Parkinson Building Including Brotherton Library Chemistry And Engineering And Wall

University buildings on Woodhouse Lane, comprising the Parkinson Building, Brotherton Library, Chemistry and Engineering Building, and attached wall. Built in phases between 1929 and 1950.

The complex was designed in 1929 by Lanchester and Lodge for the University of Leeds. The Chemistry and Engineering building opened in 1932, the Brotherton Library in 1936, and the Parkinson Building (named after patron F Parkinson) in 1950. The principal facades are clad in Portland stone; other facades use brick with ashlar dressings.

The Parkinson Building faces east onto Woodhouse Lane and comprises three main storeys with basement and a recessed two-storey attic surmounted by a clock tower. Behind it sits the three-storey circular domed Brotherton Library, with the three-storey Chemistry and Engineering Building attached to the north. All principal facades feature a ground-floor band, a dentilled first-floor cornice decorated with animal heads, and a plainer second-floor cornice with band and parapet to the attic. Windows throughout are metal-framed with transoms and margin glazing bars.

The Parkinson Building's east front is symmetrically arranged in 9:5:9 bays. The rusticated basement rises to a centre block projecting forward with four giant fluted Ionic columns in antis, reached by a full-width flight of steps. Within this portico are three glazed doors with panelled reveals, with windows flanking and above. The basement windows are segmental-arched in raised surrounds with tripartite keystones. On the ground floor, alternate windows have apron panels and bracketed pediments. The attic windows are smaller with panels below and between, with blind sections at either end. A seven-bay section breaks forward to flank the clock tower. The clock tower rises in four stepped stages: the tall lower stage has angle pilasters, a window at its base, and a clock face at top; the second and third stages have three-light mullioned windows and cornices; a blind fourth stage is surmounted by a pyramidal cap. The four-bay returns each have a giant distyle in antis, with a recessed end bay containing stair windows lined on lower floors and in a round-arched keyed surround on the second floor; the left return also features a basement porch with panelled door.

Set back from the main elevation and matching its style are four bays on the left and fifteen bays on the right (Chemistry and Engineering), the latter featuring a central nine-bay break. Steps rise to a central panelled double door under a traceried overlight in a corniced architrave. Above the door is a recess and cross window in a pulvinated architrave with a foliage-decorated sill.

The north front (Chemistry and Engineering) comprises on the left twenty-one bays in the same style, followed by a plainer six-bay section and an eight-bay range set back. The left part presents a symmetrical 5:1:9:1:5 bay arrangement, successively breaking forward to culminate in a central nine-bay bow featuring giant Ionic pilasters and traceried windows. The second floor is blind and forms the parapet; flanking bays have giant angle pilasters and architraves to ground-floor windows. The plainer range to the right has a projecting entrance bay with rusticated basement, a giant round-arched through-way with voussoirs aligned to courses, flanking pedestrian entrances, and a tripartite attic window. The rightmost range breaks forward and continues in brick.

An attached low stone wall fronts the building, stepping up the hill with flat coping and short circular piers.

The interior contains good contemporary fittings throughout, principally in the Parkinson Building and Brotherton Library. The former features a long two-storey entrance hall with Hopton Wood limestone panels and gallery, with imperial stairs at either end. Giant polished stone fluted columns support a Classical entablature with modillion cornice. The ceiling is coffered with decorative borders and elaborate finned lights. The Brotherton Library interior features twenty columns of Swedish green marble, each composed of three drums weighing three tons each, with composite bronze capitals and bases. A modillion cornice supports the gallery, which has a coffered underside, decorative iron balustrade, and radial bookcases. The dome is coffered with small glazed lights around the centre and features elaborate finned lights.