Description

LEEDS

SE3133 YORK ROAD 714-1/36/463 (South side) 09/03/87 Former York Road Library and Baths

II

Public library and baths entrance. 1903. By HA Chapman for Leeds City Council. Ashlar and brick in English and English garden wall bonds, graduated Welsh slate roof. Baroque Revival style. 2 and 3 storeys. Main elevation to York Road of 10 disparate bays: ashlar ground floor, dressings, parapets and gables and moulded coping; brick 1st floor; plinth. From left: 3-storeyed bay 1 has round-arched entrance to baths with decorative iron gates, keyed moulded archivolt and plastered over-panel bearing words PUBLIC BATHS; above it an oriel, and to left on these floors a corniced 1-light window; 4-light 2nd-floor window; segmentally gabled parapet with decorative motif. Narrower, projecting bay 2 also of 3 storeys, has double 6-panel door under corbelled cornice on which is set an oculus with console bracketed and corniced architrave; 1st-floor band and corniced 2-light window; narrow 2nd-floor windows flanking projecting clock carried on console bracket; above this rises short circular tower, flanked by pilasters, having continuous wood-mullioned windows and leaded ogee roof with finial. Next 6 bays are 2-storey, arranged 3:3 under 2 gables: on ground floor, double transomed 2-light, keyed and pedimented windows, the right bays having in place of lower part of central window the round-arch entrance with 6-panel double door, original bronze handles, pilasters supporting corniced segmental pediment and console-bracketed over panel bearing words PUBLIC LIBRARY; the windows either side, in place of central lights, have panels decorated with shields bearing authors' names: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Macauley. On 1st floor, each section has 1-light windows in Gibbs surround flanking a Venetian window with Ionic colonnettes, cornices, and Gibbs-style arches. Each gable has an arched niche with keystone rising into a pediment. 2 right-hand bays: of 2 lower storeys, with 3-light windows to ground floor, 2-light windows above in Gibbs surrounds and flanked by pilasters which rise into and above corniced parapet; 2-span roof with corniced stacks at right end. Rear: plainer, in brick, with opposing gabled sections, that on left having Venetian-style window, that on right having arched 1st-floor window flanked by flat-headed windows with double-transomed 2-light windows below.

INTERIOR: good contemporary interior to library section including: old floor-mosaic and decorative frieze to lobby; wooden doors with side lights and fanlights having leaded glazing and stained glass; richly treated architraves, those in lobby with Ionic-style columns and decorative arches; in library wall tiles, some patterned, cast-iron gallery with decorative brackets, coffered ceiling. The architect also designed Nos 9 & 11 Duncan Street (qv). This building was illustrated and described in The Building News for 9 May 1902: 'The ground floor of the library comprises a lending department, news room, and ladies' room. On the first floor will be the librarian's room, boys' and girls' reading rooms, etc...' The swimming pool was approx 23m long and there were also Russian, ladies' and gents' baths supplied.

Listing NGR: SE3170533616

External Links

• Wikidata Q26547199

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Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)