Park House
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries there was considerable rebuilding in Lower Bridge Street, resulting in the loss or enclosure of almost all the medieval Rows. One of the finest of the new classical town houses of this period was Park house, built for Elizabeth Booth in 1717 to replace an earlier Row building. Her elegant mansion was constructed of brick and rendered, with the former Row level dominated by a fine Doric porch, approached by steps leading up from the street.
Park House was so named because it posessed two acres of parkland, stretching back to the City Wall and approached via Park Street. In 1818, the house was converted to the Albion Hotel and a fashionable assembly room with barrel vaulted ceiling was added to the rear of the building. The park became a formal pleasure garden, with lawns, extensive flower gardens and a bowling green. The Albion pleasure gardens became polite society's most fashionable meeting place and many dances and entertainments were held there. When the Duke of Wellington stayed at the hotel in 1820, he was entertained with a celebratory dinner held in a marque in the gardens.
The Albion Hotel closed in 1865 and the gardens were redeveloped with streets of terraced cottages, including Albion Street. The building subsequently had a chequered history, being used as a furniture warehouse, lady's academy, ordinance office, Talbot Hotel and an antiques emporium. The basement is now a wine bar and the rest of the building is used as offices.