8, Park Square

SE2933NE 714-1/75/308 26/09/63

LEEDS PARK SQUARE (East side) No.8

GV II

House. 1788-1789, with late C19 and late C20 alterations. By William Hargrave. For William Wilson, gentleman. Red brick, Flemish bond, slate roof. 3 storeys with attic and basement, 5 first-floor windows spaced 2:1:2, the central 3 windows in a very slight projection under a pediment with circular attic window in tympanum. Central entrance with restored wooden doorcase: rusticated jambs, elaborate fluted columns, segmental open pediment, under the pediment old and well preserved woodwork and ornamental festoon of stucco, semicircular fanlight and fielded-panel door. Plate-glass sashes, stone sills and lintels, wedge to ground and first floors, the 2nd-floor window lintels raised and a moulded string between; modillion eaves and pediment cornices. INTERIOR: undergoing extensive alterations at time of review; staircase entirely replaced. Ground-floor front rooms have C19 cast-iron fire grates in stone surrounds; fine round-arched rear stair window with wooden pilastered casing; 1st-floor landing has a wide round arch and 5 rooms opening off, moulded ceiling cornices, panelled window reveals to front rooms. Landing to 2nd floor has similar stair window in plainer moulded surround, cast-iron round-arched fire grates in plain stone surrounds; moulded cornices, service stair rear right has C19 bulbous balusters, column on vase newels with ball finials. The centrepiece and one of the first houses on the east side of Park Square, possibly for a member of the family whose estate was leased out to architect/builders as plots for the construction of houses, some with warehouses and workshops to rear, for cloth merchants and professional people leaving the congested town centre. (Beresford, M: East End, West End: Face of Leeds During Urbanisation 1684-1842: Leeds: 1988-: 164).

Listing NGR: SE2968633709