The two partners of the architectural practice H. E. and A. Bown of Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, were brothers who came from an artisanal background, of Northern England and Midlands stock.

[7] The elder brother was Henry Edwin Bown, who was born in Halifax on 26 March 1845,[8][9][nb 3] but spent his professional years in Harrogate.

[16] From 1877, during the last four years of his life, H. E. Bown spent much time away from his work, attempting relief from tuberculosis, in Bournemouth and Italy.

[10][17] The funeral took place on 29 September, and he was buried in Grove Road Cemetery, Harrogate, beside the family's vault where his grandfather Peter Bown lay.

"The coffin (which was of polished oak and gilt furniture) was almost covered with wreaths, and bore upon the breastplate the following inscription: 'Henry E. Bown, died Sept. 27th, 1881, aged 36 years'".

Sarah Margaret Bown, left with three young children, did not remarry; she died a widow in Boston Spa on 22 January 1899, aged 49 years.

Talented in his profession, endowed with consummate taste and enterprising spirit, he has devoted his life to the manifest improvement of his town, converting wild waste into cultivated order, and barren plots into beauty and fertility.

[4][23][nb 9] who in 1935 designed a cinema with frontages in Cambridge Road and Oxford Street and adjoining St Peter's Church, Harrogate (since demolished).

Subsequently, he founded his own practice in Harrogate, "where the high character of his work raised him to a position of importance".

[4][20][nb 11] Although the partnership was dissolved in 1881 after Henry died,[29] Arthur Bown continued under the original practice name until he retired in 1911.

The premium offered by the company, who bought 69 acres here, for the best plan for laying out the estate with sites and first-class villas, was awarded to [John Henry Hirst (1826–1882)],[nb 12] of Bristol, architect.

[34]This manse in West End Park, adjoining the Leeds Road, was designed by Henry Edwin Bown, at a cost of £1,300 (equivalent to £157,116 in 2023).

[35] This was a Gothic Revival villa on Station Parade, Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, designed for the developer Victoria Park Company, by Henry Edwin Bown.

The crosses on the gable suggest that it may have been a priest's house for St Robert's Church, Harrogate (built 1873) across the road.

[38]British Architect described the building in 1879 thus:[39][40] The walls up to the first floor are constructed of pitch faces (sic) delph stones and above that in half-timber and cement.

[39][40]The firm is also credited with the 1878–1879 design of a "grand three-basin ornamental fountain, elaborately decorated with dolphins and swans",[41] at Queen's Park.

[48][49][50] Historian Malcolm Neesam describes it as follows:[51]: 48–50 [It] stands imperiously ... at 36 Victoria Avenue, its superb frontage seemingly a contradiction of the institution's modern and welcoming character.

Outside, an essay in high Victorian exclusiveness, with a raised ground floor reached by a mountain of wide stone steps, and a massive front door flanked by a pair of the finest curved glass windows in Yorkshire ... a noble building ... a landmark in the town ... with its lofty staircase, illuminated by a huge window of beautiful painted glass.

[Upstairs, the largest room in the Club] is the great chamber for billiards and snooker, its high glass ceiling carried aloft with wonderful wooden trusses in the Gothic style.

[51]: 48–50 This monument consists of a "statue of Queen Victoria below [a] stone canopy" in "Gothic style" in celebration of her Golden Jubilee.

The house entrance was on the south side, and the building was "designed in the Domestic Tudor or what is sometimes also termed Old English style of architecture".

Ninety people, including all the site workmen, sat down to a dinner, with toasts and speeches, provided by Stephenson at the Prospect Hotel, Harrogate, to celebrate the work while still in process of completion.

All those who laid the stones were presented with a trowel and inscribed mallet by the contractor Rhodes of Shipley, and Arthur Bown who designed the building.

[61] This pair of semi-detached villas was designed by Arthur Bown, "showing the same strong neo-Tudor influences as their western neighbours" on the same street.

It involved "the erection and completion of six dwelling-houses and shops" in Longsight, a suburb of Manchester, and the client was Aerated Mineral Waters Association Limited.

[63] This was a seven-month job for Henry Edwin Bown, involving alterations and improvements to Trinity Church, Ripon.

The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer said:[64] The old-fashioned pews have given way to low open seats of pitch pine; the west end gallery has been restored to its original dimensions – it having been removed some years back.

The pulpit has been remodelled, and the old reading desk replaced by one of pitch pine, varnished, and a neat brass lectern has been provided.

[65] On 14 May 1874, this church in Westcliffe Grove, Harrogate (built 1822, demolished after 1903)[66] was reopened on Ascension Day after Bown's restoration, at a cost of £600 (equivalent to £70,362 in 2023),[26][67] mostly raised by subscription.

[26][71] Henry Edwin Bown, and possibly his brother Arthur, served on the Harrogate Improvement Commissioners' Board, alongside other local architectural worthies including Isaac Thomas Shutt.