House of Commons windows in Park Row

House of Commons windows in Park Row

PARK-ROW was anciently called "Butt Dykes," because the butt for the archery, which was compulsory on all Sundays and holidays, were set up in the dyke or ditch outside the town wall of Henry II.’s time, which ditch ran more or less where the present Park-row is situated.

There is much of interest in Park-row, but the most curious features are the square-headed perpendicular windows which occur above Messrs. Woolley’s shop.

In 1724 the land upon which this house stands was let to the parish of St. Peter’s, and upon it they constructed a poorhouse, which remained in use until 1840. Then it was abandoned and was occupied as a barracks by the Rifle Brigade, and then by a line regiment sent to Nottingham to assist in maintaining order during the troubles of those days.

Shortly before this, in 1834, the old Houses of Parliament in London had been burnt down, and the site was cleared and the debris sold for what it would fetch. A gentleman desirous of building for himself a house in Nottingham, secured a portion of the site of the old St. Peter’s workhouse and commenced the erection of his residence, which in the main is the present building.

He bought quite a quantity of the relics of the Houses of Parliament, and incorporated them in his new home. Amongst these relics are these Sixteenth Century windows which for years illuminated some portion of the ancient home of the Mother of Parliaments.