Elmete Hall

Elmete Hall is a large house, later converted to local authority offices for a school and hostel for the deaf, now offices. The original house on the site was built around 1815 and was rebuilt in 1865, with subsequent alterations during the 20th century. It is constructed in ashlar and white brick with decorative banding and slate roofs.

The building has two storeys with an irregular plan and main frontages facing west (where the entrance is located) and south. It is designed in the Italianate style. The entrance is marked by a projecting canted bay with a carved surround to the original doorway, which is topped by an open pediment bearing a shield and scroll inscribed with the motto 'PALMAM QUI MERUIT FE...', flanked by putti. A date plaque sits below. Flanking round-headed windows, a first-floor oriel, a balustraded parapet, and corniced stacks complete the entrance composition.

The south front contains five bays, with the three bays to the right set back. A large canted bay window dominates the left side, with plate-glass sashes incorporating margin lights, architraves, and carved stone panels. An eaves cornice and balustraded parapet ornament bays one and four. Bay four features a central ornate gablet topped with a bust, possibly of Queen Victoria, a moulded stack to the left, and a pyramid roof crowned with a wrought-iron finial. Bays two and three have plain blocking courses with carved gablets and an ornate pinnacle over the right corner bay. Carved decoration throughout includes scrolls with foliage and medallions with projecting carved portrait heads.

To the rear, the approach is from a service drive. Northern hipped-roof service ranges constructed in brick, with 20th-century school additions and alterations, adjoin the main building. Notable rear features include a curved wall and dome belonging to the main stair hall, and a three-stage tower with red brick banding, small paired windows, round-arched recesses, a hipped roof, and a moulded chimney flanked by single-storey bays with louvres to the ridge. The latter may be the laundry block.

Interior: Office partitioning and alterations have obscured original room proportions, but much fine detailing survives. The southwest corner of the ground floor contains a mid-18th-century Classical white marble fireplace, two six-panel doors in carved surrounds with console brackets, scrolls, and pediments, and a coved ceiling cornice.

The inner top-lit circular staircase hall is particularly notable. It features a cantilevered stone stair with an elaborate cast-iron scrolled balustrade, moulded handrail, and ball finials. Round-arched recesses and two doors at ground level are complemented by arched recesses and three doors at first-floor level. Classical mouldings throughout support a deep cornice below the dome, which is crowned with finely-moulded ribs, possibly of cast iron. Round-arched recesses between the ribs frame a glazed dome with interlaced glazing bars featuring pink, blue, and cream stained glass in abstract scroll and flower patterns.

To the east of this staircase hall lies a second top-lit stair hall with a Jacobean-style carved wooden fireplace surround, moulded plaster ceiling and cornice, panelled walls, and a staircase with twisted balusters. A wooden arched screen and balustrade ornament the landing. On the south side of the stair hall, in bay three of the south facade where doors are now missing, stands a veined white marble fireplace with a dado rail and deep moulded frieze decorated with acanthus carving below a moulded ceiling cornice. Upper rooms and service ranges were not examined during the survey.

Historical Note: James Kitson, an engineer from Hyde House on Clarendon Road, purchased Elmete Hall from the Nicholson family of Roundhay Park for £17,000 in 1865. The house on the site had been built around 1815 and had previously been tenanted by Thomas Benyon, a flax spinner. John Hawkins Kitson, James' younger son, lived in the rebuilt house until his death in 1899, and his widow remained there until 1921. From 1921 to 1956, Bertram J Redman, a Leeds furnisher, was in residence. In 1956, Leeds City Council purchased the property and extended it in 1961 to serve as a school for the deaf.