Stone and terracotta bank offices with columns and domes, and the stretch of Water Street Florence Foster Jenkins filmed as 1940s New York.
What Commercial District looks like
Castle Street runs south from the Town Hall in a straight line of stone and terracotta office blocks, four to six storeys tall. Columns, pediments and deep doorways mark the ground floor on both sides. The street is pedestrianised, with granite setts and cafe tables set out where traffic once ran. A corner tower at rises to a pair of green copper domes over a ground floor coffee shop.
Dale Street and Water Street run off the same junction at right angles, lined with similar banking and insurance offices in red terracotta and pale stone. Round arched windows, wrought iron balconies and carved cornices repeat down each block. Some of the terracotta fronts carry mosaic panels naming the shipping and insurance firms that built them. A narrow covered arcade, Queen Avenue, connects Dale Street to a small courtyard with its own columned entrance.
Most of the office blocks date from the 1850s to the 1920s, built at a scale that keeps the street in shadow through the middle of the day. Ground floors that once held bank counters and shipping offices now hold restaurants and bars behind the original stonework. At the Water Street end the grid opens toward the river, where the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building stand in a row along the waterfront.
Shot in Commercial District
Water Street has doubled for two different cities on screen. Florence Foster Jenkins filmed there as 1940s New York, and a nighttime car chase in Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit ran the same street as Moscow.
Fast & Furious 6, 2013
Played London, England, present day
The film's London street race, already seen on Whitehall and through Piccadilly Circus, continues here with cars racing along Water Street and Dale Street. The chase crosses the same junction the Queen Avenue arcade opens onto. Street View
What Commercial District can double for
The Financial District in New York City, New York
Florence Foster Jenkins used Water Street to double for 1940s New York, with the Cunard Building and the Royal Liver Building standing in for the city's own stone banking blocks. The narrow street and the deep window bays give lower Manhattan's Financial District a similar scale. Modern British road markings and postboxes need dressing out. The towers behind the Liver Building also show in a wide shot. Try searching 1940s New York street now.
The City of London in London, England
The City of London's Square Mile holds the same run of Victorian and Edwardian bank and insurance offices in stone and red terracotta, built to a similar commercial scale. Cornhill and Lombard Street have the same columned doorways and narrow lanes opening off a wider street. London's own mix includes far more postwar and glass towers set between the period blocks, so a tighter frame holds the illusion better than a wide one. Try searching Victorian bank offices now.
The Financial District in Boston, Massachusetts
Boston's own Financial District holds a similar run of stone and terracotta banking houses from the same decades, with narrow streets and comparable window bays. State Street and Congress Street hold the closest matches. Boston's granite runs grey rather than Liverpool's red terracotta. The surrounding towers also stand taller and closer, which favours a tight street level frame. Try searching granite banking houses now.
