Former Leeds Charity School & St John's Parish Room
Bradbury Building, 15 Mark Lane, Leeds, LS2 8JA
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1375158
- Date first listed:
- 25-Apr-1974
- List Entry Name:
- Former Leeds Charity School & St John's Parish Room
- Statutory Address:
- Bradbury Building, 15 Mark Lane, Leeds, LS2 8JA
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2007-08-07
- Reference:
- IOE01/16121/05
- Rights:
- © Mr Dennis Carr. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1375158
- Date first listed:
- 25-Apr-1974
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 24-Feb-2022
- List Entry Name:
- Former Leeds Charity School & St John's Parish Room
- Statutory Address 1:
- Bradbury Building, 15 Mark Lane, Leeds, LS2 8JA
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:
- Bradbury Building, 15 Mark Lane, Leeds, LS2 8JA
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 30200 33826
Summary
Former Leeds charity school and St John's Parish Rooms, of 1815-1816.
Reasons for Designation
The former Leeds charity school and St John's Parish Rooms, 1815-1816, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the quality of the Gothic Revival design;
* for the retention of its overall plan form, divided between a double height school room and two-storey school mistress’s accommodation.
Historic interest:
* as a charity school, rebuilt and adapted to conform to National School guidelines, which captures the evolution of national education in the early to mid-C19.
Group value:
* the former school benefits from a spatial group value with the listed Church of St John and its church boundary wall.
History
A charity school was founded in Leeds by Dr John Killingbeck, vicar of Leeds, and established by subscription in 1705. In 1726 the school relocated from a workhouse to a converted chapel belonging to Harrison’s Almshouses on this site, and in 1816 adapted to become a girls’ school training 80 students, from twelve years old, for domestic service (which conformed to early National School guidelines). Between 1815 and 1816 a new building was erected for the school, at a cost of £1,000, with a double height school room to the east and two-storey accommodation for the school-mistress to the west. The school became known as St John’s Charity School but, following the relocation of the school function elsewhere around 1882, became the the St John’s Parish Room. It is now (2021) commercial premises.
Details
Former Leeds charity school and St John's Parish Rooms, of 1815-1816.
Formerly listed as: MARK LANE (north side) Parish room south-west of St John's Church and Age Concern premises south-west of Church of St John.
MATERIALS: ashlar, slate roof, square leaded lights.
PLAN: rectangular on plan.
EXTERIOR: the building occupies the corner of Wade and Mark Lane. It is a wide gabled block predominantly single storey but with a two-storey single bay at the west end (facing Wade Lane). It is constructed of ashlar, with a plinth, stone tracery windows, a moulded cornice and parapet, a pitched slate roof and a stone stack straddling the ridge west of centre. All the windows and doors have hoodmoulds with label stops. The west elevation (now - 2021 - the main elevation) facing Wade Lane is of three bays. The ground floor has a pointed arch doorway (which is the former entrance to the school mistress’s accommodation) set left of a central square-headed tracery window of three pointed lights and a pointed arch tracery window of two lights. The first floor has three pointed arch windows, the outer two of which are single-light windows which embrace a central tracery window of two lights. The right return (south) facing Mark Lane is of three unequal bays. The two eastern bays have a large square-headed tracery window of three-lights and the western bay has a small square headed single-light window. The left return (north elevation – the former main entrance to the school) is hidden by a C21 two-storey extension but it is of six bays. The three eastern bays each contain a large square-headed window which match the south elevation (the easternmost window now altered to a doorway), whilst the three western bays contain a flat lintel doorway (the former school entrance) set left of two pointed arch tracery windows containing leaded lights. The east elevation is single storey and has a large five-light pointed arch window with intersecting tracery and square leaded lights.
INTERIOR: a C21 mezzanine has been inserted into the double height school room and the school mistress’s accommodation converted to offices.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 466040
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Parson, E, The Civil, Ecclesiastical, Literary, Commercial, and Miscellaneous History of Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley, and the District Within Ten Miles of Leeds; Volume 2, (1834), 146
White, W, History, gazetteer and directory of West Riding of Yorkshire, with the city of York and the port of Hull, and a variety of other commercial, agricultural and statistical information, (1837), 520
Other
Leeds Intelligencer Monday 11 November 1816
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer Tuesday 14 March 1882
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 20-Jun-2026 at 18:28:19.
Download a full scale map (PDF)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.