Fairbairn House

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 23/07/2015

SE 23 SE,
714-1/10/122

LEEDS
CLARENDON ROAD (South West side)
Nos.71, 73 AND 75 Fairbairn House

(Formerly Listed as: CLARENDON ROAD (South West side)
No.71 Woodsley House (Albert Mansbridge College, University of Leeds))

26/09/63

II

Also known as: Nos.71, 73 AND 75 Nuffield Institute for Health Services Studies CLARENDON ROAD.
Large house, now institute. 1840-41, with later additions. Formerly attributed to John Clark but probably by R.D Chantrell. For Peter Fairbairn. Red brick, stone plinth and dressings, slate roof. 2 storeys with basement and attic, 7 windows wide, in Classical style. Giant Corinthian portico at centre with heavy entablatures and deep blind balustrade parapet to attic storey above; the entablature continues over outer bays to corner pilasters. Central pedimented doorway, plate-glass sashes, the flanking and 3 first-floor windows in stone architraves, the outer pairs with rubbed brick flat arches.

INTERIOR: ground floor has elaborate plaster decoration in Greek style throughout; entrance hall with fluted columns in antis, cross corridor, Imperial staircase with scroll-decorated cast-iron balustrade and moulded ramped mahogany handrail, round-arched niche on half-landing, circular top light with heavily moulded cornice. To left of the main staircase the service stair of straight flights extending to attic storey, with turned balusters, ball finial to newel posts, wooden handrail. A third stair far right is an oval newel with stone steps and cast-iron balusters in Egyptian style, ramped wooden handrail; it gives access to the basement which is reputed to be built with cast-iron beams in the style of fire-proof mill construction. Principal rooms retain original fittings including: ground-floor left front, moulded 6-panel doors, dado, moulded wall panels; left rear, fireplace with fluted Classical columns, panelled plaster ceiling; rear right, bay window, deep ceiling cornice with egg-and-dart and acroteria; front right, marble fireplace, deep carved architraves to windows, modillion ceiling cornice, alcove in end wall. The chapel, now lecture theatre, has an inserted floor but original double doors and ribbed barrel-vaulted ceiling, not seen in detail. First floor: the cross corridor runs the full width of the house, with false double doors in architraves with console brackets and cornices decorated with wreaths, rooms not seen. Early C20 extension to right.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Peter Fairbairn, engineer owner of the Wellington Foundry, was mayor when Queen Victoria visited Leeds to open the new Town Hall in 1858 and during this time she stayed at this house. Sir Peter's son, Sir Andrew, auctioned off the grounds as building plots in 1865 and lived at the house until 1870. A member of the Gott family lived there for a short time before the building became a vicarage, later a nursing home, then the Leeds Clergy School. As part of the University's property the house became a hall of residence and is at present the residential and conference facility of the Nuffield Institute for Health Services Studies.

REFERENCES: (Beresford, M: Walks Round Red Brick: Leeds University Press: 1980-: 92-93; Linstrum, D: West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture: London: 1978-: 106, 374; Webster, Christopher, 'R. D. Chantrell: Early-Victorian Classicism and Soane's Continued Influence', in Cornucopia: Essays on Architecture Sculpture and the Decorative Arts in honour of Terry Friedman (1940-2013), eds. Lomax, Silber & Webster (Leeds: Leeds Art Fund, 2015), 77-88).



Listing NGR: SE2897734336

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

465976

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Linstrum, D, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, (1978), 106, 374
Beresford, M, Walks Round Red Brick, (1980), 92-93

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.