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 Christopher Columbus is one of eight sandstone heads in high relief depicting people connected with the history of America, on the Hargreaves Building. The bust of Columbus is one of six located in roundels on the Chapel Street side of the building. The life size bust portrays Columbus with short hair and beard his head leaning slightly to the left. He is holding a sphere and pointing to it with the index finger of his right hand. Columbus is written in gold lettering below the roundel.
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Christopher Columbus"Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was a Genoese trader, explorer, and navigator. He was born in Genoa, Italy, in the year 1451. "Christopher Columbus" is the English version of Columbus's name. His real name in Italian was Cristoforo Colombo.
In 1492 Columbus landed on an island of the Bahamas, the first European to do so. His initial goal was to find a quicker route to Asia from Europe. He is credited with the discovery of the New World because his voyage started the era of European colonialism in the Americas. This was an important moment in European history. While Leif Erikson was the first European to land on the soils of America it was not well documented and did not lead to the later contact between Europe and the New World.
When the Spanish learned that Columbus had found the New World, many other people, called conquistadors, went there too. This led to the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Columbus died on 20 May 1506, in Valladolid, Spain."
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