40 AND 41, AIRE STREET (See details for further address information)

LEEDS

SE2933SE WELLINGTON STREET 714-1/77/427 (South side) 22/07/88 Nos.21 AND 23

GV II

Includes: Nos.40 AND 41 AIRE STREET. Clothing factory and warehouse, now shops and offices. Dated 1877-1900, converted C20. For RB Brown and Sons, wholesale clothiers. Steel-framed with brick cladding and ashlar dressings, glazed roof. 6 storeys; 3-bay facade with deep plan to Aire Street. Doric columned portico to right has panelled double door under scrolled transom with dated cartouche and plain fanlight; moulded brick arch with raised ashlar voussoirs under open segmental pediment. Later glazed doors to left; rest of ground floor boarded up. 1st floor: transomed casements in rhythm 4:6:4 divided by panelled wooden pilasters. Above the 2nd floor the facade is fully glazed with casements in same rhythm set between brick piers with raised strips. The central windows terminate under an elliptical arch with keystone while outer bays have twin windows above impost band of central arch. Cornice breaks forward over centre and each pier; parapet with oeil-de-boeuf and ball finials is solid over centre and rises as a shaped open pediment containing ball finial with band. Rear (facing Aire Street): full-height glazing to bays 1 and 2; bay 3 with transomed 5-light lavatory windows. Dentilled brick cornice beneath attic with 13 narrow windows to bays 2 and 3. INTERIOR: internal light-well roofed over at 3rd floor. An impressive and early steel-framed building. In 1906 the 'Great Fire of Leeds' destroyed No.25 and the Great Northern Hotel; contemporary reports describe how the premises of Brown and Son escaped damage: it was comparatively new and arranged 'in the American system' with open floors, fireproof walls, and a small water tank in the roof which fed a sprinkler system. (Directory of Leeds: 1903-; The Leeds and Yorkshire Mercury, 26 July 1906).

Listing NGR: SE2968633399