Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 15/02/2018
SE33NW
714-1/7/1054
LEEDS
Roundhay
ELMETE LANE (West side (off))
Elmete Hall
(Formerly listed as Elmet Hall, ELMET LANE)
II
Large house, later local authority offices of school and hostel for the deaf, now offices. c1815, rebuilt 1865, altered C20. Ashlar and white brick with decorative banding, slate roofs.
Two storeys, an irregular plan and facades with main frontages to west (entrance) and south. Italianate style. Projecting entrance bay is canted, with carved surround to original doorway which is surmounted by an open pediment with shield and scroll with motto: 'PALMAM QUI MERUIT FE...', flanked by putti; date plaque below. Flanking round-headed windows, first-floor oriel, balustraded parapet, corniced stacks. South front, of five bays, the three to right set back, has large canted bay window left, plate-glass sashes with margin lights, architraves, carved stone panels, eaves cornice; balustraded parapet to bays one and four, the latter having a central ornate gablet with a bust of ?Queen Victoria, moulded stack left, and pyramid roof with wrought-iron finial. Bays two and three have plain blocking course with carved gablets, ornate pinnacle over right corner bay. The carved decoration includes scrolls with foliage and medallions with projecting carved portrait heads.
Rear: the present approach to the house is from the service drive and the northern hipped-roof service ranges are of brick, with C20 school additions and alterations. Notable features are the curved wall and dome of the main stair hall and the three-stage tower with red brick banding, small paired windows and round-arched recesses, hipped roof and moulded chimney flanked by single-storey bays with louvres to ridge, possibly the laundry block.
INTERIOR: office partitioning and alterations obscure original room proportions but much fine detailing survives. Ground floor, southwest corner, has a mid C18 Classical white marble fireplace, two six-panel doors in carved surrounds with console brackets, scrolls, pediments; coved ceiling cornice. The inner top-lit staircase hall is circular, with cantilevered stone stair, elaborate cast-iron scrolled balustrade, moulded handrail, ball finials. Round-arched recesses, two doors, arched recesses on first-floor level, three doors. Classical mouldings; a deep cornice below the dome which has finely-moulded ribs, possibly cast-iron, round-arched recesses between, glazed dome with interlaced glazing bars, pink, blue and cream stained glass in abstract scroll and flower patterns. Through this staircase hall, to the east, is a second top-lit stair hall, with Jacobean-style carved wooden fireplace surround, moulded plaster to ceiling and cornice, panelled walls, staircase with twisted balusters, wooden arched screen and balustrade to landing. On the south side of the stair hall, bay three on the south facade, doors missing, a veined white marble fireplace, dado rail, deep moulded frieze with acanthus decoration below moulded ceiling cornice. Upper rooms and service ranges not examined.
HISTORICAL NOTE: James Kitson, the engineer, of Hyde House, Clarendon Road, bought Elmete Hall from the Nicholson family of Roundhay Park for £17,000 in 1865. A house on the site had been built c1815 and the property had been tenanted by Thomas Benyon, flax spinner. John Hawkins Kitson, James' younger son, lived in the rebuilt house until his death in 1899 and his widow died there in 1921. 1921-56 Bertram J Redman, a Leeds furnisher, was in residence; in 1956 it was bought by Leeds City Council and extended 1961 as a school for the deaf.
Listing NGR: SE3387937646
