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 can be seen at the following link: (
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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 of Castile, 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 I of Castile 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 Queen Isabella is one of eight sandstone heads in high relief depicting people connected with the history of America, located on the Hargreaves Building. Her roundel is one of six located on the Chapel Street side of the building. The life size bust portrays Queen Isabella with long curly hair over her shoulders facing to the left. She is wearing a crown, a decorative dress and a necklace of round beads. Isabella R is written in gold lettering below the roundel. (
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Queen Isabella I of Castile"Born: 22nd April 1451
Birthplace: Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Castile
Died: 26th November 1504
Isabella was Queen of Castile from 1474 and, as the wife of King Ferdinand II, Queen of Aragon from 1479 until her death, reigning over a dynastically unified Spain jointly with her husband Ferdinand.
Together they were known as the Catholic Monarchs.
Isabella is considered the first Queen of Spain de facto, being described as such during her own lifetime, although Castile and Aragon de jure remained two different kingdoms until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707 to 1716.
After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind.
Isabella's marriage to Ferdinand in 1469 created the basis of the de facto unification of Spain. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms.
Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion of the Jews and Muslims from Spain, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage that led to the discovery of the New World by Europeans and to the establishment of Spain as a major power in Europe and much of the world for more than a century.
Isabella was granted, together with her husband, the title "the Catholic" by Pope Alexander VI, and was recognized in 1974 as a Servant of God by the Catholic Church."
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Crater Isabella"Crater Isabella is the second largest impact crater on Venus. The feature is named in honor of the 15th Century queen of Spain, Isabella I of Castile. Located at 30 degrees south latitude, 204 degrees east longitude, the crater has two extensive flow-like structures extending to the south and to the southeast. The end of the southern flow partially surrounds a pre-existing 40-kilometer (25 mi) circular volcanic shield. The southeastern flow shows a complex pattern of channels and flow lobes, and is overlain at its southeastern tip by deposits from a later 20-kilometer (12 mi) diameter impact crater, Cohn. The extensive flows, unique to Venusian impact craters, are a continuing subject of study for a number of planetary scientists. It is thought that the flows may consist of 'impact melt,' rock melted by the intense heat released in the impact explosion. An alternate hypothesis invokes 'debris flows,' which may consist of clouds of hot gases and both melted and solid rock fragments that race across the landscape during the impact event. That type of emplacement process is similar to that which occurs in violent eruptions on Earth, such as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines." SOURCE: (
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