Details
LEEDS
SE2934SW CLARENDON ROAD
714-1/73/120 (South West side)
08/05/73 No.23
Claremont, with garden wall to
Clarendon Road and Kendal Lane
(Formerly Listed as:
CLARENDON ROAD
(South West side)
No.23
Claremont, including garden wall to
east along Clarendon Road and Kendal
Lane)
II
House, now offices, with boundary wall. Late C18 with later
alterations and additions, the most important in 1856 by
George Corson for Dr John Deakin Heaton. Red brick, Flemish
bond, slate hipped and stone roofs.
2 storeys over cellars, almost square plan with a much-altered
service range attached to the rear left corner. South front:
1:3:1 windows, centre projects slightly with pediment over
containing circular window. Central porch with glazed double
doors, Tuscan 3/4 columns and pediment; the single-storey,
2-window bay built out to right has a carved plaque with coat
of arms between the windows. 4-pane sashes, flat brick arches,
continuous sill band to 1st floor, round bosses between.
Modillion eaves cornice, tall banded brick stacks to left and
right.
Left return: 4 bays, a wide 6-panel door with traceried
fanlight to left, 16-pane sash with margin lights, sash with
glazing bars and a single-storey square bay-windowed extension
to far right; 4 sashes with glazing bars and a blind window to
first floor.
Right return: 6-panelled door with traceried overlight to
right, 2 large bay windows to ground floor left, one canted
and with HFH, MH, 1856, and LH in the spandrels, the other one
square, 16-pane sash far right; 7 sash windows of 12 and 16
panes to first floor, the outer ones on canted corners (the
right-hand window blind). Sill band and modillion cornice as
front.
INTERIOR: the C18 plan is of a cross corridor with service
entrances surviving; Dr Heaton's alterations were recorded by
him in a diary. The porch floor of polychrome tiles has the
words 'SALVETE AMICI' and 'VALETE AMICI'; half-glazed inner
double doors with stained glass in the fanlight; Heaton coat
of arms with the date 1856, initials and motto, 'esse quam
videre', inner shutters to upper half of doors. Above the
inner doors is an over-painted stone plaque with the motto,
'THOU LORD ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY'.
The entrance hall has polychrome Minton floor tiles laid in
1867, doorways left and right with 6 fielded-panel doors,
egg-and-dart mouldings. A wide round arch opens into the
stone-flagged staircase hall containing a cantilevered stair
of 3 flights, knopped balusters, fluted terminal, ramped
handrail, column balusters to landing balustrade. Style and
roof structure suggest that the staircase is later than the
original house, c1770. 2 circular vents with shutters were
inserted by Dr Heaton; the oval top light has a frieze and
wreaths of oak leaves. To the rear a service stair with
bulbous column-on-vase balusters and ramped handrail.
Principal rooms contain features introduced by Dr Heaton and
the Yorkshire Archaeological and Thoresby Societies. Ground
floor, front left: drawing room altered to dining room by
Heaton, now lecture room: 1740 doorcase from Scarcroft Grange
given to YAS in 1955, C19 fireplace (a Classical copy),
flanking recesses of 1859 with panels of Minton tiles. Behind
this room a storeroom altered to butler's pantry by Heaton,
behind again the old kitchen/servants' hall with sliding
shutters to window, probably 1849, the C18 Classical wooden
fire surround from the original front drawing room; shelves
and furnishings in these rear rooms 1925 by Kitson, Parish and
Ledgard, adapted from the YAS's earlier premises.
Ground floor, front right: the original dining room altered to
drawing room by Heaton, moulded ceiling cornice, E bay window
1856, S recesses with interlaced strapwork (Corson 1865) and
set of Minton tiles representing the seasons (1871).
The middle room on the E side of the house is now the Heaton
Room with YAS Archives section, this was Heaton's library, the
oak fireplace was found in the basement in 1968. The rear
right room is octagonal, with a fireplace removed from the
library in 1867; behind this fireplace a 'safe' room is
entered from the doorway to left of the fireplace.
First floor: the 3 south rooms now occupied by the Thoresby
Society contain 2 Adam-style marble fireplaces from
Osmondthorpe Hall (Whitkirk) acquired by the Society in 1925
and moved from their earlier premises in 1967; the carving is
said to be by John Flaxman. The 16-pane sash windows on the
first floor were taken from the ground floor when the bay
windows were inserted.
The rear service range contained stables and brewhouse,
rebuilt by Heaton and remodelled as student accommodation mid
C20.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: boundary wall, C18 with rebuilding on
Clarendon Road 1991. Red brick, stone coping. Linked to the
rear service wing, it extends along Kendal Lane, the original
N boundary of the Claremont estate, ramped down from approx 5m
to 3m high. 2 further ramps (rebuilt) at the Clarendon Road
corner reduce the wall to approx 2m.
HISTORICAL NOTE: see Payne, 1980. Dr Heaton was a physician at
the Leeds General Infirmary and first chairman of the Council
of the Yorkshire College of Science, later the University of
Leeds.
(Payne, B & Payne, D: Claremont, Leeds: Leeds: 1980-).
Listing NGR: SE2922034103
