Pearl Buildings Pearl Chambers

LEEDS

SE2933NE EAST PARADE 714-1/75/163 (East side) 22/03/74 Pearl Chambers

GV II

Includes: No.8 Pearl Buildings SOUTH PARADE. Includes: No.159 THE HEADROW. Premises of the Pearl Assurance Company Limited. 1911. By William Bakewell. In Free Gothic Revival style. Polished granite ground floor of banded rustication, Portland stone, ashlar above, slate roof with 5 narrow stone multiflue stacks and an octagonal ventilation turret with dome, centre. Corner site with The Headrow on left return and South Parade on right; 4 storeys and attic, 5 bays with 3:2:1:2:3 windows to front and 3 bays to right return, 3 bays and 3 storeys with 2 attic storeys to left return. Panelled doors and overlight in elliptical arch to centre of each facade: keyblock and consoles supporting pediment over spandrels and carved panel; ground-floor windows in round-arched openings with keyblocks, voussoirs and squat Ionic half columns. East Parade, upper floors: central and end windows project slightly; end bays have banded pilasters and corbelled octagonal pinnacles; central and end bays have slightly advanced bay windows and balustered balconies on consoles rising through 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors to high stepped and panelled gables with finials; pierced parapet and modillion cornice. Right return similar; the left return has the cornice and balustrade above 2nd floor, central stone plinth with inscription: 'PATRICK JAMES FOLEY/ PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF THE/ PEARL LIFE ASSURANCE CO LIMTD/ EX MP FOR WEST GALWAY' surmounted by a statue; at each end a tall panelled plinth with statue of a seated griffin; 5 flat- and 5 hipped-roofed dormer windows behind. A band at 1st-floor sill level has the name of the offices on each facade: 'PEARL ASSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED' (left return), '1864 PEARL CHAMBERS 1911' (main front) and 'PEARL BUILDINGS' (right return). INTERIOR: not inspected. The building line and details continue through to the Athenaeum building on The Headrow, by the same architect (qv). This building was the first to use Portland stone.

Listing NGR: SE2980833767