Gledhow Hall

Details

LEEDS

SE3137SE GLEDHOW LANE, Gledhow 714-1/57/696 (South side) 22/09/75 Gledhow Hall

II*

Mansion, now flats. Completed shortly after 1766, by John Carr for John Beckett; altered and extended for James Kitson, Lord Airedale c1885-1890 by architects Chorley and Connon. Ashlar; hipped slate and lead roofs, tall corniced stack to ridge between bays 1 and 2, to left end, and rear of ridge left and right; balustered parapet, cornices, chamfered quoins. 2 storeys over cellars. West front has 2 two-storey canted bays and 3 windows between, all sashes without glazing bars, in moulded architraves. Central paired glazed doors with overlight, Gibbs surround and pediment, 4 stone steps with nosed treads. Rear: late C19 work: 3 bays of 3,4,3 windows, the outer 3-window bays project; entrance in left bay with 2 pairs of decorated Ionic columns in antis forming a loggia with white marble paving; central bay has 4-pane sashes, bay window left; paired and single sashes to right bay; service block recessed right. Left return: the large C19 service block projects on left; the main house has a corner entrance porch with Tuscan columns, glazed door with overlight, a finely-detailed oriel window to 1st floor, centre, has acanthus, egg-and-dart, and fluted decoration below paired windows (modern frames), cornice above; to left are the paired segmental-arched bathroom and toilet windows; to right an external stack with stepped corniced stages and tall flue. INTERIOR: entrance through the rear loggia: architrave to recessed doorway, carved scroll to entablature, shallow triangular pediment with winged cherub holding shield inscribed 'SALVE'; paired half-glazed panelled doors, fine stained glass with fruit and butterfly motifs, damaged. Entrance hall: mosaic floor with scrolled pattern in black and brown. Doorways have architraves, hallway has later partitions (for flats), panelled dado and mouldings, some reset. Stone cantilevered stairs, wrought-iron scrolled balustrade, mahogany handrail; partitioned top-lit stair well retains 8 fine lunette windows, each with stained glass representing foliage, flowers and fruit framing a central coloured panel of translucent stone or stained glass, painted glass borders with ferns, scrolls etc. 1st floor, NW side, the very fine tiled bathroom of c1885

designed by Chorley and Connon for Mr Kitson: 2 panelled mahogany doors, one into a shallow cupboard, carved walnut segmental panel over, moulded tiled walls in brown, blue and white, dado, moulded rail, arcaded walls, imposts with scrolls and masks, cornice, scrolled frieze, dentilled cornice. The ceiling also tiled in a strapwork design incorporating 3 diamond-shaped vents; the fireplace in the E wall is bolection moulded with scrolls and swags below a dentilled pediment. Next to the bathroom the toilet is similarly decorated with tiled walls, the windows have fine stained glass with bird motifs. Ground-floor rooms not examined but reputed to retain fine interior fittings of the C18 and C19. Lord Airedale (1835-1911) was the 2nd son of James Kitson (1807-85), founder of the famous Kitson Airedale locomotive foundries. An industrial magnate and notable figure in the Liberal party locally and nationally; he was created baronet in 1887. (Thoresby Society Publication Vols LX and LXI, Nos 131 and 132: Beresford, M W: East End, West End. The Face of Leeds 1684-1842: Leeds: 1988-: 119; Fraser, D (Ed): A History of Modern Leeds: Manchester: 1980-).



Listing NGR: SE3156637049

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

465073

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Fraser, D, A History of Modern Leeds, (1980)
Beresford, M W, East End West End The Face of Leeds During Urbanisation 1684 to 1842, (1988), 119

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