133, 135 AND 137, BRIGGATE

Nos. 133, 135, and 137 Briggate is a former Post Office exchange, now used as shop premises, built in 1907 by Percy Robinson. A top storey was added around 1920, and the building has undergone alterations in the 20th century. It features red brick and pink terracotta, with a tiled facade on the top storey, and is five storeys tall with three bays, designed in a Renaissance style.

The ground floor facade may be preserved behind later 20th-century shop fronts. The central bay is narrower and has a round-headed window with three lights on the first floor, while the second and third floors have canted bay windows. The flanking bays on the first and second floors contain three round-arched windows that are slightly recessed behind an ornate facade with tall columns supporting a deep spandrel band decorated with reliefs of figures, swags, and foliage. The third-floor windows are deeply recessed behind a five-arched facade, topped with an entablature and a modillion cornice. Pilasters frame the central bay and corners, and terracotta is used for banded rustication on the first floor.

On the fourth floor, there are three rectangular windows in each bay, with pilasters featuring moulded panels, ball finials at the corners, and a central plaque with swags on the gablet, which has gable screen walls. The interior has not been inspected. Originally, the Exchange Buildings were adapted from a scheme of shops at a cost of £6,000. The principal floor of approximately 3,000 square yards housed the post and telegraph office, telephone boxes, letter boxes, and lockers, with a grocery exchange on the first floor that included a reading room and writing room. The upper two floors were used as offices, and there was a cafe in the basement. By 1920, the building was occupied by FW Woolworth & Co. Percy Robinson also designed Nos. 4, 6, and 8 Duncan Street and Armley Public Library on Stocks Hill.