The Old Bear Pit is a Grade II listed building in the Leeds local planning authority area, England. First listed on 5 August 1976. Bear pit. 3 related planning applications.
The Old Bear Pit
- WRENN ID
- heavy-courtyard-candle
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Leeds
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 5 August 1976
- Type
- Bear pit
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
LEEDS
SE2835NW CARDIGAN ROAD, Headingley 714-1/64/725 (East side) 05/08/76 The Old Bear Pit
II
Bear pit in the Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Mid C19, restored mid C20. Rock-faced rusticated masonry. 2 circular castellated turrets with round-arched entrance in left and right returns, linked by a wall with Venetian-type gateway, voussoirs to central round arch. On the E side the circular bear pit is brick-lined and is linked to the turret wall by 2 tunnels; on the W side a paved area and low retaining wall, curved at ends. The Gardens were opened in 1840, the designers were William Billington, a Wakefield engineer, and Edward Davies, a landscape gardener. The bears were viewed from the top of the turrets. After several changes of ownership the Gardens were divided into building plots and sold off from 1869. The structure was measured and recorded in 1987. (Thoresby Society Miscellany: Trowell, F: Speculative Housing Development in the Suburb of Headingley: 54; Douglas, J (Victorian Society) pers. comm.; West Yorkshire Archaeology Unit: Measured drawing (plan, elevation, section), ref. WYAS.87.ACS: 1987-).
Listing NGR: SE2803735517
Detailed Attributes
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