverpool city centre. At the 2001 Census, the civil parish population was 11,184 (5,265 males, 5,919 femal ...
,
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
. It was built in 1890 to service Prescot's extensive watchmaking industry.
History
Up until the late 19th century, Prescot was the English centre of watchmaking. The Flat Iron building was built in 1890 and served as a specialised workshop and warehouse for the
Lancashire Watch Company
The Lancashire Watch Company of Prescot was founded in 1889 by Thomas P. Hewitt as a rival to the large American and Swiss watch companies. It failed in 1910.
History
Until the late 19th century, Prescot had been the centre of the watchmaking t ...
, who made watches in a nearby factory.
When the Lancashire Watch Company closed in 1911, the building was later bought by the Prescot Clock and Mechanism Co. who reportedly produced 30,000 to 40,000 watches between 1911 and 1914. After the closure of the company in 1969, the building was used by several other companies, including a clothing retailer and eyewear retailer before becoming vacant in 2017.
Restoration
Following the last tenant vacating the building, restoration work commenced in 2018.
The work saw repairs to the outside of the building as well as the fitting of new staircases, doors and sash windows and the restoration of some of the original features such as a fireplaces.
The restoration work was partially funded by the
Liverpool City Region
The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority area in North West England. It has six council areas: the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside (Liverpool, Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Knowsley, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, St H ...
Town Centre fund, Prescot Township Heritage Initiative Fund and
Knowsley Borough Council.
By summer 2023, the restoration work was completed with the fitting of a historical clock, made in Prescot in the early 1800s, and with the addition of a
time ball
A time ball or timeball is a time-signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators aboard ships offshore to verify the setting of their marine chron ...
time-signalling device.
See also
*
Architecture of Liverpool
The architecture of Liverpool is rooted in the city's development into a major port of the British Empire.Hughes (1999), p10 It encompasses a variety of architectural styles of the past 300 years, while next to nothing remains of its medieval ...
References
Sources
*''The Lancashire Watch Company: Prescot, Lancashire, England 1889-1910.'', Roberts, Kenneth D., Alan Smith, Henry G. Abbett, Ken Roberts Publishing, New Hampshire 1973 {{ISBN, 0-913602-08-6
Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley
Historic buildings and structures in England
Prescot