In 1860, in anticipation of the construction of a new railway line and central station the Victoria Park Company was formed which was the most important step ever taken in Harrogate towards the creation of a single community. The Victoria Park Company had been formed by Richard Ellis, Richard Carter and John Richardson, who had foreseen that the passing of the 1841 Harrogate Improvement Act and the resulting expansion of the Spa, as well as the arrival of the railways would lead to a demand for new houses and to the rise of land prices in central Harrogate.
The company was formed on 17th April 1860 and Victoria Avenue was planned to link Queen Parade in High Harrogate with West Park, which in 1860 was regarded as being in Low Harrogate. It was conceived as a wide boulevard, to be lined with handsome villas and public buildings, and enhanced with broad pavements and a generous carriage way. Victoria Avenue was of course built as an entirely private estate, to be accessed only by residents and their approved retainers. Lockable gates were fitted, and only residents were able to use the grassy pleasure ground of Victoria Circus, which was provided with its own bandstand.
The western end of Victoria Avenue received a church for the Congregationalists who previously had occupied the Victoria Hall in James Street. The site for the new church cost £854 and the structure was designed by Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson, Richard Ellis being the contractor. The foundation stone was laid on 14th August 1861, and the Church was opened a year later, in August 1862. This new church expressed the confidence of the Congregationalists at this time, and has an interesting interior with a hammer-beam roof supported by cast iron columns.
The main feature of the central commercial area was to be the market hall, which was to be faced by two curved terraces of building, roughly where Princes Street branched off from James Street.
By 1864 Richard Ellis had begun his splendid terrace in James Street between Station Parade and Princes Street. This terrace was built by him in 1864 to a design by Hirst, and is an attractive combination of brick and stone, with a series of splendid large arched windows, divided by marble columns, that formed an impressive introduction to the town for visitors arriving at the new railway station and remains virtually unchanged today.
The spaciousness of the roads developed by the Victoria Park Company and the variety achieved by the grouping of villas, houses and terraces in avenues, crescents, and circuses are a triumph of planned urban development which has shaped Harrogate town centre to this day.