Leonardo Building

The Leonardo Building is a Grade II listed former printing works, now used as offices, built around 1900 for the firm of Chorley and Pickersgill. It is constructed of red brick with ashlar detailing and features four storeys with an attic and basement, situated on a corner site at the junction with Cookridge Street. The building has brick pilasters, moulded sills, and cornices on each floor and at the eaves.

The corner entrance bay is angled and includes panelled double doors topped by a fanlight within a round arch. This arch is flanked by fluted pilasters, impost blocks, console brackets, and a triangular pediment. Above the entrance, there is a bay window with four lights and a transom, which supports a scrolled wrought-iron balcony that leads to a French window on the second floor. The third storey has blind panels, and the building is topped with a balustraded parapet.

A prominent feature is the corner tower or ventilation shaft, which has three stages, paired round-arched windows, a triangular pediment, a deep dentilled cornice, and a balustraded parapet. The windows throughout the building vary, with segmental and round-arched windows on the second storey featuring keyed arches, segmental arches on the basement, and flat arches on the first and third storeys. The outer bays on each return rise to a pierced gable with a triangular pediment and ball finials.

The interior has not been inspected. The building is similar in date and style to the clothing mill located at No. 91 Great George Street. Historical records indicate that the printing firm Sparks and Son operated on or near this site in 1897, and by 1905, the building was illustrated as the premises of 'Chorley and Pickersgill, The Electric Press, every description of printing', indicating its role as offices for the printing works at No. 39 Cookridge Street, which is opposite.