Chapel Allerton Library and Police Station

Details

LEEDS

SE3037SE HARROGATE ROAD, Chapel Allerton 714-1/55/577 (East side) 05/08/76 Chapel Allerton Library and Police Station

II

Police station, police house, public library and fire station, now police station and library. 1904. By WH Thorp. Coursed squared gritstone, ashlar details, slate roof. 2 storeys with attics and cellars, a corner site, the police station block occupies the corner with Town Street, the library faces Harrogate Road and the fire station is on Town Street. Library: 3 bays, entrance right with round-arch doorway, bulbous Tuscan columns supporting scrolled open pediment containing cartouche with 'PUBLIC LIBRARY' in raised letters; 4 cross windows to left. First floor: Ionic pilasters between large segmental-arched 3-light windows with segmental stone balconies, 2-light window right. 2 shaped gables with oval attic windows in cartouche surrounds, flanking obelisk finials, tall chimney with diagonal shafts left, tall slender belfry-style boiler flue chimney right with corner pilasters and cornice. Police house: 3 bays to left of the library and defined by the letters 'LCP' on the pilaster. Board door with overlight and segmental pediment, stair window to right, flanking 3-light mullion and transom windows, 3 pedimented 2-light windows to 1st floor, moulded strings and parapet. Police Station: curved corner entrance with 9-panel door, bulbous Tuscan columns supporting segmental pedimented hood containing cartouche with 'POLICE STATION' in painted letters, painted coat of arms above in panel with broken pediment, plain parapet. 2 bays to right (Harrogate Road) with 3- and 2-light mullion and transom windows, Ionic pilasters to 1st floor, gables with oval windows above and copings. Left (Town Street), from right to left: tall 2-bay section with inserted door, 3-light window right, cell block corridor window with iron grille left; 2- and 3-light mullion and transom window to 1st floor, parapet and gable above, tall chamfered stack and a ventilation flue in the form of an ogee-domed cupola. Set back, 3 cell corridor windows and a carriage archway, 4 eight-pane sashes above; engine house entrance far left with glazed double doors, overlight, in ashlar surround with 'FIRE STATION' above and ball finials, 3-light window and tall gable.

INTERIOR: of library: fine details include mosaic floor to entrance hall, tiled walls with 'LPL', stained glass in doors, plasterwork with human masks, original Reading Room, now lending area, with Ionic columns, tiled walls, coved top-lit ceiling. The front room, originally Lending, has a fine cast-iron spiral stair, the balcony above is now under-ceiled. A copy of the original architect's plan is kept at the library. Interior of police house not inspected but the architect's plan shows that this was a police residence (for 4 officers according to the newspaper report of the opening), with entrance stair/hall, kitchen to right with rear scullery off, and parlour opening into the office left. The library was opened by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Mr A Currer Briggs, and was designed by a prominent Leeds architect. WH Thorp also designed the City Art Gallery and Oxford Place Methodist church (qqv).



Listing NGR: SE3054837026

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

465333

Legacy System:

LBS

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