Description

LEEDS

SE2633 WHINGATE, Armley 714-1/32/504 (South West side) 13/05/87 West Leeds High School (Formerly Listed as: WHINGATE, Armley (South West side) West Leeds Boys' High School)

GV II

School. 1906-1907, altered late C20. By William Broadbent. Ashlar and red brick with ashlar dressings, graduated slate roofs. Double pile plan. 2 and 3 storeys with basement. Symmetrical 26-bay facade with 2-storey with basement, 3:3-bay blocks flanking taller, 3-storey with basement, 3:2:4:2:3-bay central block, the rhythm of the whole being A,A,B,C,D,C,B,A,A, sections B and D breaking forward. Rusticated ashlar basement and ground floor of central block; sections defined by rusticated ashlar pilasters, 1st-floor bays defined by attached ashlar Ionic columns, ashlar sill and lintel bands; dentilled. 1st- and 2nd-floor cornices. Sections C have portals; steps up to porches with paired Ionic capitals supporting entablatures with dentil cornices broken by keyed segmental arches under segmental pediments with blocking courses. Inside porches: tessellated floors and panelled, half-glazed double doors with side-lights and relief-carved wooden over-panels. Windows large, with later C20 glazing; section D has 2 triple windows to basement, side windows narrower and 2 Venetian windows to ground floor, these echoed by the ground-floor windows of section C which are 2-light with segmental overlights, all of them having the ashlar above incised and voussoirs running into coursing. On 2nd floor of section D, 2 three-light windows under segmental-arched friezes and keyed archivolts; over central windows of B and outer A section are keystones rising into broken segmental pediments. Parapets to sections A, B and D, part balustraded. Central and outer blocks under separate hipped roofs, each with ridge cupola having open, round arched, colonnetted sides, leaded ogee roof and finials, that to centre is larger and more ornate with weather vane. Rear: plainer, rhythm echoing that of front, with round arches over narrower section C upper windows, 6-bay section D having 2 of the upper windows rising through eaves under segmental pediments, and dentil cornices to sections B, arching over

single upper windows set in raised brick panels. 2-tier flat-roofed projections from section D (former observation galleries); single-storey flat-roofed projections from bays B (former changing rooms), altered. Returns: 3 wide bays, echoing front, with 5 tall, segment-arched basement windows, and single, large central windows above, corniced on ground floor; dentil cornice rising as central segmental pediment; parapet. INTERIOR: glazed green tiles to walls of entrances, corridors have wall tiling (painted over) and segmental-arched recesses to doors and windows; reinforced concrete floors; stone dogleg stairs with spiked and knob-finialed iron balusters; main hall has coffered ceiling with decorative borders to panels. William Broadbent was architect to the Leeds Education Department. The school, which accommodated 400 boys and 400 girls, was designed according to the most up-to-date planning principals and constructional techniques, following Continental (particularly Swiss) examples and being the first school in Leeds to have all the floors of reinforced concrete (Harland pp 11-14). (Harland, OH: A Chronicle History).

Listing NGR: SE2615633505

External Links

• Wikidata Q26547244

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