Gledhow Manor

Gledhow Manor, now a home for the elderly, is a large house built in 1903 on Gledhow Lane, Chapel Allerton, Leeds. It was designed by the architectural firm FW Bedford and SD Kitson for Major Bagnal, proprietor of Kirkstall Forge. The building was formerly known as the Red House, and the listing includes No. 19 Allerton Park.

The house is constructed with a plinth of axe-faced Hopton Wood stone, walls of one and three-quarter inch Woodville sand-faced bricks laid in Flemish bond with Ancaster stone dressings, and roofed in Arfon American red slates. The portico columns are of Hopton Wood stone with a pecked face. The hall mantelpiece is of various-coloured Derbyshire marbles.

The building is two storeys with a square plan, and comprises three bays to the south front with an L-shaped rear wing to the north-east enclosing a small courtyard. It is designed in Queen Anne Revival style. The central three-window bay features a single-storey semicircular portico with paired Ionic columns in antis and paired panelled doors. Above this is a fanlight with glazing bars flanked by small-pane windows with similar fanlights. The first-floor windows are small-pane metal casements with original fittings in keyed eared architraves. The projecting outer bays have quoins and full-height canted bay windows with five by three-pane sashes in flush wood frames at ground floor and glazing bars to the first floor, with moulded stone sills. Stone bands mark the window sill and lintel levels. A deep wooden modillion eaves cornice, hipped roof, and tall corniced end brick stacks complete the south elevation. Fire-escape doors have been inserted on the first floor of the outer bays to provide access to a walkway across the lead roof of the portico.

The rear elevation features a large round-arched stair window with glazing bars at its centre and small-paned windows elsewhere. The service wing is designed in a more cottage style with slightly smaller bricks; ground-floor windows have brick soldier arches and upper-floor windows are dormers with shallow segmental pediments beneath a deep overhanging bracketed eaves cornice.

The left return consists of four uneven bays with a projecting drawing-room chimney stack to the right balanced by a projecting three-window bay of the library to the left, four schoolroom windows between, and a narrow single-window bay of the laboratory at the far left.

The right return has five uneven bays. The main house facade features a central pedimented three-window bay for the dining room which breaks forward slightly; the stone sill and lintel bands are carried across the narrow, slightly projecting hipped pantry bay to the right and the service block, which breaks forward again, with three kitchen and larder windows having segmental arches and dormers above.

The interior has undergone very little alteration to the original plan and decorative scheme. The outer hall features glazed double doors with overlight flanked by a glazed screen with Art Nouveau stained glass and lunette windows to cloakrooms left and right. The hall is full-height and galleried, with original features including a fireplace on the east wall with brass upper screen, tiles, and a marble surround in an eared architrave; pilasters and a segmental moulded arch to the staircase on the north side; and two-panel doors in moulded surrounds with vernacular-style stepped moulding featuring carved fruit and foliage and a moulded cornice to the doorheads.

The staircase and gallery have panelled sides to the first rise of stairs between storerooms, with a divided stair above featuring column-on-vase balusters and a ramped mahogany handrail. A similar balustrade fronts the gallery, which is reached through fluted Ionic columns in antis. Round arches to bedrooms and corridors feature secondary doors with fanlights. The ceiling has deep moulded cornicing and a square glazed top light with circular flower pattern in stained glass, with probably original light fittings at the corners.

On the ground floor to the left, the drawing room is accessed through triple doors and retains a fireplace of grey marble in an arched alcove with a moulded ceiling cornice. The schoolroom retains a ceiling frieze, though its fireplace has been sealed off. The library and rear room, formerly the laboratory, have been altered with inserted partitions and a window converted to a door. The lavatory retains blue and green glazed tiles and now opens off the former library, though it originally opened from the store next to the stairs. The ground floor to the right includes a morning room with a corner fireplace, panelled dado and overmantel, and a swagged ceiling cornice. Wooden floors are laid to the main rooms and small quarry tiles to the service corridor, which contains the service staircase, now screened off.

The first floor maintains the original plan of principal bedrooms flanking a dressing room on the south side of the house, a nursery wing to the north-west, and servants' accommodation to the north-east, with bathrooms flanking the stair well. The bathrooms retain original blue tiling and some plumbing; the principal bedrooms have ceiling cornices and blocked fireplaces, whilst the corner fireplace in the front right bedroom has a moulded surround intact.

The nursery wing is accessed from a door on the west side of the gallery, opening into a corridor with three rooms; the central room has a fireplace surround in Classical style with four dancing figures on the central plaque, and the south room has original panelled linen cupboards. The servants' wing is entered from a door on the east side of the gallery, with attic stairs rising from the bedroom lobby on the right.

The original heating system with ornate moulded radiators remains in most rooms. Major Bagnal's requirements of the architects were to design a large hall with top light suitable for displaying a collection of prints, with a number of small sitting rooms opening off the hall, and care was taken to avoid making any of the bedroom doors open off the gallery.