Fantastic stonework on a building on Park Row.

[BLAKEY]

Caron wrote: Hi Blakey, I have just done a street view and to the right of Abtech the shop is To Let and to the left it is Park Row House but I cannot make out what goes on there. Some lovely old buildings along Park Row though and I enjoyed my stroll...haha.     Thank you for that Caron - I feel you will be right as I believe the Prudential gave up the building a good while ago.

[BarFly]

Park Row House is offices, I worked in the building a few years back.    

[LS1]

I used to work next door in Park Row for 5 years until recently.Interesting building but it is only the facade that remains, if you go round the back on Basinghall St. It's all new brickwork that was completed in 1991.As Drapesy says it was the Union Bank originally and the carvings are supposed to show banking around the world at the turn of the 20th century. If you look there are a lot of different nationalities exchanging things, money, goods etc. The amount of people that I used to see taking photo's of it was unbelieveable, at least 2/3 per day when I stood outside for a cig!

[scud]

My girlfriend worked here until about 18 months ago, the freehold was owned by Burton, Burton & Ho Solicitors since approx 2008. I believe they have now folded and guess unless it's been sold it is now owned by the bank!The first floors up were all just offices where the firm occupied and it sublet to Blue Arrow and another business in the basement.It looks a fantastic building from the front and even though I waited outside many evenings I never noticed the detail of the carvings!    

[BIG N]

Drapesy can i ask you a question as you appear to know your stuff -Where do you find your info on various different coat of arms and shields, i'm interested in the subject and was wondering if there is a website on it or is your sourse of info from books etc ?cheers

[drapesy]

BIG N wrote: Drapesy can i ask you a question as you appear to know your stuff -Where do you find your info on various different coat of arms and shields, i'm interested in the subject and was wondering if there is a website on it or is your sourse of info from books etc ?cheers To be honest a lot is just from memory. Its always been a bit of a hobby and I also have a good knowledge of football clubs, rugby clubs etc and their badges. At one time many clubs used their town/city coat of arms as a badge, particularly if they got to a cup final. In recent years this has dwindled as clubs prefer to have their own badge that they can copyright. As a for instance both Leeds United and Leeds R.L used the city coat-of-arms in the past. There is an excellent website herehttp://www.historicalkits.co.uk/which has an individual section for each club showing their club badge through the edges.Otherwise I use wikipedia entries to confirm hunches and there is also an excellent website herehttp://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title ... e_world.As a for instance here is the Leeds pagehttp://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/l/leeds.htmAlso worth a look is http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/        

[BIG N]

Thanks for that Drapesy - very useful

[Leodian]

There is a report with 2 photos on page 25 of the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) today (June 7 2013) about a six-month restoration work, which included cleaning the exterior, of the Grade II listed building that was called Abtech House. The superb carvings at the building have been kept. The building is now called 'Kenneth Hodgson House' in memory of the father of Tim Hodgson of Tim Hodgson's Westcourt Group property investment firm that has carried out the restoration.Edit added shortly after posting. I've just found the online version of the report in the YEP website. This is the link to it:- http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... -1-5749083

[Brunel]

http://www.westcourtgroup.co.uk/kenneth ... allery.htm

[Leodian]

Cheers for that link Brunel. There seems to be some interesting old features inside the building.