Armley Prison: Entrance Range And Flanking Walls

Armley Prison's entrance range and flanking walls were built in 1847 and later altered in the 20th century. Designed by William Belton Perkin and Elisha Backhouse, the structure features ashlar stonework with edge-tooling on the quoins, a brick internal skin, rubble infill, and slate roofs. The design is in a castle style, comprising a 2- and 3-storey entrance block that includes a large moulded round-arch doorway. This is flanked by two projecting, splayed, and battered 2-storey towers topped with corbelled embattled parapets. Each side has a low embattled link wall leading to three-storey square towers and taller octagonal towers, all of which are crenellated and have iron bars on their round-arched windows. The front is adorned with cast-iron railings shaped like spears and halberds. The perimeter wall, approximately 6 meters high and 200 meters long, features a parapet that rises over arrow-loops above plain ramped buttresses and circular corner turrets with blocked round-headed openings. The wall to the south of the entrance block has been rebuilt and clad in tooled stone, while the wall to the north was raised when a visitor block was constructed in the 1950s. The enclosure was enlarged around 1857, leading to the perimeter wall being rebuilt further north. The archway roof is rib-vaulted, and the flanking doorways have deep chamfers. An inscription above the archway facing the yard reads: 'PERKIN AND BACKHOUSE ARCHITECTS AD 1847'. The interior has not been inspected. For additional historical context, refer to Armley Prison: Inner range.