18 Park Row, Leeds, once known as Abtech House and more recently as Kenneth Hodgson House, is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

building in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The building on the east side of

Park Row, Leeds Park Row is a street in Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. It divides the main financial districts from the main retail districts and forms a spine between City Square and The Headrow, two of Leeds' most sought-after addresses. The stre ...

was built as offices for the West Riding Union Bank.

Description

The building was designed in the late 19th century by the Leeds architect Edward John Dodgshun, from the firm Oliver and Dodgshun. An illustration was published on page 28 of the ''Academy Architecture and Architectural Review'', volume 21, published in 1902. Tt is constructed from stone ashlars, with four bays, and projecting entrances in the left and right bays. It has four stories, and was altered in the 20th century to add a fifth floor in the attic under a slate roof. The ground floor façade is decorated with a strapwork pattern in red granite. Between the ground and first floors is a deep relief stone frieze designed by architect Joseph Thewlis, with has a central seated figure of Minerva as the goddess of commerce holding a globe and a caduceus, flanked by rectangular panels depicting scenes of colonial trading to either side. To the left is a panel with two workmen unloading a ship, a boy with a barrel, a man with a book, a black man carrying a bale, an East Asian man gesturing, and a man in Middle Eastern headdress and robes carrying a basket. To the right are two men in Native American feather headdresses, and others working to build a railway. Further relief carvings above each entrances show, to the left, the coat of arms of Leeds (fleece with three stars in chief) supported by two women and, to the right, the coat of arms of Huddersfield (chevron with three towers, between three sheep) supported by two men. Either side of the four windows on the first floor are panels with five further carved municipal coats of arms: Liverpool (liver bird),

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

(owls and cross in chief), Manchester (sailing ship in chief),

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

(quarters with anvil, fleece, shuttles, papyrus), and

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

(lamb of god). Grand order pilasters rise through the second and third floors to Corinthian capitals with a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

cornice above, with blank curved panels below the second floor windows which were originally intended to be carved to show the four words "West Riding Union Bank", and further carved panels of curvilinear dragons below the third floor windows.

History

The building was not completed until after the West Riding Union Bank had been acquired by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank in 1902. After another merger in 1928, the building continued as a branch of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins, but closed in 1933 (as there was already a branch of

Martins Bank Martins Bank was a London private bank, trading for much of its time under the symbol of “The Grasshopper”, that could trace its origins back to the London goldsmiths. Martins agreed to its acquisition by the Bank of Liverpool in 1918. The Ba ...

diagonally opposite, on the west side of the road at 28 Park Row, in a building is also a Grade II listed; it was later a branch of Barclays Bank, and is now a Wetherspoons public house named after another local bank, Beckett's Bank, which became part of Westminster Bank in 1921.) In the early 20th century, upper parts of the building were also occupied by the architects FJ Sharr, and by firm of architects who designed the building, Oliver and Dodgshun. Towards the end of the 20th century, it was offices for the

Blue Arrow Blue Arrow Limited is a United Kingdom based employment and recruitment agency that places individual jobseekers in temporary and/or permanent catering, driving industrial and office roles across the hospitality, manufacturing, public service, ...

employment agency, and the ground floor is now the Thewlis cocktail lounge, with a dental practice in the basement. It was renamed in 2013 after businessman Kenneth Hodgson, whose company Westcourt acquired the building in 2012. It became a Grade II listed building in 1976. File:Abtech House, 18 Park Row, Leeds - detail (5496414729).jpg, Detail of carving: Minerva File:Abtech House, 18 Park Row, Leeds - detail (5518475056).jpg, Detail of carving: arms of Leeds File:Liverpool and Martin's Bank, Park Row, (west side) Leeds - geograph.org.uk - 1394854.jpg, 28 Park Row in 2007

References

Abtech House
National Heritage List for England, Historic England

* ttp://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/architectural/104.html Architectural Sculpture on Abtech House Victorian Web
Leeds Architecture: The Devil Is In the Details

West Riding Union Bank, Park Row, Leeds

Building tribute to man behind Westcourt
Yorkshire Post, 2 May 2013 {{coord, 53.79887, -1.54681, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Leeds