Great George Street in Leeds

 

A statue at the former Leeds School Board offices

 

Having photographed Oxford Chambers, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Oxford Place and Britannia Buildings, next on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge were a mid C19 bollard on the corner next to No. 31 Great George Street, a pair of red brick built C19 shops and Nos. 33-33A and Nos. 35-41 - all of which have very little of interest to this Language of Stone Blog. 

 

A bollard and mid C19 listed brick buildings on Graet George Street

 

Retracing my steps along Great George Street, I stopped very briefly to photograph the ram’s head on a keystone at the rear of Leeds Town Hall (1858) before arriving at the corner of Calverley Street, where I intended to have another quick look at Leeds Central Library, which I had first visited in August 2018. 

 

The ram's head keystone at the rear of Leeds Town Hall

Before turning down Calverley Street to the library, which I will further describe in my next post, the imposing Grade II* listed Palladian Revival style Civic Court (1879-81) caught my eye. This is another building by the Scottish architect George Corson, whose work on Wellington Street and Hepper House on East Parade I had encountered earlier on my walk 

 

The former Leeds School Board offices

As in Sheffield, the Leeds School Board was set up shortly after the introduction of W.E. Forster’s Elementary Education Act of 1870 and this was originally built as its offices, with the Historic England (HE) description mentioning that they contained board and committee rooms on the ground floor, together with offices for clerks and attendant officers. 

 

The entrance to the former Leeds School Board offices

 

The architect Richard Adams was the board architect from 1873 until 1879, when other architects were commissioned to undertake their work, including George Corson who, like Charles John Innocent in Sheffield, was criticised for the extravagance of his design. 

 

The Leeds coat of arms and inscription in raised lettering

At high level, the words: 'LEEDS SCHOOL BOARD' are carved in relief beneath the Leeds coat of arms, which features and owl and on each side of the central entrance there are half size statues of a schoolgirl and schoolboy, by Matthew Taylor of Leeds. 

 

A statue at the former Leeds School Board offices

 

I didn’t look closely at the sandstone but the Building Stone Heritage of Leeds (BSHL) refer to Building News (1881, p.459), which states that Burley-in-Wharfedale stone from the Addingham Edge Grit has been used for the rusticated basement, with Pool Bank stone from the Caley Crags Grit for the superstructure above – although the Building Stones Database of England map explorer show the Pool Bank Quarries as being located on the Addingham Edge Grit. 

 

The Pool Bank Quarries on the Addingham Edge Grit

 

A couple of years earlier, I had seen the Addingham Edge Grit when walking along the lower footpath at Otley Chevin during a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip, where the crags and old quarry faces are heavily iron stained. The British Geological Survey describes it as varying from fine to very coarse grained, with sporadic pebbles, but I have never seen it used as a building stone and will make a point of looking at the building again when I next visit this part of Leeds. 

 

Nos. 6 to 14 Great George Street

Continuing up Great George Street, I just took a single photo of Nos. 6 to 14 (1848) built for J.F. Clark, who was a coach builder. The rusticated ground floor and the dressings are built with a uniformly buff coloured sandstone, but I didn’t investigate this any further and carried on to the Leonardo Building (c.1900). 

 

The Leonardo Building

 

This was built as the offices of Chorley and Pickersgill, a firm of printers that operated from the Electric Press Building (c.1900) on the opposite corner. Again, I just took a single photo of this building and didn’t look at the sandstone used for the entrance on the splay and for the dressings on the floors above. The adjoining Thoresby Building (1900), which was built for the Pupil Teachers' College by Walter Samuel Braithwaite, is another large brick building with sandstone dressings that I just viewed from a distance. 

 

The Thoresby Building

 

On the opposite side of the road is Cathedral House, the presbytery to St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, which was not part of my Photo Challenge, but I was quite interested in the design of the building, which is described by HE as the Arts and Craft Gothic Revival style. 

 

Cathedral House

The bricks and stonework were quite dirty and I didn’t take much notice of them, but the BSHL notes that sand faced Suffolk white bricks are used here, which I can’t recall seeing since I have lived in South Yorkshire, with the Ketton stone - an oolitic limestone from near Stamford - used for the door surround and dressings. 

Cathedral House

Next to this is Cathedral Chambers (1900) by John Mitchell Bottomley, which was built as a masonic hall but has since been converted into offices. The ground floor is built with a brown glazed brick plinth, red brick for the ground floor and pinkish coloured brick for the first floor – another material that is unusual in the region. 

 

Cathedral Chambers

The BSHL refer to the Building News (1900, p.73), which describes the extensive use of red Corncockle stone from Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland for the door surround and window dressings, which are all slightly blackened. 

 

The front elevation of Cathedral Chambers

 

Although I had obtained a sample of this Permian sandstone for the Triton Stone Library, which is now housed in the Redmires Building at Sheffield Hallam University and has an accompanying website, I have never seen this bright red sandstone used in a building. Crossing over to have a better look at the sandstone, I was interested to see that the foundation stone is made of Devonian Shap dark granite, which has large rectangular pink orthoclase feldspar phenocrysts. 

 

The foundation stone of Cathedral Chambers

The last building to photograph on Great George Street was the former City of Leeds School (1889) by Kelly and Birchall, which is one of several large brick buildings in this part of Leeds that were used for education and I only viewed it from a distance to take a few general photos. I didn't get close enough to examine the sandstone dressings, but the BSHL identify it as coarse grained Rough Rock that is only suitable for bold carving.

 

The former City of Leeds School