The Town and Country Club (The O2 Academy)

The Town and Country Club (The O2 Academy) is a theatre, now a music venue, built in 1885 by William Bakewell. The building is constructed of ashlar to the front facade, with brick to the sides and rear, and has a slate roof. It is designed in the Gothic Revival style with a four-bay front. The central entrance is an arch enriched with carved foliage, featuring carved panels displaying the shields of principal Yorkshire towns. Above the entrance is a large rose window, and the parapet is panelled with a statue of Britannia at its apex. Lower flanking bays have panelled double doors set within round arches, with stained glass in the fanlight above. Paired and single round-arched stair windows are located above these doors, along with three-light windows featuring plate tracery and a balustraded balcony to the upper floor. The bays are divided by corbelled buttresses with finials. Gabled outer wings have altered entrances. The interior has been significantly altered, with changed floor levels, removed seating, and opened-up to the roof, so original features are no longer visible. Historically, the building, originally named the Coliseum Theatre, was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales and described as 'one of the finest in the north of England'. It was once the property of Taylor’s Drug Company Ltd. The Coliseum served as a venue for political meetings and was a site for protests by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), including an incident in 1907 involving disruption during a speech, and a demonstration in 1908 that resulted in an arrest. Further protests took place in 1913 involving mounted police and damage to adjacent buildings. The building subsequently became a Gaumont cinema in 1928, then rehearsal rooms and workshops for Leeds Playhouse, before being redeveloped as a nightclub and later a music venue in 2008. The listing was revised in 2018 as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.