John Taylor Teachers Centre

Details

LEEDS

SE2835NW HEADINGLEY LANE, Headingley 714-1/64/769 (South West side) 05/02/87 No.53 John Taylor Teachers' Centre

GV II

Formerly known as: Spring Bank HEADINGLEY LANE Headingley. House, now teachers' centre. c1857. By John Fox. For Robert Ellershaw; additions and alterations 1877-78 by CR Chorley for James Kitson and 1885-6 by William Thorp for William Harvey. C20 alterations. Rock-faced sandstone with gritstone dressings; graduated Welsh slate roof. Originally L-shaped in plan, entrance on S front, with bay extension at SE corner and large 1885-6 addition in NW angle. In Jacobethan style. 2 storeys with basement/cellar and attics. Plinth; quoins; mullioned and transomed windows, those of original build with stopped hoodmoulds; 1st-floor string; curvilinear shaped gables with ashlar coping and finials; offset, quoined chimneys with multiple octagonal flues. 4-bay entrance front has single-storey castellated buttressed porch to bay 2 with moulded pointed-arched entrance, decorative tessellated floor and inner 4-panel double door in quoined surround; single-light window above; external stack to left bay; bay 3 projecting slightly under gable with 4-light window under 3-light oriel (both later) and single-light attic window; 1877-8 two-storey castellated bay on right with 3-light under 2-light window. Garden front (left return) 4 bays, the 2 on left being additions of 1885-6; of these the left bay has segmental-arched moulded doorway under squat window with blind, ogee-arched, top lights, on left of transomless 2-light window with 3-light window above; the gabled right bay projects slightly, having 6 lights to ground floor, the central pair flanked by attached pilasters which support oriel. Original right-hand bays, the right bay projecting under gable having 2-storey castellated bay window, now with door on ground floor and without mullions and transoms, single-light attic window; wider left bay has added ashlar castellated canted bay window with steps down to central door, on 1st-floor former 3-light window flanked by single-light windows, roof dormer. Rear: 4 bays stepping forward, 2 under gables; 2 oriels. Right return: 3 bays, added bay projecting on left, right-hand bays

stepping forward under gables, right one possibly an addition. INTERIOR: surviving from the first build are the wooden, closed-string, open-well stair with octagonal balusters and castellated newels; 4-panel doors, in principal rooms with bolection-moulded architraves and pulvinated friezes; panelling; moulded cornices, some with egg-and-dart motifs (these possibly later). c1880 work by A Heaton in hall and principal rooms including Adam-style decorative plasterwork to soffits and jambs of various arches and openings. 1885-86 work includes fine painted- and stained-glass stair window and lantern and porch overlight by Messrs Powell Bros; and also the very fine tiled fireplaces in the principal rooms, the tiles by William de Morgan, an associate of William Morris et al. There are 5 fireplaces in all, having polished stone fenders, iron grates, and elaborate wood and stone architraves, the tiles being of different colour-schemes and with different themes, in the former breakfast room (front left) pink-on-white animal, bird and flower designs; in former dining room (rear left) green-on-white ships and ferny flowers; in former drawing room (front right) blue, and green-on-white foliage with peacock and lizard side panels; in stair hall red-on-white leaf patterns with sunflower frieze in architrave; in former principal bedroom (1st floor, front right) sunflowers, the architrave with panel of dancing children. Originally called Spring Bank, from c1871-85 this was the home of James Kitson, later Lord Airedale, locomotive manufacturer, leader of Leeds Liberal Association and 1st Lord Mayor of Leeds 1896-97, Gladstone staying here in 1881. Kitson was followed by William Harvey, a notable local Quaker, 1885-92; and then by Charles F Tetley, of the brewing company, a Conservative and Lord Mayor in 1897. (The Architect, May 28th: 1886-: 327; Gazzard, M: Decorated tiles by William De Morgan at Springbank, Headingley: 2; Lackey, R: Quality Pays: The Story of Joshua Tetley & Son: 1985-: 121-122; Marshall, J: A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers: 1978-: 135).



Listing NGR: SE2811035786

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

465386

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gazzard, M, Decorated Tiles by William De Morgan at Springbank Headingley, (), 2
Lackey, R, Quality Pays The Story of Joshua Tetley and Son, (1985), 121-122
Marshall, J, A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers, (1978), 135
The Architect in 28 May, (1886), 327

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