Description

LEEDS

SE23NE WEETWOOD LANE, Weetwood
714-1/6/1232 (West side (off))
17/06/96 Bardon Hill

GV II

Formerly known as: St Urban's Roman Catholic School WEETWOOD
LANE Weetwood.
Large house. 1873-75, altered c1902. Designs by John Simpson.
For Thomas Simpson, a wealthy Leeds solicitor. Alterations
c1902 by Thomas Winn for Joseph Pickersgill. Coursed
rock-faced gritstone, grey plain and fish-scale slate roof.
2 storeys, with central 3-storey entrance towers on the 4-bay
S (recessed bay left) and 3-bay E fronts, attics and cellars.
Gothic Revival style; quoins.
S front: tower projects slightly: 5 steps up to central paired
panelled doors and overlight with wrought-iron panel in a
moulded pointed arch flanked by attached pink granite columns;
2- and 3-light windows to 1st and 2nd floors, plate-glass
sashes throughout, deep bracketed eaves, square timber
bellcote with 3 cusped openings on each side and tall
pyramidal spire.
Flanking projecting bays: a 6-light square bay window to
ground and 1st floor, left; a 4-light canted bay to right;
these windows all have chamfered stone mullions and carved
lintels with cusped recesses containing round pink granite
plaques; 3 quatrefoil recesses and a single-light attic window
in gable left, small gable in hipped roof right. Elaborate
pierced barge-boards and finials to all gables. Tall
multi-flue stacks to left and right of centre tower.
Right return: similar detailing, the entrance tower set back,
with shallow pointed arch and pavilion roof; a canted bay left
and a 5-light square bay right. Far right: a single-storey bay
with large canted bay window of 6 lights, transom and mullion
windows and a parapet with circular piercings; a small
round-arched window above, coped gable and finial.
INTERIOR: the main rooms are grouped around the S and E sides
of a large galleried hall, with former service rooms to the NW
and in a single-storey range. The house retains fine plaster
and woodwork of the late C19 and the early C20.
Important interior features include the outer porch with black
and white marble floor; a glazed screen with carved columns
opening into a short corridor with panelled walls and ceiling
with moulded plasterwork, from the ceiling hangs a pendant
light fitting of bronze with ornate glass petal shades.
A segmental arch opens into the central lounge-hall, galleried

on 3 sides and also lined in dark panelling; the ceiling is
square framed with moulded plasterwork including beams and
deep pendants, the central copper light fitting in Art Nouveau
style. The large 'baronial' fireplace, left, has carved wooden
surround with columns and panelled hood, green marble
fireplace and apron, peacock-pattern green and blue tiles; the
bronzed fire basket survives. Opposite the entrance doors a
carved sideboard in similar style, incorporating a heating
radiator, above it a large 6-light transom and mullion window.
On the right the staircase, all wood, of 2 straight flights,
supported on bulbous columns, ornate column-on-vase balusters,
terminal with heraldic lion, the half-landing lit by paired
sash windows in a roll-moulded architrave.
Next to the stairs the paired double doors to the garden have
elaborate scrolled wrought-iron panels over the glazing. Fine
silvered bronze pendant wall lights line the hall walls; the
doors are 5-panel with linen-fold carving. The galleried
landing, on 3 sides of the hall, has balustrade as stairs,
with deep carved frieze below the rail and gadrooned vase
finials to corners.
Ground-floor rooms include: to left of entrance and lit by the
square bay window in a Classical architrave with fluted
columns, a large room with end fireplace of veined pink and
cream marble with a bronze bead-and-reel moulding, in wooden
surround carved with fruit, masks and figures. The walls have
moulded plaster panels, a deep frieze with cherubs and
egg-and-dart moulding, a plaster or moulded paper ceiling with
panels of scrolls and flowers in relief. Fielded panels to the
wooden dado, 2-panel door in casing with carved fruit and
scrolls, a plaster panel above with swags.
A door to left of the hall fireplace opens into a smaller
room, now Headmaster's office, with green and white veined
marble fireplace, moulded surround with deep shelf and C20
cast-iron grate, 5 tiles each side in Art Nouveau style, blue,
pink and green; deep scrolled ceiling frieze in similar style.
To right of entrance the corner room lit by the 2 canted bay
windows has a green veined marble fireplace, green tiles and
elaborate bronze fire basket with lion feet; deep ceiling
frieze with scrolls, acanthus leaves, egg-and-dart moulded
cornice.
Facing the garden the former dining room has doors to hall and
service corridor; they are of 6 panels in architraves with
console brackets supporting the cornice and are linked by a
flat-arched recess with plaster garlands, ribbons and plaques;
a panelled plaster dado with Classical mouldings and a coved
ceiling with fine plasterwork. Green veined marble fireplace
with fine metallic red and white patterned tiles, wooden
surround with deep console brackets, carved panel with plaque

and scrolls, deep shelf over dentilled cornice.
The panelled service corridor on the N side of the hall is top
lit; from it the single-storey former billiard room, now
school hall, is reached. This room has panelled walls and
arches to a raised dais at each end, lit by the bay window to
E and having a fireplace and window at the apsidal W end. The
fireplace has a wooden surround with a glazed cupboard centre,
frieze and cornice. The ceiling over the apse is plaster,
ribbed and with shell motifs, over the centre it is coved and
ribbed, with a central raised glazed canopy with
richly-coloured painted glass and the brass frame for gas
lighting.
The toilet and washroom which is set behind the curved wall of
the billiard room apse is tiled throughout in grey-green with
bands of moulded tiles with marigold motif, a mosaic floor
with scroll border, former gas light brackets.
The service end of the house has been altered but retains
stairs with knopped and turned newels, 6-panel doors, stone
flag floors, former servants' hall (now cloakroom) with
blocked fireplace.
First floor: the 2 front rooms have pink and grey marble
fireplaces, the surrounds have columns supporting brackets and
cornice which continues around the room above fine fitted
furniture including corner cupboards, glazed shelves, chests
of drawers, all with Regency-style brass fittings; the walls
between are panelled and ornate plasterwork includes scrolled
ceiling cornice.
The main stairs continue to the 2nd floor, originally a large
open room (over the hall) with ribbed coved ceiling, a
rope-like twisted motif to the ribs and a fireplace with tiles
and plain surround; small rooms opening off. The large room
divided c1900 and a cast-iron corner fireplace with moulded
surround inserted; one partition wall since removed. A corner
fireplace (cast-iron) in the front tower room has Art
Nouveau-style tulips below the shelf.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Thomas Simpson, a solicitor with house at
Grove Villas, Monkbridge Road and offices at No.47 Albion
Street, bought Englefield Estate land at Bardon Hill c1858.
His cousin, John Simpson, worked with Cuthbert Brodrick and
designed several houses in the Headingley/Weetwood area
including this, built c1873/4 and originally called Bardon
Hill. Thomas Simpson died in 1898 and his widow in 1901; by
1910 the property was occupied by Joseph Pickersgill, a
self-made Leeds man who made a fortune as race-horse owner and
turf-commission agent, keeping a book for King Edward when
Prince of Wales (obituary notice) and involved in property
speculation. He died in 1920, the house became the property of
the Roman Catholic diocese in 1936 and was the Bishop's

residence and c1955 a school.
(Hopwood, A (pers.comm.): 1992-; Directories of Leeds,
1888-1920; Douglas J, Victorian Society (pers.comm.): 1992-;
Yorkshire Evening Post, 23 August 1920: Obituary of Joseph
Pickersgill; RCHME: Historic Building Report: Bardon Hill aka
St Urban's School: 1995-).

Listing NGR: SE2732137716

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26547315

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.

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