About Beach Lawn House Header

About Beach Lawn House

The Architect of Beach Lawn House. The original site plan of Beach Lawn House ( plate 7 ) bears the name CO Ellison. This was Christopher O.Ellison who in the 1860’s was a rising star in the architectural profession; by the time of his death in 1904, he would be regarded as one of Liverpool’s premier architects. Therfore, he was probably the architect responsible for Beach Lawn House.

The house was purchased on 9th August 2022 by Tracey Robinson. Tracey Robinson is originally from Liverpool and grew up in Waterloo just around the corner from this famous mansion house. Tracey and her family also have their own history with the ship building history of Liverpool.

The owners father Bernard Robinson sailed with Cunard and worked alongside a Bell boy who was one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster, the owner herself was Merseyside’s first female Mechanical Engineering apprentice ( 1982) and worked at Chadburn Engineering a company founded back in the early 1800’s, they specialised in making Ships engine steering systems and ships Telegraph’s.

The collection currently consists of TWO historic elegant, award-winning luxury serviced apartment/suites .

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The Architecture & the Architect

Thomas Ismay’s house – like the remainder of its neighbour’s in Beach Lawn — was built in the Italianate manner, popular with the rich merchant classes during the 1860s, and one of a number of architectural styles which battled for favour during the 19th century. Ironically, although the Victorian era is a clearly-defined period in the history of Britain, in architectural terms it left no single style that can be instantly described as Victorian.

Despite all their innovations and achievement, the Victorians looked to the past when it came to the appearance of their buildings, regurgitating and remodelling earlier styles to suit ever-changing fashions and individual tastes.

At Beach Lawn House, Thomas Ismay used Italianate in its most outspoken form, with a riot of profuse and opulent decoration. Here, the building covenants stipulated uniformity of style, hence all the other houses are Italianate ~ but typically, Ismay managed to outdo all the rest with a house “showier” than all its neighbours.

In a further display of wanting to out doo his neighbours, he even had his own initials; THI (Thomas Henry Ismay) put into the railings at the front of the house! They can still be seen today if you take a close look ….we guess this was their equivalent of having a private number plate ?

The original house had 4 floors

  • Basement – servants’ quarters with entrance in side road
  • Ground Floor – Dining Room, Billiard Room, Lounge & Kitchen
  • First Floor – 5 Bedrooms
  • Top Floor – nursery for the younger children and home to their nanny

Today the ground floor is split into Three rooms

  • ISMAY Billiard room apartment
  • ISMAY Dining Room suite
  • ISMAY 2 Bedroom Apartment
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The Gardens

All the houses in Beach Lawn were provided with long narrow gardens stretching away to the rear.
Beach Lawn House was over 300 feet in length. ( see image ) Termed pleasure grounds, fine gardens were valued highly by the Victorians, adding to the prestige of a building and also bringing the practical benefit of privacy — one of the most valued of Victorian values.

When Beach Lawn House was built, formal gardens termed Italian gardens — featuring flower beds and paths laid in geometrical patterns – were the fashion.

Not so for Thomas Ismay. His taste in gardens ranged from the exotic to the bizarre — and we can see the legacy of this today, for much of his garden still survives. Its conventional aspect consists of large central lawned areas, where genteel pastimes such as bowls or croquet could be played.

On the left side however, built against the wall separating it from Number 14, was once a range of greenhouses which extended backwards for almost the full depth of the garden. Here, Ismay grew peaches and grapes and other exotic fruit.

Then, at the rear of the garden, we come to a masterpiece of eccentricity: The Grotto. This is a curious sunken garden, built between the stables and coach house which demarcated the corners: a labyrinth of mammoth boulders of red sandstone, decorated with waterfalls, pools and mirrors, rare plants, iron spiral staircases and bridges, the remains of which still survive today. It too was covered with glass.

It is nothing other than sheer folly and illustrates a whimsical side of Thomas Ismay’s character that lies suffused beneath his enduring reputation as a practical, authoritative and efficient businessman.

Sadly today the Grotto is open to the elements, the glass roof perished during the MAY Blitz in 1941 , the original sand stones can still be seen …..you just need to use your imagination to bring it back to life.

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Previous owners of the house

  • 1860 – 1886  Mr Thomas Ismay – Owner of the White star line
  • 1886 – 1922 Mr Edward Pershouse – Manager of Hudson’s Soap in Liverpool
  • 1922 – 1931 Colonel John A Edelsten – Military man
  • 1932 – 1943 Joseph Pearce Pearce – Architect (who created the 4 x flats)
  • 1943 – 1984 Mr Frederick Victor Shaw – Stationer with a string of local shops
  • 1984 – 2022 The Betts Family – Local builders / landlords
  • 2022 – to date Tracey Robinson

Tracey Robinson is originally from Liverpool and grew up in Waterloo just around the corner from this famous mansion house.
Tracey and her family also have their own history with the ship building history of Liverpool. The owners father Bernard Robinson sailed with Cunard and worked alongside a Bell boy who was one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster, the owner herself was Merseyside’s first female Mechanical Engineering apprentice (1982) and worked at Chadburn Engineering a company founded back in the early 1800’s , they specialised in making Ships engine steering systems and ships Telegraph’s.

 

Interesting Fact?

  • RMS Titanic Sank 15th April 1912 –  Thought by many to be a coverup
  • Hillsborough Football disaster 15th April 1989 –  Known now to be a coverup

Both disasters had links to Liverpool – sadly Tracey Robinson lost her little brother
Steven Robinson (17) at Hillsborough, what a weird coincidence she now has a tentative link to the Titanic!

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Tracey Robinson
(Tracey is also a qualified boat Capt)

About The Architect

The original site plan of Beach Lawn House (Plate 7) bears the name C O Ellison. This was Christopher O. Ellison (Plate 8) who in the 1860s was a rising star in the architectural profession; by the time of his death in 1904, he would be regarded as one of Liverpool’s premier architects. Therefore, he was probably the architect responsible for Beach Lawn House.

Christopher Ellison was born in Liverpool in 1833: his father, also named Christopher, was an estate and insurance agent. In the 1870s and 1880s, Ellison was quite prolifically engaged on a number of high-profile civic and institutional buildings in Liverpool.

These included:

  • The Eye and Ear Infirmary in Myrtle Street, built 1878-1880 in an Early English style inspired by that of Norman Shaw
  • St Peter’s Methodist Church, High Park Street, of 1877-1878
  • The Sheltering Home for Destitute Children, 1888-1889
  • The Adelphi Bank and Adelphi Hotel – the latter replaced by the present building of 1912.
  • Further afield, he was responsible for Birkenhead Town Hall, in Classical style and of 1883-1887; the Congregational Church at Park Green, Macclesfield, 1877; and Trinity Methodist Church, Frodsham, 1873.
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