Alf Cooke Ltd Packaging (Cookes Printers)

LEEDS

SE3032NE HUNSLET ROAD, Hunslet 714-1/81/869 (South West side) 05/08/76 Alf Cooke Ltd Packaging (Cooke's Printers)

II

Printing works. 1881, rebuilt after fire 1894. By Thomas Ambler. For Alf Cooke Ltd. Red brick, terracotta and stone dressings, slate roof of shallow hipped form, modillion brackets to deep eaves. 3 storeys, 30 x 8 bays with splayed corner bay carried up to clock tower. Ornate corner entrance with pilasters, round arch with high segmental broken pediment ornamented with scrolls and oval plaque with the owner's initials in the tympanum. Facade to Hunslet Road: moulded string courses; ground floor has alternate segmental-headed windows and projecting bays with pedimented gabled canopies over small semicircular-headed windows; 1st floor arcaded with elliptical arches of alternate stone and brick on pilasters with dentilled impost; 2nd floor has 2-light round-headed windows with slender columns between. Right return: similar pattern of openings but without ornament, especially to ground floor. Clock tower over corner: square on plan, corner pilasters, dentilled cornice, dome with large finial. INTERIOR: not inspected but reputed to contain cast-iron columns supporting mezzanine floors with offices to 1st and 2nd floors, the central area being left open; access to upper levels via 2 spiral staircases and one conventional corner stair. Alf Cooke established his printing business in 1872, producing cheap prints of art works for the mass market. The original works burnt down in 1880 and its replacement was partly destroyed in 1894. Thomas Ambler was responsible for most of the Boar Lane buildings as well as St Paul's House, Park Square (qv). (Journal of Victorian Society, West Yorkshire Branch: Higenbottam CJ: Thomas Ambler (1838-1920), Architect, of Leeds: 1988-: 18).

Listing NGR: SE3062232593