Time Ball Buildings
TIME BALL BUILDINGS, 24, 25 AND 26, BRIGGATE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1255855
- Date first listed:
- 22-Mar-1974
- List Entry Name:
- Time Ball Buildings
- Statutory Address:
- TIME BALL BUILDINGS, 24, 25 AND 26, BRIGGATE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2003-05-18
- Reference:
- IOE01/09461/17
- Rights:
- © Mr Hans Van Lemmen. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1255855
- Date first listed:
- 22-Mar-1974
- List Entry Name:
- Time Ball Buildings
- Statutory Address 1:
- TIME BALL BUILDINGS, 24, 25 AND 26, BRIGGATE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- TIME BALL BUILDINGS, 24, 25 AND 26, BRIGGATE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Leeds (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 30213 33361
Details
LEEDS
SE3033SW BRIGGATE 714-1/78/59 (West side) 22/03/74 Nos.24, 25 AND 26 Time Ball Buildings
GV II*
Houses and shops, now restaurant. Early C19 with elaborate decoration added c1872 (Nos 25 & 26) and c1900 (No.24 and ground floor), restored 1993. Alterations for the firm of J Dyson, watchmaker. Stucco facade, probably slate roof. 3 storeys, 4 windows. Quoins. Nos 25 and 26: 4-pane sashes, in canted bays to first floor; architraves, moulded cornice on console brackets; moulded panels below eaves with raised lettering: 'TIME BALL BUILDINGS'; modillion cornice between large console brackets and surmounted by scrolled finials. Bay windows flank a large pedimented clock case, the face carrying the lettering, 'JOHN DYSON 25 & 26'; elaborate wrought-iron cresting rises above eaves line and includes spiral and palmette motifs as decoration to the overthrow which terminates in a weather vane and frames the shaft and time ball. No.24: added elaborate wooden bay window rises through upper storeys and retains fine curved glass panes at first floor, moulded cornice and small pediment surmounted by small dome topped by a sphere; cantilevered from front of bay is a large clock in frame with ironwork spandrels, letters D & S, TEMPUS FUGIT, and the date, 1865, all surmounted by a figure of Father Time. Ground floor: continuous pilastered shop front, entrances centre and far left. INTERIOR: contains important fittings including ornate panelling, etched missors, counters and shelving plus a mechanism (now relocated) which formerly raised and lowered the window displays, allowing safe storage in the cellar/vaults each night. HISTORICAL NOTE: used by a distiller, saddler and trunk maker, a haircutter and perfumier and a stationer through the C19 until c1869-71 when Boar Lane was being rebuilt and the premises were uninhabited. In 1872 J Dyson, watchmaker, was at No.26; by 1890 the firm occupied the whole of the building. The gilded time ball mechanism was linked to Greenwich and dropped at exactly 1pm each day; this feature, together with the window mechanism, makes Dyson's a rare survival of elaborate Victorian/Edwardian shop innovation and design. (Lingard S, University of Leeds: Index of buildings in Briggate (unpublished thesis)).
Listing NGR: SE3021333361
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 465572
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 08-Jun-2026 at 13:54:10.
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