The Mansion Hotel

The Mansion Hotel, formerly known as Roundhay Park Mansion, is a large mansion house built by 1826 and altered in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It was designed by John Clark for Thomas Nicholson and is constructed in a Neoclassical style using ashlar stone with a slate roof. The main block is two storeys high and comprises seven bays. The central three bays feature an impressive portico with four large, fluted Ionic columns supporting a pediment. Corner pilasters extend the full height of the building. An entablature with a cornice and parapet tops the façade. Sash windows with glazing bars are present, with ground-floor French casements. A two-storey, five-bay service wing extends to the rear. The left return elevation has six bays, with a recessed entrance bay featuring Ionic columns supporting a flat-roofed porch and a moulded cornice; a segmental bay with margin lights is to the right. Bays one and two project forward, and the left end features a two-window wing with a mid-19th century conservatory built into the angle. This conservatory has five bays and a canted, three-bay west end with round-arched bays and two roof ventilators. The right return has five windows and an entrance with an Ionic porch and flanking pilasters, with a segmental bay to the left.

The interior entrance on the east side opens onto a lobby with an arched niche to the right, and a wide segmental-arched doorway featuring fluted Ionic pilasters and a fan motif in the tympanum. Beyond this is a staircase hall containing a stone cantilevered staircase with an ornate wrought-iron lattice balustrade and a moulded wooden handrail. An elliptical dormer window above the oval glazed well has an Adam-style cornice and ceiling rose, and a large brass chandelier. On the landing, segmental-arched doorways have fluted pilasters and Ionic capitals. Ground-floor front rooms, now a restaurant, retain original fireplaces. The conservatory showcases five elaborate roof trusses with iron tension bars and pendants. First-floor rooms include one with a bowed bay window, a reeded fireplace surround, and a moulded dado rail; another has fluted architraves, Ionic capitals, and segmental arches, but no surviving fireplace; and west-facing rooms retain two marble fireplaces with fluted decoration.

Historically, Roundhay Park was sold in 1803 and Thomas Nicholson began the house’s construction. Following William Nicholson’s death in 1868, the estate was purchased by John Barran for Leeds Corporation, with plans to retain 150 acres as parkland and sell the remainder for housing.