Town Hall

Town Hall, Leeds, designed by Cuthbert Brodrick with sculptures by John Thomas, built 1853–58 and altered in 1877 by AW Morant, the Borough Surveyor. The building stands on Victoria Square with its principal entrance facing south, while the rear elevation overlooks Great George Street.

The town hall is constructed of millstone grit sourced from approximately seventeen different quarries including Rawdon Hill (for carvings), Sturdy and Pool, with Darley Dale stone from Derbyshire used for many columns. The roof is slate and lead, and the building features Portland stone lions by William Day Keyworth of London, added in 1867.

Architectural Overview

The design is Classical with Baroque elements. The building comprises two storeys over a basement, which is terraced into the sloping ground towards Great George Street. The plan is rectangular with slightly projecting wings on the south, west and east sides, and at the centre of the north side. A central public hall occupies the core, with court rooms and the former council chamber located at the four corners, linked by corridors and offices. Round-arched windows are used throughout.

On each facade, a heavily rusticated basement supports a giant Corinthian order of columns and fluted pilasters. An entablature surmounted by a balustrade with urns runs around the entire building.

South Front

The principal entrance is approached by a wide flight of stone steps flanked by two plinths bearing stone lions. Basement entrances to left and right have giant pedimented lintels and screen walls with paired globe-shaped lamp standards. Ten giant Corinthian columns form a colonnade across the recessed entrance, which consists of three paired doors with ornate grilles below a round-arched tympanum containing a large sculptured group representing Progress, Art and Commerce.

Above the south entrance rises the clock tower, approximately 68.6 metres high. The tower is composed of a deep plinth with rusticated panels, scrolled corner brackets, paterae and a coat of arms. A square colonnade of twenty-one Corinthian columns supports a pulvinated frieze, dentilled cornice, balustrade and urns. Openwork scrolled corner finials flank the clock dials, which are topped by an elongated lead-clad dome with concave sides surmounted by a cupola.

Four ornate ventilation shafts rise above the eaves line. These are square in section with moulded panels featuring corner paterae, a frieze with flowers and swags, segmental pediments and corner urn finials.

Rear (Great George Street)

The rear elevation has nine bays with a cast-iron glazed canopy overlying the central three-arch entrance (originally serving the Civil and Criminal Courts). The outer bays are recessed, and large keystones are carved with mythical heads.

Left Return (Oxford Place)

The central eleven-window range has a round-arched basement entrance in bay two with eight-panel studded two-leaf doors and giant masks carved on the keystones. The five-window flanking bays break forward with giant fluted pilasters. Area railings with double gates are massive, featuring close-set rails and spearhead finials.

Right Return (Calverley Street)

This elevation is similar to the Oxford Place front with a central entrance, divided steps and a screen wall with rusticated plinth, cast-iron openwork panels and paired globe lamp standards.

Interior: Ground Floor

Important surviving features include wall lamps with glass orbs flanking three pairs of bronze glazed doors leading to the south vestibule, Minton floor tiles, fluted giant pilasters, a marble statue of Queen Victoria by Noble, and a statue of Prince Albert.

The Victoria Hall has paired columns in antis with rams' heads and owls in the capitals. The barrel vault features painted and moulded panels with mottos including 'Industry Overcomes All Things' and 'God in the Highest'. The organ was designed by Smart and William Spark (organist to St George's church) and built by Messrs Grey and Davisson, with ornament by Matthews and Crace. The orchestra was remodelled in 1904 by James Barlow Fraser. The gallery at the south end, originally very small (possibly a royal box) and carried on large console brackets, was extended in 1877, first as a bowed gallery filling the rear bay, later as a concave gallery front filling two bays.

The north vestibule has three sets of paired glazed doors with openwork gilded panels, an inner row of round arches opening to a corridor with a moulded vaulted ceiling, cornice, panelled doors and reveals. Statues of Robert Hall MP (1857 by Dennis Lee) and Edward Baines MP are present.

The Calverley Street entrance has double panelled doors with brass handles, and two brass wall plaques commemorating the opening of the building by Queen Victoria on 7 September 1858 and the conferral of city status in 1893.

The Albert Room, the former Council Room in the south-east corner, is richly detailed with dado moulding, paired fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals and owls, a frieze of scrolls and rams' head masks, and a coved ceiling with a glazed top-light in the form of a low dome featuring painted glass in blue and yellow. A gallery at the west end has had its fittings removed.

The Borough Court, now Court Number 3 (south-west corner), has pedimented door cases, Corinthian pilasters, dentilled cornice, coved ceiling, and a top light with a central glazed panel and ventilator pendant. The canopy over the judge's bench features egg-and-dart moulding. The dock and wooden fittings appear original. The gallery has a cast-iron balustrade with flower motifs and wooden handrail, and moulded tiles on the rear wall.

The former Civil Court, now Court Number 2 (north-east corner), was fitted up in 1863 and has an inserted ceiling, but paired pilasters and roll mouldings are visible in the office above. Panelled partitions in the well of the court appear original. The bowed gallery front has moulded balusters, flower and leaf motifs, moulded wooden handrail, and stepped bench seating.

The former Criminal Court (possibly Crown Court), now Court Number 1 (north-west corner), was damaged by fire in 1991. It has a fine carving of the royal arms over the east entrance; the interior was not inspected at the time of listing.

Corridors are lined with decorative tiles added in 1877. Cantilevered stone staircases at the north and south ends of the west corridor and the north end of the east corridor have cast-iron balustrades with moulded wood handrails and elaborate cast-iron paired security gates positioned mid-way up. A staircase down to the basement on the east side of the hall consists of two flights with cast-iron openwork scrolled panels and a wooden handrail. A concealed spiral stair east of the south vestibule rises through the full height of the building, is oval in plan, and has plain square-section balusters.

The remaining ground-floor rooms retain original features including marble fireplaces, panelled window reveals and plasterwork.

Basement

The large room beneath the Victoria Hall has cast-iron columns supporting the floor above and an inserted ceiling. The west side of the plan was occupied by the bridewell; original cell partition walls at the north end have been removed, but steps up to the court room remain intact. The centre corridor is original, though rooms have been partitioned. At the south end, some small cells remain under the entrance colonnade area. They have substantial board doors and probably date from the 1867 alterations to the front following the decision to move the West Riding Court of Assize to Leeds. The east side of the building is occupied by kitchens.

Main Roof

The roof demonstrates innovative use of laminated wood beams, each consisting of twelve planks of nine inches by one-and-a-half inches held by wrought-iron bolts, spanning the approximately twenty-two-metre width. This is thought to be the first example in wood, taken from the designs of the Crystal Palace (Paxton, 1850–51) and Kings Cross station (Cubitt, 1851–54).

Historical Context

A competition judged by Sir Charles Barry awarded first prize to Brodrick, to design a town hall with public hall, corporate offices and courts of justice at a cost of thirty-five thousand pounds. Foundations were laid on 17 August 1855, though the exact use for all parts of the building was still not entirely clear. The contractor was Samuel Atack. Problems arose from the architect's determination to see the scheme through "whatever the cost" while Atack was unable to find an adequate margin of resources and went bankrupt in March 1857. Contractors for the tower and interior work were Addy and Nicholls. The Council made alterations to the layout of rooms throughout the work.

The tower was added in 1856 following a suggestion by Barry, and the clock was installed in 1858. The ventilator towers followed extensive discussion and study and were copied elsewhere. Barry, Hardwick and Paxton all visited the site while work was in progress. The organ was installed in 1858 and was regarded as the "crowning glory"; town halls elsewhere followed suit. The coal cellars were constructed in 1863, and painting and cleaning throughout, including the Hall, took place in 1864. In 1867, Brodrick suggested that a larger skylight be installed in each of the courts. The final cost of the building was one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds.

The arrangement of rooms reflects the four main uses of the Town Hall: police cells and offices in the basement area on the south and west sides; ground-floor court rooms for the borough, criminal and civil courts in the south-west, north-west and north-east corners, with court rooms, jury rooms and other offices on the ground and first-floor corridors between; the ground-floor council room in the south-east corner, with town clerk's offices, mayoral and committee rooms on the east side ground and first floors; and the central public hall, approximately forty-nine metres by twenty-two metres and twenty-three metres high, with a south gallery and north stage with apsidal recess housing the organ. The basement also housed the kitchens (east side) and a public meeting/refreshment room beneath the central hall, together with boiler rooms and organ blowers. The south entrance with its elaborate vestibule was ceremonial, while the north entrance served more official purposes.