Summary

Shopping arcade, between 1897 and 1898, by Smith and Tweedale for Francis Lupton of New Briggate Arcade Limited, with C20 and C21 alterations.

Description

Shopping arcade. 1898, by Smith and Tweedale with C20 and C21 alterations. Flemish Renaissance style with Art Nouveau decorative details.

MATERIALS: red granite, wrought-iron boxed girders, terracotta brick, stone and Burmantofts’ faience detailing. Sea-green Westmorland slate tiles and glass to the roofs. Polished hardwoods.

PLAN: originally a rectangular H-plan, now reduced to one mall of shops and a short arcade to Merrion Street. Half of the northern arcade, New Briggate frontage, was incorporated into a cinema in 1920.

EXTERIOR: the building occupies a prominent site adjoining the Grand Theatre with elevations to the north, east and south. The three shop frontages and glazed entrances to New Briggate and Vicar Lane have cross-gabled pitched roofs. Behind them are east-west aligned pitched roofs which are glazed to the arcades and slated to the shops either side. The western half of the north arcade is now beneath one substantial pitched roof. now two-stories.

The New Briggate facade is of six bays with a symmetrical composition of threegables of four storeys separated by two glazed semi-circular entrances of two storeys. At the left-hand, outer corner of the façade is a two-storey oriel tower . On the groundfloor polished granite piers flank the three gabledshop fronts and two arcade entrances, with square piers to the outer corners and circular piers with bracketed capitals to the arcade entrances. Both entrances are now glazed to the arch heads with entrances beneath. The upper gabled elevations are built of red brick and stone s with buff stone and buff terracotta dressings. Moulded stone string bands run across the elevation . The single-bay entrances have Burmantofts faience facings.

The wider central gable end has a pair of two-storey, four-light canted oriel windows with enriched Renaissance style lintel bands to both floors. The first-floor oriel windows have toplights and the second-floor windows have a central moulded baluster mullion. The gable head has a pair of floral bracketed two-light mullion windows with terracotta quoined jambs and enriched triangular pediments. The apex has a central knapped diamond mullion and a scrolled and enriched faience panel dated 1897, with a moulded gable finial. The outer gables have five-light first-floor oriel windows and square-headed four-light second-floor windows. Above are twin niches with knapped diamond mullions extending below and above to form shaped gable heads with moulded finials at the apex.

The two arcade entrances each have faience keystones to the arches with terracotta mouldings and spandrels ornamented with pea-green glazed tile borders and foliated decoration. Each has a stylised, scrolled and foliated frieze with the superscribed letters 'THE GRAND ARCADE'. Above is an arcade of enriched tapered faience columns, with eight square-headed lights, and curved faience brackets to the overhanging eaves. The corner oriel tower is of red stone with three tall windows to each floor (the second-floor windows with toplights) with buff ashlar stone bands to lintels and sills. Beneath the slated turret are narrow arched lights below cusped mouldings.

The Vicar Lane (east) elevation is similar to that of New Briggate in construction and composition but reverses the red and buff colour scheme, has three-storey gables rather than four-storey and no corner oriel tower. There are two shop fronts to the ground-floor, the northern shop extending from the south arcade across the former north arcade entrance to Merrion Street. The upper elevation is of buff ashlar blocks with red ashlar quoins, plinths and pinnacles to the gable ends and red stone and terracotta window and string course facings to the gables. The central gable's two-storey four-light bay windows have an ornamental pierced second-floor parapet. Above are four deeply chamfered mullions which rise from pyramid corbels through the string courses to moulded and shaped finials and a central voluted pediment. They are broken by scalloped arched bands above three niches. Either side of the niches are scrolled and enriched faience panels. The single bays of enriched Burmantofts faience match those to New Briggate but with four oculi windows rather than an arcade of tapered columns. To the west are three blocks of shops with three shop fronts to the ground-floor.

The Merrion Street (north) side elevation is constructed of red brick and of two-storeys which gradiate in height. The western two-bay block forms the return to Vicar Lane and is built of buff ashlar blocks, with red ashlar and terracotta to the window surrounds and string courses. The firstfloor has a pair of windows with enriched and moulded terracotta surrounds containing segmental-arched one-over-one sashes. The secondfloor has three-light stone mullion windowswith arched heads, and above are two small gablets and a central chimney stack. To the right are three two-storey shops with end chimney stacks. The ground-floor shop fronts have surrounds with half-fluted and panelled ionic pilasters and moulded friezes. The first floors each have two pairs of windows with a moulded cornice and projecting stone mullions with a shaped urn profile, and deeply recessed four-over-one pane sashes. The pitched roofs above have bracketed eaves. Adjoining the shops is a gabled arcade entrance, with two stone string bands to the upper gable, and a semi-circular arcade entrance with stone quoined jambs and a row-locked and moulded brick head containing a glazed multi-paned light. To the right is the two-storey cinema block. The ground floor contains late-C19 and C20 ground-floor door and window openings (some infilled) and C21 shop windows with a now blind first-floor. The upper floor and three frieze bands have painted cinema signage: TOWER (upper floor) / ALWAYS A GOOD PROGRAMME / POPULAR PRICES (frieze bands). The two- and three-storey right-hand end forms the return elevation from New Briggate, the upper floor of the two right-hand bays now obscuring the later pitched roof behind. It has C20 openings to the ground floor, a pair of brick infilled flat-lintel arched windows with enriched and moulded terracotta surrounds to the first-floor and a ventilation grill to the second floor.

The rear (south) elevation was not seen. It adjoins the Grand Theatre in New Briggate.

INTERIOR: the extant two-storey south arcade runs east to west, connecting New Briggate with Vicar Lane, and it is joined at its centre by a cross arcade from Merrion Street. It contains a variety of shops of varying sizes, with cellars or basements, and first-floor store rooms. The pilasters, window frames, cornices and doors of the shops facing into the avenues are of mahogany, teak and other hardwoods.

The original shop surrounds have half-fluted and raised panelled Ionic pilasters and large glazed display windows to painted hardwood shop fronts (with lead-paned toplights and metal columns at the arcades crossing). The entrance doors are half-glazed and panelled and some are set-back in porches with panelled soffits and enriched mosaic floor entrances (numbers 5 and 11). The upper front walls over the shops are set back on both sides and contain three-light bay windows, apart from the western bays nearest New Briggate and the cross arcade to Merrion Street which have three-light windows with protruding mullions matching those to Merrion Street. Some leaded windows remain in the upper windows. The arcade is covered by a glazed timber roof, with bracketed eaves, supported by moulded arched and collared trusses resting on pilasters with moulded caps and bases. The double-height arches are now divided into two storeys with an upper room. The New Briggate entrance has a glazed arch with a dentillated and moulded cornice and the Vicar Lane entrance has the relocated 1989 Potts of Leeds animated clock, with life size figures of armoured knights which strike two bells and guardsmen (Irish, Scots, Canadian and Indian) that rotate through doors below the clock face on the hour. Above is a metal cockerel.

The cross arcade from Merrion Street has ground-floor shop fronts to the east and one to the west. The upper bays are predominantly blind apart from a late-C20 hexagonal wooden paned window to the west and two-light windows with protruding mullions shaped to an 'urn profile' either side of the arcade. The south end of the cross arcade towards the Grand Theatre is now infilled with a shop. The cross arcade has an Art Nouveau balustraded stair.

History

The Grand Arcade, built between 1897 and 1898, was designed by Smith and Tweedale for Francis Lupton (1813-1884) under the New Briggate Arcade Company (established 1720-1934). The Lupton family, a prosperous and politically active Unitarian cloth manufacturing family, established a property empire in and around Leeds and developed this area from the 1830s.

In 1866 and 1868 Improvement Acts enabled the borough to purchase land around St John Street and create New Briggate with the widening of the west side of New Briggate soon after. The east side of the street was not fully developed until the construction of the Grand Theatre in 1878 and the Grand Arcade (this site is formerly shown on the 1893 Ordnance Survey map as Merrion Street Mills). Vicar Lane (formerly known as North Street) was widened at a similar time.

Stephen Ernest Smith (1845-1925) and John Tweedale (1853-1905) established an architectural partnership between 1877 and 1903 and designed a range of buildings in Leeds.

The Grand Arcade design was announced in the Leeds Mercury in March 1896 and the building opened in July 1898. Four external facing shops were designed for the New Briggate and Vicar Lane elevations with a pair of double-height entrance arches between them accessing the arcades of fifty-six shops of varying size. Cast-iron piers and rolled steel joists in the divisional walls allowed the speedy conversion of multiple shops to larger or smaller showrooms. The small shops were cellared and the larger shops had basements; the latter with cream-coloured glazed bricks and dados. The first-floor walls of the shopfronts had cream-coloured glazed bricks with bands of pale green and the floor of the arcade was laid with tinted marble mosaics with a simple lined border. The arcade, showrooms, first-floor storerooms, first- and second-floor workrooms, and the exterior were illuminated by electric light. Goods were admitted to the shops via a south cart-way parallel to the adjacent Grand Theatre. A key feature in the arcade is William Potts and Sons’ clock, now located at the east end of the southern arcade, a notable firm who produced clocks for several Leeds buildings, including Thornton Arcade.

In 1920 the western half of the north arcade, comprising an avenue of shops, was converted to the Tower Cinema to designs by architect J.P. Crawford, opening on 12 April 1920. The New Briggate Arcade Company sold its stake in the arcade in 1938 and it was purchased by Tower Properties (Leeds) Limited before being auctioned in October 1949.

The Tower Picture House closed on 7 March 1985 and it was converted into a nightclub and later a pub and cocktail bar. Repairs and alterations took place throughout the C20 with the roof repaired in 1979 and the arcade restored in 1992. The most recent repairs and alterations, including a new stone floor and replica lighting, took place in 2021.

Reasons for Listing

The Grand Arcade, 1897 to 1898, by Smith and Tweedale for Francis Lupton of the New Briggate Arcade Limited, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the attractive Flemish Renaissance design incorporating good-quality decorative faience by the renowned Leeds’ firm of Burmantofts;
* as a grand double arcade with Victorian shopfronts, glazed roofs and a Potts of Leeds animated clock with life-size knights and rotating guardsmen;
* designed by the Leeds architects’ practice of Stephen Ernest Smith and John Tweedale who designed a number of listed buildings in the city;
* the building has a strong visual and contextual group value as a building of leisure and recreation with the adjacent Grade II* Grand Theatre on New Briggate and the Grade II listed Templar Hotel on Vicar Lane, also with Burmantofts’ faience, and contributes positively to the historic streetscape of the neighbourhood.

Historic interest:

* the Grand Arcade was built as part of a scheme from the 1830s to develop land around St John Street and New Briggate by the Luptons, a prosperous and politically active Unitarian cloth manufacturing family.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Grand Arcade at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5594242

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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