Description

LEEDS

SE2935 MEANWOOD ROAD
714-1/24/245 (North East side)
05/02/87 Sugarwell Court
(Formerly Listed as:
MEANWOOD ROAD
(North East side)
Sugarwell Works)

GV II

Formerly known as: Cliff Tannery MEANWOOD ROAD.
Tannery, now student accommodation. Dated 1866, additions
c1900, converted c1993. For Edward Kitchen. Rusticated
sandstone with ashlar dressings, C20 slate roof. 2 ranges
forming L-shape.
3 storeys, the top storey added, over a basement near Meanwood
Beck; 24-bay entrance range, roadside range 23 bays. Plinth.
Between bays, 2-storey pilasters with plain capitals rise from
band to support band and modillion cornice, the windows on 2
lower floors having moulded sills and monolithic
cambered-arched lintels, frames replaced. 3rd floor has wider
2-light windows, the top lights with round-arched glazing
bars, separated by pilasters and with segmental-arched
lintels.
3-bay entrance, in bays 5-7 of entrance range, has
round-arched carriageway, moulded archivolt with keystone
bearing date and scrolled shield with bird-head crest rising
from piers flanked by colonnettes and with giant head
capitals, possibly portraits of the owners. Window above this
set slightly higher than other 1st-floor windows; to either
side a pedestrian door with cambered-arched overlight in
pulvinated surround. Eaves gutter brackets. Modillion cornice
to ridge stack over entrance.
INTERIOR: central rows of circular cast-iron columns
supporting timber cross-beams, 1st-floor columns more slender
than those below. At S end of roadside range a broad flight of
stone stairs rising to upper floor.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Edward Kitchen started tanning in 1854 in
Harper Street; he moved to this site (then Cliff Tannery)
after building 63 back-to-back houses for his workpeople
(demolished). His tannery produced East India Kips, a Leeds
speciality, and Cape and Sidney Butts. Skins were dried on the
top floor and softened and soaked in water and lime in the
rear glazed yard (demolished). Water was drawn from a roadside
well and pumped from Meanwood Beck.
Leeds was a major tanning centre in the C19, second only to

London by the 1850s, and this is one of the best-surviving mid
C19 tanneries.
(Powell, K et al: Save Britain's Heritage; Leeds - a lost
opportunity?).

Listing NGR: SE2964535921

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Sugarwell Court at Wikipedia
• Sugarwell Court official website
• Wikidata Q7635059

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover