Permanent House and Headrow Buildings

Permanent House and Headrow Buildings is a shop and office building located on The Headrow in Leeds, constructed between 1930 and 1955. The overall design was created by Sir Reginald Blomfield and GW Atkinson. The building features a combination of Portland stone and red brick with a slate roof, designed in a classical style. It stands four storeys tall with a stepped, four-part facade consisting of 27 windows facing The Headrow. The left side has a nine-window return from 1930, while the right side includes a four-window return to Albion Street and an additional 11-window section added in 1955 to Cookridge Street.

Architectural details include ashlar corner bays, a rusticated ground floor, and round keyed arches over slightly projecting entrance bays. The tall shop windows are located at Nos 44-60, while the ground-floor windows at Nos 70 and 72 were altered in the later 20th century. The building features rectangular windows with metal frames, ashlar architraves on the first floor and entrance bays, segmental pediments, swags, a panelled and balustraded parapet, and urns. A tall carriage arch, supported by columns in antis, connects the two parts of the building over Cross Fountaine Street. The rear of Nos 50-60 showcases giant metal-framed windows with decorative panels on the upper floors.

Inside the Headrow Buildings, there are fine original fittings, including tiled walls in the corridors, marble-lined stairs with a wrought-iron balustrade and brass handrails, service rooms, brass window catches, and black and white stone floors. Historically, the building at the corner of Cookridge Street was opened on 15 May 1930 as the headquarters of the Leeds Permanent Building Society, which was founded in 1848. The uphill range, which corners onto Albion Street, was opened on 3 December 1931 by Mr Charles Lupton, the chairman of the Leeds Corporation Improvements Committee; a plaque in the entrance commemorates this event. This section included nine shops and 89 offices used by the Leeds Electricity Department, Inland Revenue, and Cadbury's. A photograph from 1955 shows the western half of the Cookridge Street range under construction.