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Leeds, Yorkshire: Bank of England branch: survey drawings, design for alterations and related documents for five premises in Commerical Street, Albion Street and Park Row and New Bond Street, 1826-1827 (30)

Notes

Catalogued here are survey drawings for five sites in Leeds that include shops, a house converted into a bank and an imposing double house of which part was used as a counting house. According to W. M. Acres, The Bank of England from Within, 1931, volume 2, pp. 433-4, Leeds was the seventh branch bank of the Bank of England to be established and the original choice was for Mr Bracewell's premises in Commercial Street (drawings 1-9) but failure 'to provide a good title' meant that eventually premises were rented (from 1 July 1827) in Boar Lane and were opened on 23 August (op. cit., pp. 433-4). In 1835 business was transferred to leasehold premises in Albion Street (op. cit., p. 571) and in 1861 a decision was made to buy 'freehold property in Park Row and South Parade... to provide a site' (op. cit., p. 575). P. C. Hardwick (1822-1892) architect to the Bank of England at that time designed the new building which opened in 1865. P. Leach and N. Pevsner, Yorkshire West Riding Leeds, Bradford and the North, 2009 (p. 440) note that it still survives. A plan of that area of Leeds (drawing 30) which is bounded by South Parade, East Parade, Hall Gate and Park Row with New Bond Street and Albion Street is covered by P. Leach and N. Pevsner in perambulation 2b (pp. 438-49). Mention is made of 'the surgeon William Hey who owned most of the land on Commercial and Bond Streets' (p. 443) and whose house and consulting rooms at No. 1 Albion Place was designed by Leeds architect Thomas Johnson (c.1762-1814). Few of the late 18th century and early 19th century buildings remain though Commercial Street has some 'early to mid-C19 survivals at the W end' (p. 441).

Literature:
W. Marston Acres, The Bank of England from Within, 1694-1900, Vol. II, 1931, pp. 433-4; P. Leach and N. Pevsner, Yorkshire West Riding Leeds, Bradford and the North, 2009, p. 440.

Jill Lever, February 2013

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Contents of Leeds, Yorkshire: Bank of England branch: survey drawings, design for alterations and related documents for five premises in Commerical Street, Albion Street and Park Row and New Bond Street, 1826-1827 (30)