Queens Arcade

Queens Arcade is a late 19th-century shopping arcade with commercial premises at either end, constructed between 1888 and 1889 by Edward Clark of London. The design incorporates late 18th-century and circa 1880 buildings at the eastern end (Briggate). The arcade is primarily brick, painted on the street frontages, in an English garden wall bond (3:1) at the returns, and has Welsh slate and glass roofing.

The main street frontage on Land’s Lane is three storeys with an attic, arranged over eleven bays symmetrically. Contemporary shop windows fill the ground floor, and the upper floors have bays defined by pilasters with ornate capitals on the first floor. The windows on the first floor are set within bracketed, corniced architraves. A modillion eaves cornice is present, topped by a mansard roof featuring round-cornered attic windows in architraves, with bays defined by projecting party walls.

The Briggate frontage incorporates two earlier properties. On the right is an 18th-century house, now commercial premises of four storeys and five bays. The ground and first floors have been replaced with contemporary shop fronts and windows, while the upper floors retain brick flat-arched windows with stone sills, featuring 6-pane sashes above the second floor. Stacks are present on the front and rear roof pitches, with replacements for vents. To the left is a late 19th-century property of three storeys and three bays, featuring contemporary shop windows on the ground and first floors. The second floor has wide, elliptical-arched, voussoired windows on a sill band, separated by pilasters that carry a cornice. A corniced parapet with raised decorative motifs and a central shaped finial is also present. A stack is located at the left end.

The entrance-way to the arcade is centrally located, dividing the two properties, with a contemporary fascia board above. A clock is mounted on a decorative iron bracket with painted lettering, “Queen’s Arcade”, at the upper level.

The arcade’s main architectural interest lies within the shopping arcade itself. Pilasters with ornate capitals separate the contemporary shop fronts on the ground floor and support corbels that carry a balcony, accessed by stairs at either end of the arcade. The balcony, which steps down to Briggate, has a coloured tile and glass floor and a floral-decorated, iron-panelled, S-section balustrade. A spiral iron stair is located at the east end, leading to a higher level. The first-floor shops have half-glazed doors and large windows with base panels. These are separated by glazed white-brick panels and pilasters with decorative capitals that carry corbels, breaking the cornice and supporting decorative iron roof trusses with intermediate triangulation. The arcade is covered by a shallow-pitched glass roof. The interior has not been inspected, and original architectural drawings are held at Leeds City Archives, Sheepscar.