The Grade II listed Hargreaves Building is a former bank located on the corner of Chapel Street and Covent Garden in Liverpool city centre.
The building was awarded Grade II listed status by English Heritage in 1966.The Grade II listed description reads as follows;
"SJ 3490 NW CHAPEL STREET L2
48/247 No 5 12.7.66 (Hargreaves Building) G.V.
Office building. 1861. Picton. Ashlar, with granite basement, slate roof. 3 storeys and basement, 5 bays. 7 bays to Covent Garden.
Ground floor round-headed windows with decorated mouldings on granite attached columns; swept balustraded balconies. Iron glazing bars. Portrait busts in spandrels. 1st floor sill band and round-headed windows with 2 round-headed lights and roundel. Ionic colonnettes. 2nd floor sill band and continuous window. 9 round-headed lights between panelled pilasters. Bracketed frieze and cornice. Covent Garden facade similar. Listing NGR: SJ3400990516" SOURCE: (
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The Hargreaves Building, designed by the local architect Sir James Picton was built in 1859 as a head office for the Brown Shipley Bank. The bank was founded by Sir William Brown, a local finance magnate and philanthropist. The building was named Hargreaves Building as that was the surname of William Brown's son-in-law who ran his Liverpool business.
The building was designed in the Venetian style with rounded window frames and also has symbols of the city’s rich maritime heritage. Between the heads of the double-light windows are roundels containing the relief images of Christopher Columbus, Isabella I, Bermejo, Vespucci, Cortez, Amerigo, Francisco Pizarro, Ferdinand R and Queen Anacaona of Cuba, who were people involved with the exploration of the Americas.
"Sir William Brown (Brown Harriman in New York, Brown Shipley in Liverpool and London) was a major American merchant - hence the carved plaques above the windows of Isabella 1 who gave permission and funding for Columbus' voyage, Columbus himself, Bermejo a Spanish adventurer particularly in Peru and Nicaragua, Vespucci, Cortez, conqueror of Mexico, Queen Anacoana sole ruler of Cuba, Fransisco Pizarro who conquered and governed Peru." SOURCE: (
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In 1888 the Brown Shipley Bank moved to London and the building was converted to house offices.
It was then taken over by the city’s Racquet Club, after the Toxteth riots of 1981, and converted into new premises. It opened on 20th May 1985 and contained a dining room, bar, and lounge, a billiards room, two squash courts, a small swimming pool, a gym and changing facilities, and rooms for overnight accommodation.
In 2001 the building was converted into a hotel and restaurant named the Racquet Club Hotel and Ziba Restaurant.
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