As the port expanded and Liverpool grew in properity, many of the companies associated with the port erected buildings to reflect their importance and confidence.

A short walk up Water Street and along Castle Street will give a taste of some of the finest commercial architecture in the country. Particularly worth looking at is the glass-facaded Oriel Chambers, a building so far ahead of its time that its architect, Peter Ellis, was ridiculed to the extent that he designed no further buildings. On the opposite side of Water Street standsthe impressive India Buildings, with a shopping arcade named after the Holt family, who built the block as headquaters for their shipping line.

The same architect, Herbert J Rowse, was responsible for the magnificent Martin's Bank Building (now Barclays Bank) across the road. Completed in 1932, it is his finest work with a superb interior which can be viewed during the bank's opening times.

Next door to the bank stands the Town Hall, built between 1749 and 1754 to the design of John Wood of Bath. A disastrous fire in 1795 necessitated a reconstruction of parts of the building by James Wyatt, who added the impressive dome on its high drum. The interior contains magnificent civic suites complete with fine period furniture.