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. (
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"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. Hargreaves himself was William Browns son in law and ran the Liverpool operation." SOURCE: (
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The stone bust of Amerigo Vespucci is one of eight sandstone heads in high relief depicting people connected with the history of America, located on the Hargreaves Building. His roundel is one of six located on the Chapel Street side of the building. The life size bust portrays Vespucci with short hair and clean shaven with his head facing to the right. He is wearing an elaborate hat and is wearing a garment that has a raised collar fastened with a button. Amerigo is written in gold lettering below the roundel.
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Amerigo VespucciAmerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) was an Italian-born merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence. He wrote a description of the new world, used by Martin Waldseemüller for his Cosmography, and because of this Waldseemüller named the new world 'America'.
Amerigo was born on 9th March 1454 and was the third son of Nastagio Vespucci, a Florentine notary for the Money-Changers Guild, and Lisa di Giovanni Mini.
"In the years before Vespucci embarked on his first voyage of exploration, he held a string of other jobs. When Vespucci was 24 years old, his father pressured him to go into business. Vespucci obliged. At first he undertook a variety of business endeavors in Florence. Later, he moved on to a banking business in Seville, Spain, where he formed a partnership with another man from Florence, named Gianetto Berardi. According to some accounts, from 1483 to 1492, Vespucci worked for the Medici family. During that time he is said to have learned that explorers were looking for a northwest passage through the Indies.
In the late 1490s, Vespucci became affiliated with merchants who supplied Christopher Columbus on his later voyages. In 1496, after Columbus returned from his voyage to America, Vespucci had the opportunity to meet him in Seville. The conversation piqued Vespucci's interest in seeing the world with his own eyes. By the late 1490s, Vespucci's business was struggling to make a profit anyway. Vespucci knew that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were willing to fund subsequent voyages by other explorers. Then in his 40s, Vespucci, enticed by the prospect of fame, decided to leave his business behind and become an explorer before it was too late."
In 1505, he was made a citizen of Castile by royal decree and in 1508, he was appointed to the newly created position of chief navigator for Spain's Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville. He remained in service to the Spanish crown until his death. Amerigo died of malaria in Seville, Spain on 22nd February 1512."
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