Leahs Yard

Nos. 20 and 22 Leah's Yard, Sheffield

A shop with rear courtyard containing workshops, built in the mid-19th century with alterations made in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed in brick with ashlar dressings, and features slate and corrugated iron roofs with various gable and side wall stacks.

The front block facing the street is three storeys with a five-window range. The first floor contains five plain sashes with lintels featuring keystones. Above these are five unequally hung sashes. The ground floor has an off-centre carriage entrance with a lintel, flanked to the right by a double doorway with a moulded ashlar surround. The left door has been altered to form a shop window, while the right door retains an overlight. To the left is a late 20th-century shopfront consisting of two unequal single pane windows and a door, all set beneath a plastic fascia.

The north workshop block within the courtyard rises to three storeys and spans 23 window openings. At first floor level are a door with overlight to the left, followed by eighteen segment-headed two-light wooden casements, then a square wooden oriel, then three similar casements. The floor above contains twenty-four similar two-light casements with flat heads. The ground floor has two board doors to the left, flanked on the far left by a three-light wooden casement and on the right by two larger similar casements with wooden lintels. To their right is a stairway entrance, then two more three-light casements. Further right stands a beaded six-panel door with overlight and another stairway entrance, followed finally by a triple plain sash and a door.

At the west end a central block of three storeys contains two three-light wooden casements with three similar casements above, all with wooden lintels. The ground floor has a larger three-light casement and an external wooden stair to the right. A slightly lower three-storey block adjoins to the right, featuring a first floor board door with a two-light casement beside it, and three two-light casements above. The ground floor has an external wooden stair to the left and a door to the right.

To the left stands a lower two-storey block with a first floor door to the left and four two-light glazing bar casements, with a larger three-light casement below to the right. The south-west block is two storeys with a five-window range and a corrugated iron roof, containing casements of three and four lights with a door and external wooden stair to the right. Below is a central door with a segment-headed overlight featuring cast-iron glazing bars, and to the right a single-storey lean-to with corrugated iron roof. To the left are a segment-headed cast-iron glazing bar window and a three-light wooden casement.

The return to the left is two storeys with a five-window range. A blocked door with an iron external stair is flanked to the left by a two-light wooden casement and to the right by three segment-headed casements of three and four lights, the left one enlarged. Below is an off-centre door flanked to the left by a two-light casement and to the right by a 20th-century single-light casement, then three 19th-century segment-headed three-light casements. Between floors to the right is a round iron tank on brackets. The left gable contains two small windows and the base of a square brick factory chimney stack.

The south block dates from the late 19th century and is two storeys with a six-window range, containing continuous four-light glazing bar casements on each floor. The rear elevation facing Backfields is three storeys with a six-window range: to the left is a single casement flanked by paired casements, all late 20th century in date, while to the right are three 19th-century two-light casements. Above are eight two-light casements. Below is a central taller window flanked by two similar windows, all with segmental heads and all boarded up. To the right is a two-storey block with nine two-light casements and below five windows, then a door, then another window, all blocked.

This workshop range represents an important example of the courtyard workshops characteristic of Sheffield. The yard is named after the Leah family, who carried out drop-stamping work for the silverware trade.