Westminster Chambers in 1972
After 70 years at Eton House on the corner of Station Parade and Victoria Avenue in Harrogate, Raworths Solicitors is returning to its origins by moving part of its business across the road into the newly-refurbished Clarendon House. This office stands on the site of the Westminster Chambers which Raworths previously occupied up to 1938 before moving across the road to its present head office at Eton House.
The firm’s historic link with the premises at Clarendon House began on 28 December 1925 when the two solicitors’ firms of Raworth & Co and Lomas-Walker & Wilkinson merged with the snappy name of ‘Raworth, Lomas-Walker, Butterworth & Wilkinson’ and came together in offices at Westminster Chambers at 87 Station Parade. The new business was successful and expanded to the extent that, in 1938, it acquired Raworths' current head office across Victoria Avenue at Eton House. Concern was then expressed that they “were moving too far out of town”! History shows that this fear was misplaced and Raworths has continued to flourish and has expanded into the premier firm of solicitors in North Yorkshire.
Despite Raworths almost doubling its accommodation at Eton House in the 1980s, the building is no longer able to house their expanding number of almost 70 staff and they are therefore moving their Corporate/Commercial and Commercial Property units into the new offices.
The photograph of Westminster Chambers and the Avenue Hotel was taken by Raworths when the buildings were demolished in 1972 to make way for Clarendon House. Little did they imagine that they would return ‘home’ after 70 years.
