Vicar Lane to Angel Inn Yard in Leeds

 

A detail to the entrance of County Arcade on Vicar Lane

 

Having finished my lunch at Khao Gaeng Thai, after walking from York Street to Kirkgate Market, I continued with my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge at Nos. 60-62 Vicar Lane which, together with No. 58 (currently occupied by Subway) forms part of a non matching pair of shops, offices and a Temperance Hotel. This was designed by W.H. Thorp and built in 1900, whose work I had previously seen at Oxford Place Methodist Church, Oxford Chambers and the City Art Gallery.

 

Nos. 60-62 Vicar Lane

 

Historic England (HE) describe it as being built with with brick, with stone lintels and terracotta panels beneath the third floor windows, which Susan Wrathmell repeats in her Pevsner Architectural Guide to Leeds. To my eye, all of the dressings are clearly made with the same sandstone, which is probably from the Elland Flags.

 

Views of Wrays Buildings

 

The adjoining Wrays Buildings (c.1900) and Nos. 50-56 are built with red brick, with terracotta dressings that are very obviously different in colour to the sandstone dressings at Nos. 58-62, although the terracotta on Wrays Buildings looks like it has been badly cleaned by hydrofluoric acid - as seen on the former Prudential Assurance Company building (1891) on Park Row. 

 

Coronation Buildings

 

On the opposite side of Sidney Street, Coronation Buildings (1902), is another red brick and terracotta building by Daniel Dodgson, who was an assistant to Thomas Ambler - the architect responsible for Nos. 1-13 Boar Lane (1872) and Westminster Buildings and St. James’s Hall (1877) on New York Street. 

 

The area around Vicar Lane on the 1893 OS map

 

As seen on the 1893 and 1908 editions of the Ordnance Survey (OS) map of Leeds, the area around Vicar Lane and Briggate was substantial redeveloped in the very late C19 and early C20, with the notorious area of slums around the old Shambles meat market being swept away.

 

The area around Vicar Lane on the 1908 OS map

 

In its place is the County Arcade and Cross Arcade (1898-1904) designed by Frank Matcham for the Leeds Estates Company, which involved the creation of King Edward Street and Queen Victoria Street and included two hundred shops, cafes, tearooms and a theatre. Now forming part of the Victoria Quarter, it is occupied by many prime retailers and is one of the reasons why Leeds is considered to be the premium shopping area in northern England.

 

The entrance to County Arcade on Vicar Lane

 

I took photos of the entrance to the arcade and the surrounding façade, including the premises of The Ivy restaurant, which is built with red brick and Burmantofts faience tiles, but I didn’t have time to look at the arcades in the Victoria Quarter, where marble and mosaic are used lavishly.

 

The Ivy restaurant

 

The next building on my Photo Challenge was No. 7 The Headrow which, apart from its stone slate roof, has no interest to this Language of Stone Blog (LSB) and I carried on until I arrived at Thorntons Buildings (1873. This is another red brick building with sandstone dressings, which HE suggest may be by the architect/builder George Smith for Charles Thornton, the owner of the Old White Swan Inn in Swan Street and the proprietor of the Varieties Music Hall.

 

Views of Thornton Buildings

 

Turning down Lands Lane, I stopped briefly to photograph the Grade II listed bollard at the west end of Swan Street and the old gas lamp post in Ship Yard – neither of which are of any interest to this LSB – before continuing to No. 26 Lands Lane (c.1900). 

 

No. 26 Lands Lane

 

This brick building, which HE states is probably steel framed, is most notable for its very large showroom windows, which take up most of the upper two floors, and is by Percy Robinson. The HE description of 22-24 New Market Street (c.1900) casts some doubt on Smith and Tweedale being the architects and refers to the style of the tall arches at Nos. 2-4 Duncan Lane (c.1904) and also its similarity to No. 27 Lands Lane.

 

A view along Angel Inn Yard

 

I then turned down Angel Inn Yard, where the late C18 Angel Inn was the next building on my Photo Challenge, although its interest is mainly for being another example of the development of the mediaeval burgage plots, rather than its architectural qualities or building materials.

 

The Angel Inn

 

York Street to Kirkgate Market in Leeds

 

Putti at Leeds Kirkgate Market

After spending less than 20 minutes photographing the various stones used for the sanctuary floor, ledger stones and the Victorian font in Leeds Minster, I crossed over to the north side of Kirkgate to take a photograph of the memorial to John Speed, which is made in a red granite that looks like the Balmoral variety from Finland. 

 

The memorial to John Speed

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge at the Classical style Nos. 46-48 York Street (c.1900), which is built in a Classical style, the matt glazed Marmo - designed to imitate marble - was produced by the Leeds Fireclay Company of Burmantofts up to WWI and can be seen in many fine buildings in Leeds. 

 

Nos. 46-48 York Street

Although quite an unimposing building, it is yet another reminder that most of the historic architecture in Leeds city centre, which is set on Coal Measures strata, are built with fired clay products - brick, terracotta and faience. 

 

Westminster Buildings

 

The next building on my Photo Challenge was the Grade II listed St. James’s Hall and Westminster Buildings, described by Historic England (HE) as “Temperance hotel, public hall and dining rooms, now shops and offices. 1877, enlarged 1884, altered C20”. 

 

St. James's Hall

 

The building was designed for William James Armitage, the owner of the Farnley Iron Company, by the architect Thomas Ambler who also designed the Temperance hotel at Nos. 1-13 Boar Lane. The materials used are red brick with sandstone dressings, which looks like the Elland Flags, and HE refers to polychrome brick but I did not notice these. 

 

Nos. 22-30 New York Street

On the opposite side of the road, on the corner with Harper Street, is Nos. 22-30 New York Street (c.1900), which HE describe as a warehouse, workshops and shops, but no mention is made of the architect. The materials are again red brick, with sandstone probably from the Elland Flags used for the dressings, as again seen at New York Buildings (1880) by J. W. Baxendall – originally used as a cocoa house, workshops and offices, but now occupied by shops and storerooms. 

 

New York Buildings

 

While photographing New York Buildings, I noticed that the road kerbs on Kirkgate are made of the dark variety of Shap granite from Cumbria, with its distinctive phenocrysts of pink orthoclase feldspar, which I have seen used very many times in the entrances of Victorian buildings – as seen in the entrance steps at Leeds Central Library – but I have never seen it used like this before. 

 

Dark Shap granite used for the kerb on Kirkgate

Continuing to the south entrance of the Grade I Listed Leeds Kirkgate Market (1904), by John and Joseph Leeming, I stopped very briefly to photograph the Baroque style putti that were carved by Joseph Thewlis and Co. in Eccleshill stone from the Elland Flags formation near Bradford. 

 

A putto at Leeds Kirkgate Market

Arriving at the market at just after 1 o’clock in the afternoon, and not stopped for any break since I had arrived in Leeds nearly two hours earlier, I decided that it was time to have some lunch and headed to the Khao Gaeng Thai stall. 

 

Khao Gaeng Thai

I first discovered this place in January 2019, when preparing my walk with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group to look at the building stones of Leeds, and I have visited it many times since. Finding all the tables busy I made my order and, after finding a seat on George Street, had another enjoyable meal in the autumn sunshine before continuing my Photo Challenge on Vicar Lane.

A meal from Khao Gaeng Thai

Leeds Minster Revisited

 

A view east along the nave

In October 2018, using my newly purchased Building Stone Heritage of Leeds by Francis. G. Dimes and Murray Mitchell, I had a walk around Leeds to look at some of the buildings mentioned in this – including Leeds Minster on Kirkgate, a part of the city that I had not visited before. 

 

The Building Stone Heritage of Leeds

 

During this visit, much of the time was spent being shown the main points of interest at the east end of the church, including the Leeds Cross and an effigy of a knight, but I didn’t have the time to properly explore its interior. 

 

The floor of the sanctuary

 

In the sanctuary, the floor is laid with a mixture of encaustic tiles, mosaic and various decorative stones, some of which I recognised as being Italian Carrara marble and serpentinite, with Connemara marble, Cork Red marble and Kilkenny marble from the Republic of Ireland. 

 

The stone library in the Redmires Building

 

My experience as a building restoration contractor in London, where the stone is imported from elsewhere, provided with me experience and interests in stone identification and matching – to satisfy an architect’s specification “to match the existing as closely as possible” – resulting in the production of the Triton Stone Library, which has since been transferred to Sheffield Hallam University and is now housed in the Redmires Building. 

 

London Illustrated geological Walks by Dr. Eric Robinson

 

With our work being very largely concerned with the external fabric, using publications such as the Natural Stone Directory and Dr. Eric Robinson’s London Illustrated Geological Walks - which was illustrated with black and white photographs but identified buildings where the large scale characteristic of a given stone could be clearly seen – I learned to identify the principal granites that had been used in the buildings that we were restoring. 

Decorative Stone The Complete Sourcebook

 

My experience of marbles, however, is quite limited and this prompted me to purchase Decorative Stone the Complete Sourcebook by Monica T. Price, which is largely based on the Corsi Collection at Oxford Natural History Museum. 

 

The standard layout in Decorative Stone The Complete Sourcebook

 

Although it provides a good introduction to decorative stones, is too large to easily read and it has more of a character of a coffee table book. Furthermore, the specimens in the collection are typically 145 mm x 75 mm in size and these provide very little idea of the true pattern and variation of colours and textures that can seen in a large slab used for panelling or columns in an interior. 

 

Various details of the sanctuary floor

 

Having walked from Swinegate to Kirkgate, as part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Leeds, I visited Leeds Minster again to take some more photos of the sanctuary floor, but I could not identify any more stones than during my previous visit. 

 

The sanctuary floor

In the part of the chancel to the east of the sanctuary floor, several ledger stones are set into the floor and some of these appear to be polished Carboniferous Limestone, although I did not get down on my knees to look for fossils that would confirm this. 

 

Ledger stones to the west of the sanctuary

Walking along the nave, there are more of these ledger stones, including some with deeply carved family crests set into a roundel, which are very similar to those that I had previously seen at St. Mary’s church in Sprotbrough and quite recently at St. Mary’s church in Beverley and at Hull Minster. A guide at the latter informed me that the limestone for these ledgers was supplied by quarries at Tournai in Belgium – the source of the black ‘marble’ seen in many C12 fonts. 

 

A ledger stone in the nave floor

 

At the east end of the nave is a font (1883) which, in her Pevsner Architectural Guide to Leeds, Susan Wrathmell states was designed by William Butterfield, but which the Historic England description or Pevsner do not even mention. 

 

The Victorian font

 

The platform upon which the font is set is composed of veined 'Sicilian' variety of Carrara marble and a polished red stone that may also be Cork Red marble, but the lighting wasn’t particularly good in this part of the church and I was more concerned with trying to obtain a few decent record photos than studying the various stones in detail. 

 

Gastropods in the Kilkenny marble step

 

The second step is a polished black Carboniferous Limestone, which contains numerous gastropod fossils and is very similar to the stone seen in the steps of the pulpit at St. John’s church in Ranmoor and which I think is Kilkenny marble. 

 

The base of the font

 

I didn’t take a good photo of the first step but, looking at the base and main body of the font, which looks to me like the Belgian Rouge Royal limestone that features in my reference book, the Stones and Marbles of Wallonia, I think that it may also be made of this stone. 

 

The font

 

The upper part of the font is made out of a stone that reminds me of a polished Carboniferous Limestone from the Duke of Devonshire's estate, which I saw at St. Martin's church in Stoney Middleton, but there is nothing in Monica Price’s book that looks anything like this. As with the stone used for the colonnettes, I will have another look when I am next visiting this part of Leeds. 

 

An unknown stone used in the font

 

From Swinegate to Kirkgate in Leeds

 

Leeds Kirkgate Market

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Leeds, having walked from City Square to Briggate, where at Queens Court I had encountered one of the many yards that had developed on the sites of old burgage plots, I continued down Lower Briggate to Swinegate. 

 

The former premises of Charles Walker and Co. Ltd.

 

Here, the premises of Charles Walker and Co. Ltd. - established in 1887 and described as mill furnishers - caught my eye. It is built in red brick with sandstone dressings and has a clock that was installed in 1935 by the renowned Leeds based clock maker, Charles H. Potts and Co. Ltd. 

 

The former regional headquarters of Leeds City Tramways

 

Surprisingly, along with the neighbouring former regional headquarters of Leeds City Tramways (1915), now the Malmaison hotel, it is not a listed building. Both of these buildings are survivors in a city where much of its industrial heritage has been swept away, with it being replaced with soulless towers and massive blocks of apartments that overshadow its historic buildings. 

A detail of the former regional headquarters of Leeds City Tramways

Returning to Call Lane, I continued up to No. 48, a rendered brick mid C18 house that later included a warehouse, which extends westwards for a distance of approximately 34m along the passage to Queen’s Court on its south side and has an open yard to the north. 

 

Views of No. 48 Call Lane

While photographing its south elevation, I discovered the east ends of the north and south ranges of Queen’s Court and, after taking a few photos of these brick buildings that are Grade II listed mainly for their historical significance rather than their architectural merit, I continued up Call Lane until I reached Hirsts Yard. 

 

The east end of Queen's Court

Next on my Photo Challenge was the early C19 Nos. 11-13 Hirsts Yard, which are just one of a series of two storied brick workshops that run alongside the yard. Historic England (HE) describe them as a “Rare survival of the type of warehousing and workshops built within the confines of yards to rear of the important market street frontage of Briggate in the C18 and C19, but very many are now used as bars and nightclubs. 

 

Views of Nos. 11-13 Hirsts Yard

 

Returning to Call Lane and continuing up to the junction with Duncan Street and Cloth Hall Street, although not part of my Photo Challenge, I stopped to take a single photograph of the magnificent Grade I listed Corn Exchange (1863) This was designed by Cuthbert Broderick – the architect of Leeds Town Hall (1853-1858) – and built with the coarse grained and frequently pebbly Rough Rock, which has been used at Kirkstall Abbey and in many of the historic buildings in Leeds since. 

 

The Corn Exchange

 

As mentioned in my previous post, although the principal public buildings are built with the locally quarried Upper Carboniferous gritstone and sandstone, such as the Rough Rock and Elland Flags – with others brought in to Leeds by the well established railway network – brick and terracotta have been used in very many of the finest buildings in Leeds. 

 

No. 22 New Market Street

 

No. 22 New Market Street (c.1900), also known as Dackawell House, is a shop and offices built using a brick clad steel frame, which HE suggests may be by S.E. Smith and J. Tweedale but they also refer to “Percy Robinson's corner building, Nos. 2 & 4 Duncan Street, 1904 (qv). No. 26 Lands Lane is similar in design, single bay (qv)”. 

 

No. 22 Market Street

 

Nos. 14-34 Central Road (c.1900) is a block of shops, workshops and offices that is built in a Queen Anne Revival style. The materials used are dark red wirecut bricks, typical of those made from Coal Measures shales and mudstones. For the window arches and jambs a brighter coloured brick is used, which reminds me of the red rubber bricks used in the south of England. 

 

View of Nos. 14-34 Central Road

 

At ground floor level, the original shop fronts are separated by giant pilasters with maroon faience tiles, which have brackets surmounted by obelisks between the first floor windows. Burmantofts of Leeds were a renowned manufacturer of architectural faience at this time and it is therefore very probable that they were the suppliers of these. 

 

Leeds Kirkgate Market

 

Stopping briefly to take a couple of photos of the south end of the Grade I listed Leeds Kirkgate Market (1904), which was designed by John and Joseph Leeming and, according to the Building Stones Heritage of Leeds, is built in Eccleshill stone from the Elland Flags near Bradford. 

 

The former White Cloth Hall

Continuing to Crown Street to photograph the late C18 Nos. 5 and 7, which is of no interest to this Language of Stone Blog, the remains of the Grade II* listed former White Cloth Hall provides evidence of the importance of woollen cloth in the prosperity of Leeds and, retracing my step to Kirkgate, the former First White Cloth Hall (1711) is a further example.

The former First White Cloth Hall