Permanent House And Headrow Buildings

LEEDS

SE2933NE THE HEADROW 714-1/75/389 (North side) 11/04/95 Nos.44-72 (Even) Permanent House and Headrow Buildings

GV II

Shop and office building. 1930-31 and 1955. Overall design by Sir Reginald Blomfield and GW Atkinson. Portland stone and red brick, slate roof. Classical style. 4 storeys, stepped 4-part 27-window facade to The Headrow, left 9-window return of 1930 and a further 11-window addition of 1955 to Cookridge Street and right 4-window return to Albion Street. Ashlar corner bays, rusticated ground floor, round keyed arches to slightly projecting entrance bays, tall shop windows to Nos 44-60, ground-floor windows to Nos 70 & 72 altered later C20. Rectangular windows with metal frames, ashlar architraves to first floor and entrance bays, segmental pediments, swags, panelled and balustraded parapet, urns. A tall carriage arch surmounted by columns in antis, entablature and parapet links the 2 parts of the building over Cross Fountaine Street. Rear, Nos 50-60: giant metal-framed windows with decorative panels to upper floors. INTERIOR: Headrow Buildings; fine original fittings include tiled walls to corridors, marble-lined stairs, with wrought-iron balustrade and brass handrails, service rooms, brass window catches, black and white stone floors. HISTORICAL NOTE: the building on the corner with Cookridge Street was opened on 15 May 1930 as the headquarters of the Leeds Permanent Building Society (founded 1848); the uphill range, with corner to Albion Street, was opened on 3 December 1931 by Mr Charles Lupton, chairman of the Leeds Corporation Improvements Committee; a plaque in the entrance records the event. The latter consisted of 9 shops and 89 offices used by the Leeds Electricity Department, Inland Revenue, and Cadbury's. A photograph taken in 1955 (Heap, p.17) shows the western half of the Cookridge Street range under construction. (Heap, A: The Headrow, a pictorial record: Leeds: 1990-: 17, 23).

Listing NGR: SE3002033807