Headmasters House

The Headmaster's House, dating from 1899, was originally built for the Headmaster of the Yorkshire School for the Blind at the King's Manor (a separately listed building). It is now used as university offices. The house was designed by Walter Brierley. The front of the building is constructed of limestone ashlar, with some brick and brick gables. The rear and side elevations are of pink-cream brick in English bond. The steeply pitched roof is covered in plain tiles, with stone coping and prominent brick stacks featuring stone strings and cornices.

The house is two storeys and attics, with a five-bay front. The design alternates projecting two-gabled bays with three full-height square bays. A smaller subsidiary bay sits beneath a lower roof at the left end. The right-hand bay has a keyed round arch, set within panelled pilasters, leading to a recessed porch. The porch has carved spandrels and flanking columns supporting an entablature with obelisk finials. Inside the tunnel-vaulted porch is a door with linenfold panels, retaining its original door furniture. Semicircular niches with shell canopies are set into the side walls. A three-light window is located on the first floor above the porch. The gabled bay to the left has a similar attic window and two three-light windows on both the ground and first floors. The square bays feature five-light windows on both ground and first floors. The left-end bay features a panelled door with original furniture, set within a doorcase with a moulded cornice, and a three-light window on the first floor. A moulded cornice runs above the ground-floor openings, with a further moulded eaves cornice beneath a brick parapet at the left end and stone parapets over the projecting bays. All parapets have moulded stone copings; the central parapet has a round-arched head enclosing a defaced carving of the Royal Arms. All windows have hollow-chamfered mullions and transoms, with square latticed casements or top-hung windows, and original furniture.

The rear of the house includes a lower, two-storey gabled projection for the staircase and a short, single-storey, L-shaped wing. The rear windows are wooden-framed, with two, three, or four lights, some with transoms, set beneath flat arches of orange soldier bricks. Sills are either stone or moulded brick. Most windows are square lattice casements or top-hung lights, although some have been replaced with windows lacking leaded lights.

The interior retains many original features. The main staircase has a deep moulded string, turned balusters, and square newels. A secondary staircase features a fine wrought-iron balustrade.