The Headrow and Oxford Place in Leeds

 

Capitals and granite columns at the entrance to Britannia Buildings

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in the western part of Leeds City Centre Conservation Area, I went to explore the area between The Headrow and Great George Street – a part of Leeds that I never had reason to visit before but which the Building Stone Heritage of Leeds (BSHL) includes in Walk 1. 

 

Walk 1 in the Building Stone Heritage of Leeds

 

Turning left into The Headrow, having photographed buildings on East Parade and Park Row, the first building on my list, Athenaeum House (c.1890), was completely shrouded by scaffolding and debris netting and although the Jubilee Hotel (1904) was also scaffolded, a section of brick red terracotta was revealed on the Park Cross Street elevation. 

 

Leeds Town Hall

 

On the north side of the Headrow is Leeds Town Hall (1858), where I wanted to have another look at its stonework and photograph the Grade II listed forecourt wall, but a hoarding had been erected and I later discovered that an ongoing £18 million renovation was being undertaken. 

 

Oxford Place Methodist Church and Oxford Chambers

 

The corner of Westgate and Oxford Place is occupied by the Oxford Place Methodist Church (1835), which was remodelled 1896-1903 by G.F. Danby and W.H. Thorp in the Renaissance Revival style, with the addition of Oxford Chambers (c.1900). The Builder (1904, p.637) names the sandstone used for the dressings as Thornhill Rock from the Morley Moor quarries

 

The entrance to Oxford Place Methodist Church

 

Oxford Chambers is connected to the main façade of the church by a curved wall and its tower is surmounted with a cupola. This sandstone has been used for the ashlar at Morley Town Hall and for many substantial nonconformist chapels in Morley, but I didn't closely examine the stone used here and quickly moved on to photograph Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Oxford Place. 

 

Oxford Chambers

 

The Gothic Revival style Britannia Buildings (1868), which was not part of my Photo Challenge, is built in red brick with sandstone dressings and the HE description states that it was probably designed by Charles Fowler, an engineer and surveyor who was also well known for producing a map of Leeds in 1819, and that it was the first purpose built block of office chambers in the city. 

 

Britannia Buildings

 

It has some fine raised lettering and architectural sculpture to the door surround, Corinthian capitals and quatrefoils on the panels below the ground floor windows, but I didn't closely examine the uniformly coloured medium grained sandstone. 

 

The door surround at Britannia Buildings

 

As seen at Hepper House on East Parade, where the granite used for the porch has been considered by the BSHL to have been the first use in Leeds, the columns to the doorway and the ground floor windows are made with pink Peterhead granite.

 

A detail of the door surround at Britannia Buildings

East Parade and Park Row in Leeds

 

The frieze sculpture above the south entrance to Abtech House

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for the west part of the Leeds City Centre Conservation Area, at the end of St. Paul’s Street I turned left onto East Parade, a street that was laid out between 1779 and 1789 but now consists only of C19 and C20 buildings. 

 

No. 9 East Parade

 

The Grade II Listed No. 9 East Parade  is designed in an Italianate style and built with sandstone ashlar that has a yellowish colour, which immediately made me think that this could be an example of the massive variety of the Elland Flags, a Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation sandstone that was very widely used in Leeds. 

 

No. 7 East Parade on the 1891 OS map

It is dated by Historic England (HE) as c.1870 but at parapet level, beneath the statue of Britannia and a lion, there is a panel with the lettering Established 1840 and looking at the 1850 and 1891 editions of the 1:500 scale Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, there seems to have been no change to the plan of the building, which would suggest that rebuilding may had taken place.

 

East Parade Chambers

The adjoining East Parade Chambers (1899), which I had photographed along with No. 9 and No. 17A when preparing the Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip to Leeds in 2019, are offices built with Burmantofts faience tiles in the Free Renaissance style. 

 

No. 17A East Parade

No. 17A (1865), also known as Hepper House, was the auction house, with offices and a saleroom that was designed in a Venetian Gothic style for Hepper and Sons by George Corson, whose textile warehouses I had seen on Wellington Street. 

 

The entrance to the porch

  

This is included in Walk 3 in the Building Stones Heritage of Leeds (BSHL), which describes that it is built with Elland Flags sandstone from the Harehills Quarry - as recorded in The Builder (1863, p.424) – and is considered to be one of the last examples of locally quarried sandstones, before the railways brought in building stone from further afield. 

 

Capitals to the granite columns in the porch

 

To the first floor windows, red sandstone voussoirs, which is probably Red Mansfield, alternate with the Carboniferous sandstone and this can be seen in the arch to the porch and associated band courses. The pink Peterhead granite columns to the porch, which have lost their polish - perhaps due to inappropriate cleaning with hydrofluoric acid – are the first recorded use of granite in Leeds. 

 

Capitals to the granite columns in the porch

The intricate stone carvings on the arch to the porch, which include acanthus leaves and other floral patterns, are of the highest quality and still retain very sharp profiles but HE doesn’t make any reference to these fine details. 

 

Acanthus leaves and detailed stone carving

 

Crossing over the road to the look at the plinth of office block occupied by SCP, on the corner with South Parade, I was interested to see the rapakivi granite from Finland known as Baltic Brown, which I had previously seen on St. Paul’s Street. 

 

Baltic Brown granite

It is found in South Karelia near to the Russian border and formed approximately 1.6 billion years ago in the Mesoproterozoic era. It is characterised by large approximately spherical pink orthoclase feldspar phenocrysts with a mantle of greenish oligoclase feldspar, which form concentric rings and are the result of a slow cooling process. 

 

Pearl Chambers

On the opposite corner is Pearl Chambers (1911), designed by the architect William Bakewell in the Free Gothic Revival style for the Pearl Assurance Company. I just took a couple of general photos, but the BSHL describes it as being one of the first major buildings in Leeds to use Portland stone and that Rubislaw granite from Aberdeen is used for the first floor. 

 

Abtech House

 

Retracing my steps along East Parade to Greek Street, which is excluded from the Conservation Area, the late Georgian No. 7 is rendered and painted and has no interest to this Language of Stone Blog and I continued to Park Row, which is at the heart of the financial didtrict. I had previously photographed several Grade II listed banks, but I wanted to have another look at Abtech House (1900), which was designed by Edward J. Dodgshun in the Baroque Revival style for the West Riding Union Bank. 

 

The relief sculpture by Joseph Thewlis

 

The frieze by Joseph Thewlis, who also worked on Kirkgate market, is the finest example of architectural sculpture that I have seen in Leeds and depicts Minerva sitting on an Art Nouveau throne, which is flanked by figures representing shipping interests in Africa and investment in the American railways. 

 

The relief sculpture above the north entrance

Above the entrances, according to the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Leeds by Susan Wrathmell,  'trade' and 'commerce' are personified by male and female figures representing peace and justice and purity and plenty. 

 

The Pevsner architectural guide for Leeds

The BSHL describes the medium grained sandstone as being Crosland Hill stone from the Rough Rock in Huddersfield, with a deep red Swedish granite that has purplish opalescence in the quartz grains used for the ground floor and the Emerald Pearl variety of Norwegian larvikite for the plinth.

 

Swedish red granite and Norwegian larvikite

 

Park Square & St. Paul's Street in Leeds

 

A detail of Nos. 14-18 St. Paul's Street

Continuing my Photo Challenge in Leeds, after photographing the textile warehouses along Wellington Street, with their attractive polychrome brickwork, I headed up Queen Street to No. 9 Somers Street, where the late C18 workshop and warehouse is built with plain dark red/brown bricks, but it has no interest to this Language of Stone Blog. 

 

Vicarage Chambers

 

Entering Park Square at the north end of Park Square West, I could not find the statue of Circe in the garden and continued to Vicarage Chambers (1908), which has brick red terracotta used for the ground floor and the bold window surrounds on the first floor. 

 

A detail of a terracotta panel at Vicarage Chambers

 

Although this blog essentially describes stone in all of its forms, having worked background in the building restoration industry, I also have an interest in clay based building materials – brick, terracotta and faience – and Leeds has very many fine examples of these. 

 

A detail of the door surround to Vicarage Chambers

 

The architectural terracotta and faience by Burmantofts Pottery is best known but Historic England (HE) make no mention of the source of the terracotta used here or for the early C20 doorway added to No. 7 Park Square (c.1790); however, the name and date on the door surround are made of white faience that may be product described as Marmo.

 

The terracotta door surround to No. 7 Park Square East

 

At the Grade II* listed St. Paul’s House (1878), the wonderful factory and showroom designed in the Hispano-Moorish style by Thomas Ambler for John Barran, the terracotta is made by Doulton & Co. – a manufacturer that was first established at Vauxhall in London, but on this occasion I just took photos of the details of the mouldings and the blue plaque. 

 

A detail of the terracotta at St. Paul's House

 

On the corner of Park Square East, the late C19 Nos. 14-18 St. Paul's Street is another warehouse that uses bands of blue bricks to contrast with the red brick walling, with large pairs of brackets forming part of the deep eaves. 

 

Nos. 14-18 St. Paul's Street

 

A uniformly buff coloured sandstone is used for the dressings, which I didn't recognise or examine but presume to be a West Yorkshire sandstone from one of the quarries that were accessible by the railway. HE describe these as “Continuous moulded segmental brick and stone arches with drip mould over doors and windows, moulded panels below windows. 1st floor: Gothic cusped arches with carved foliage in tympana, carved capitals to brick pilasters; 2nd-floor moulded segmental brick/stone arches with continuous moulded sill”. 

 

Gothic cusped arches with carved foliage in the tympana

Although now in the Leeds City Centre Conservation Area, many of the Victorian buildings on St. Paul's Street have long since been replaced by C20 buildings, some of which are mentioned in the Building Stone Heritage of Leeds (1996) by Francis. G. Dimes and Murray Mitchell and have themselves been demolished and redeveloped. 

 

Walk 3 in the Building Stone of Leeds

I still had to complete my Photo Challenge and I didn’t look for any of these buildings and just noted the rapakivi granite, known by the trade name Baltic Brown, which has been used above the entrance to Enterprise House, and the façade of the Starbucks coffee shop, which I didn’t photograph but I think is St. Bees sandstone.

 

A detail of the entrance to Enterprise House

 

Wellington Street in Leeds

 

The door surround at Blemann House

The highlight of my short walk along the River Aire from Whitehall Bridge to City Square was the discovery of the Dark Arches (1869) which, together with other vaults built for the Midland Railway's Wellington Station (1846), form an integral part of Leeds railway station and underlie the Queens Hotel, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company offices and the concourse. 

 

A Photo Challenge for the western part of Leeds city centre

 

For the rest of the day, my plan was to continue my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in the west part of the Leeds City Centre Conservation Area, which has the Georgian Park Square at its centre; however, most of the C18 buildings had already been photographed and the 28 buildings on my list are spread around the area between Wellington Street and Great George Street. 

 

A map of the Leeds City Centre Conservation Area

 

Heading up Wellington Street past the mid C19 multi-storey former woollen warehouse buildings - Churchill House and No. 19 - which Historic England (HE) think are probably by George Corson, the Leeds based Scottish architect whose work I had seen at the former Parochial Institute in Headingley, during my last trip to Leeds. 

 

Blemann House and Nos. 1 and 3 King Street

 

HE also attribute Nos. 1 and 3 King Street (1861), which includes No. 52 Wellington Street and Blemann House (1870) to Corson, but to my eye they look like they have been built with the same design and in a single phase. 

 

The front elevation of No. 52

 

Although functional buildings that were built in close proximity to the Leeds railway stations, their Venetian style design with fine architectural detailing and materials reflect the prosperity of the textile industry - a feature of other West Yorkshire towns such as Dewsbury and Huddersfield.

 

Coarse grained Rough Rock used for the boundary wall and basement

Coarse grained and pebbly Rough Rock is used for the basement dressings and boundary walls, with a yellowish massive, medium grained sandstone for the rusticated door and ground floor window surrounds and polychrome brickwork for the upper storeys. 

 

Rough Rock used for the entrance to No. 52

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which was fully operational in Leeds by 1777, connected with the renowned Bolton Woods quarries that supplied the massive variety of the Elland Flags, which had been used in Leeds Town Hall (1858) and the railway network now linked to the East Midlands. 

 

The entrance to Blemann House

 

The entrance to Blemann House (No. 54 Wellington Sreet) has columns made of a dull red sandstone that I immediately presumed to be Red Mansfield stone, a sandy variety of the Permian Cadeby Formation that was widely exported from Mansfield to other cities in England, once it was connected to the railways. 

 

The former Great Northern Railway Station Hotel

 

The former Great Northern Railway Station Hotel (1869) occupies the corner of Wellington Street and Thirsk Row, but it is not a listed building despite its place in the railway history of Leeds and its fine architectural features, which include carved figures holding a shield on the corners of the Wellington Street elevation. 

 

A figure on the Great Northern Railway Station Hotel

 

I didn’t look very closely at the sandstone ashlar masonry used for the ground and first floor but, when enlarging my photos, I think that its massive nature and the finely carved details make it more likely to be another example of Bolton Woods stone than the Rough Rock or the locally quarried Elland Flags. 

 

No. 56 Wellington Street

The Gothic Revival style No. 56 Wellington Street (1873) by Henry Walker is listed by HE as offices, but an illustration in the Building News describes it as a leather warehouse being built in local sandstone. I only photographed this from the opposite side of the street, but this appears to be Rough Rock and not the Elland Flags. 

 

Nos. 54 (R) and 56 (L) Wellington Street

Although not part of my Photo Challenge, the adjoining Waterloo House is another warehouse, designed by the architect Edward Birchall for the cloth manufacturer Walter Stead. The scaffolding prevented me from seeing the details of the ground floor, particularly the pink granite columns to the entrance, but the polychrome brickwork and stone dressings could clearly be seen. 

 

No. 58 Wellington Street

 

Continuing along the south side of Wellington Street, where the site of the Leeds Central railway station and its associated goods sheds and sidings are now occupied by vast office blocks, I stopped to photograph the Centura office building on the north side. 

 

The entrance to the Centura office building

 

Here, the surrounds to the entrance and expanses of windows that stand proud of the red facing bricks are made with a distinctly pink sandstone that looks like one of the coarse grained sandstones from the Corbar Grit along the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire – such as Peak Moor, Hall Dale, Watts Cliff and Dukes. 

 

The entrance to Apsley House

 

Occupying the corner with Queen Street is Apsley House (1903), by George Corson and W. Evans Jones and Perkin and Bulmer acting as associated architects. The latter were advocates of Burmantofts ‘Marmo’ white faience, including the Royal Bank of Scotland (1909) on Park Row and Atlas House (1910) on King Street, which might explain the extensive use of pink terracotta for the main doorway and dressings.

 

A general view of Apsley House