Details
LEEDS
SE3033NW COMMERCIAL STREET
714-1/76/126 (North side)
19/10/51 Nos.16-20 (Consecutive)
including Leeds Library (No.18)
GV II*
Private library premises above shops. 1808. By Thomas Johnson;
alterations 1821-36 by RD Chantrell, entrance moved and New
Room by Thomas Ambler added 1879-81, alterations c1900.
3 storeys and basement, 6 first-floor windows; ground-floor
shops, first-floor library rising in part through the
2nd-floor level. Greek Revival style.
Rusticated arcaded ground floor of 5 segmental arches divided
by piers, the central archway leading to the Library entrance
hall. Above each pier is an Ionic pilaster extending through 2
storeys and supporting entablature, heavy eaves cornice and
blocking course. 5 tall 24-pane sash windows with glazing bars
on 1st floor have moulded architraves, moulded cornices and
panelled sills. 2nd floor: 5 square 12-pane sashes in moulded
architraves. Narrow round-arch passageway on left with tall
narrow sash above.
INTERIOR: library: the entrance hall (No.18) has tiled floor,
reception desk and book lift, door to basement beneath
staircase of 3 straight flights with cast-iron balustrade of
scrolled openwork panels with wooden handrail and brass lamp
base; walls of hall and staircase lined with possibly later
black and yellow tiling, (although wall or floor tiling was
approved in 1881, see 'The Leeds Library' p.85). First-floor
level marked by fine plasterwork frieze, 2 niches with
pilasters and impost moulding, banded rustication to walls,
decorative frieze with plaques alternating with squat
pilasters, coved ceiling and lantern.
Glazed double doors with flanking lights also by Ambler open
into the original library room of 1808: walls lined with
probably original shelving have fluted pilasters to casing,
later shelving inserted above; blocked west door shelved on
both sides 1881; some free-standing shelving units have wheels
and are possibly original; reeded moulding to ceiling cornice.
Gallery: east side and spiral stair with cast-iron
balustrading of slender rails and semicircles by RD Chantrell,
1821; north and west sides 1836, same architect, in both cases
the carpentry was by Norton and Shuttleworth (including wooden
brackets supporting north wall gallery) and the ironwork by T
Nelson; the 2 'sunlight' gaslight fittings with large (now
painted) reflector plates and ventilators in the ceiling were
supplied by the Leeds New Gas Company in 1853 and are a rare
survival; extra shelving was installed in 1870, including the
spaces above the windows in the gallery; the staff counter has
panelled sides and curved corners and probably predates the
1880 reordering of the building; the west spiral stair was
added in 1990. Shelving in the 2nd-floor 'Smoke Room' (earlier
the Bindery) has a similar moulding to that in the main room.
The New Room lies to the north and is parallel with the
original library room; 2 pairs of panelled cast-iron doors
lead from the main range into this extension which includes
the Committee room/librarian's office at the east end and a
book hoist and stone stair from the basement at the west;
original features include shelving, panelled doors, and marble
fireplace and fittings to the Librarian's office which retains
the original coved ceiling with egg-and-dart moulding partly
removed from the main section when the gallery was installed
in 1900: CR Chorley, architect, ironwork with scrolled and
wavy rails and spiked ball finials by James Allen and Son, the
original stairs replaced in 1906 by the wooden stair with fine
turned column on vase style balusters with ball finials.
Other features of interest include: basement book store below
early C19 front range: stone walls, arches supporting
projection beneath street to south, doorway and window with
side-sliding sash on the north, probably the original entrance
to one of the row of basement houses along the rear of the
ground-floor shops; timber cross beams; fire-proof floor
construction to warehouse and upper floor New Room range,
original roof structure visible at west end, outer roof
structure of New Room, of cast-iron with tension straps and
copper wires fastening the slates.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the Leeds Library was founded in 1768 behind
the bookshop in Kirkgate of Joseph Ogle, the first librarian.
Joseph Priestley was its first secretary and second president.
In 1781 the books were transferred to new premises in the
former town house of Sir James and Sir Henry Ibbetson, also in
Kirkgate. In 1806 it was decided to buy the plot of land 'in
the new road about to be constructed from Briggate to Albion
Street' where the present building stands. The Library retains
its important archive relating to its history, building plans
and construction.
(The Leeds Library 1768-1968: Privately printed: 1968-;
Thoresby Society; Miscellanea: Beckwith, F: The Beginnings of
the Leeds Library: PART II).
Listing NGR: SE3010433559
