Templar Hotel, including 6 Templar Street, City and Hunslet, Leeds

Summary

Public house, early C19, extended in the mid-late C19 and subsequently altered and remodelled in 1928 to designs by Garside and Pennington of Pontefract for Melbourne Brewery (Leeds) Ltd, with some further later alterations to the ground floor. Attached former brewhouse, probably also early C19 with later alterations, now used as a store.

Description

MATERIALS: brick with faience-clad ground floor to the two principal elevations and stuccoed upper floors, painted-stone dressings, replaced concrete-tile roof coverings.

PLAN: the pub has a long linear plan that runs alongside Templar Street with an additional principal elevation facing west onto Vicar Lane, and 6 Templar Street attached at the eastern end.

EXTERIOR: the pub is of three storeys plus basement with a ground floor clad with green and buff-coloured faience by Burmantofts of Leeds, and stucco to the upper floors.

NORTH ELEVATION: The seven-bay north elevation facing Templar Street consists of six-bays that form the original part of the pub (with a modillion band to the eaves cornice) and a taller single-bay, mid-late C19 addition at the western end that also has a two-bay frontage onto Vicar Lane. Both the original part of the pub and later addition have hipped roofs and two brick chimneystacks survive.

The ground floor has a series of large mullioned and leaded windows with quoined surrounds and hoodmoulds with foliate bosses/stops. The windows have upper panels incorporating stained-glass motifs (all except the windows lighting the toilets, which have ventilators) depicting a stylised knight in armour and shields, and replaced lower panels. It has been suggested that the stained-glass upper panels are possibly later replacements, but the styling, colour and materials would suggest that they are most likely contemporary with the 1928 works. Set in between the ground and first floor is a deep frieze that runs across the entire elevation and continues around and across the west elevation facing Vicar Lane. The frieze incorporates relief signage lettering in red that reads 'TEMPLAR HOTEL' at the west and east ends and 'MELBOURNE ALES' to the centre separated by further smaller signage lettering over two entrances that reads 'LOUNGE' and 'VAULTS' (the vaults doorway has been sealed up internally). The entrances have Tudor-arched doorways with panelled doors, carved spandrels and shallow overlights with leaded and stained glazing. To the upper floors are horned-sash windows with flat/squared heads, apart from that to the first floor of the mid-late C19 addition, which has a segmental-arched head with a hoodmould with foliate bosses. The second-floor window above has a continuous hoodmould that runs across the single bay of the mid-late C19 addition and around and across the west elevation. A stringcourse exists below the north elevation's second-floor windows and separating some of the windows are blank raised panels.

WEST ELEVATION: the two-bay west elevation facing Vicar Lane is formed of the taller mid-late C19 addition and is identically styled to the bay facing Templar Street, with the addition of a ground-floor entrance in the same style as those to Templar Street. Above the doorway the frieze (continued from the north elevation) has relief lettering that reads 'SALOON' and above the elevation's ground-floor window is lettering that reads 'TEMPLAR HOTEL'.

6 TEMPLAR STREET: this two-storey, two-bay former brewhouse is attached to the eastern end of the Templar Hotel and is constructed of bare-faced brick with a pitched roof. The ground floor appears to have been rebuilt and has a large loading doorway to the left with a painted-sandstone sill and lintel, and replaced doors and vents. To the right is a doorway with two steps accessing a recessed four-panel door with a plain overlight that provides a private entrance to an internal stair leading up to the landlord's accommodation, and also the pub's rear service areas. Two casement and fixed-pane windows with painted-sandstone sills exist to the first floor and set high up the wall beneath the first-floor windows is a stringcourse. A deep fascia board sits just below the eaves.

The rear elevations of both the pub and former brewhouse, which face onto a narrow yard, are rendered and without windows.

INTERIOR: prior to the 1928 works the pub comprised three rooms internally on the ground floor and domestic and hotel accommodation on the upper floors. In 1928 the ground-floor rooms were opened up to create a series of inter-linked spaces (recorded on a 1928 plan of proposed alterations) that remain today. At the Vicar Lane end is a saloon, to the centre are the vaults, hall and toilets, and at the eastern end is a lounge.

Both the lounge and saloon entrances have vestibules; that to the saloon has panelled walls and a panelled door with a glazed upper panel, whilst that to the lounge has blue and cream glazed-tiled walls and partly glazed and panelled inner double-doors with a stained and leaded overlight with a shield motif. Both vestibules have modern floor coverings, but it is possible that a terrazzo, mosaic or tiled floor survive underneath, in keeping with other Melbourne Brewery pubs.

The ground-floor interior is decorated in Brewer's Tudor style with applied ceiling beams and wall panelling to all the spaces up to picture rail height (some of that to the western half appears to be replaced). Some cast-iron radiators survive. A long bar servery with a curved north-east corner lies to the centre of the building alongside the south wall and runs the length between the vaults and the hall. The servery has been shortened (probably in the 1970s) by approximately one third at the western end by the saloon and has lost its curved north-west corner, but retains its original panelled front. The wall panelling continues into the bar servery and the bar back, and above the servery is a suspended 1970s pot shelf with leaded-glazed panels.

Fixed-bench seating with arm-rests and baffles incorporating a mixture of plain and stained and leaded-glass panels survive in the saloon, vaults and lounge, and similarly-styled 1970s seating has been inserted in the vaults in front of the sealed-up vaults entrance and the former position of a fireplace (a 1920s Tudor-style fireplace now on the first floor appears to have most probably been relocated from here when the seating was introduced).

Beyond the vaults are the toilets (modernised internally) and hall. A panelled and partly-glazed screen in front of the toilets has been removed to widen access through to the hall and lounge. The toilets are accessed through paired doorways with panelled doors incorporating glazed Tudor-arched upper panels and a drinking shelf exists to the hall's north wall. A wide flat-arched opening leads from the hall into the lounge, which has fixed-bench seating to all four sides with bell pushes (now disconnected) and a 1920s carved timber fire surround to the east wall with replaced glazed tiles to the cheeks and a modern electric fire insert.

A doorway in the lounge's south-east corner, with a panelled door incorporating a stained-glass Tudor-arched upper panel depicting a countryside scene and a large shield motif, leads through to 6 Templar Street and a small hallway with a 1920s terrazzo floor and 1970s partitioning. A doorway on the north side of the hallway with a 1920s door leads down into the basement, and an adjacent fire door set within the 1970s partitioning leads into the main part of the hallway (off the Templar Street entrance) and a stair flight leading up to the first floor of the pub. A doorway in the east wall leads into the main part of 6 Templar Street, which formed the brewhouse. The space is open to the roof (concealed from view by a flat ceiling) and has a modern kitchen sub-structure inserted on the south side and a modern extraction system. Timber trapdoors in the floor access a barrel chute into the basement.

The C19 stair flight leading up to the pub's first floor lies off the private Templar Street entrance within 6 Templar Street and has modern tread coverings and a replaced 1920s balustrade and newel posts. An additional C19 stair flight between the ground and first floor that was originally located within the main part of the pub (in the area now occupied by the toilets) was removed during the 1928 works, but the wider upper flight between the first and second floors was retained and survives with a replaced 1920s balustrade and newel posts identical to that at the eastern end of the building. On the first-floor landing of the main central stair is a large blocked-up decorative arched opening that at one point led through into a neighbouring building (now demolished and replaced by a 1960s/1970s building).

The upper floors of the pub contain the landlord's flat and former hotel accommodation with corridors/hallways along the southern wall and rooms off to the north side and western end. The second floor and the western half of the first floor were not altered during the 1928 works, except for the replacement of a few doors. A mixture of C19 and 1920s features survive to the upper floors, including C19 four and six-panel doors and 1920s five-panel doors, built-in cupboards, floorboard floors, moulded cornicing and architraves, two 1920s fireplaces (including a painted surround with a Tudor-arched opening and tiling most probably relocated from the vaults), and a late-C19 painted fire surround in a room at the western end of the second floor.

The basements of the pub and the neighbouring former brewhouse at number 6 are interconnected and consist of a series of mainly large spaces with concrete floors and a barrel chute from the former brewhouse.

History

The Templar Hotel is believed to have originally been constructed in the early C19 and was formerly known as the Templars' Inn. An additional block at the western end fronting onto Vicar Lane (formerly known as North Street) was added in the mid-late C19.

In 1927 the building was sold to Melbourne Brewery (Leeds) Ltd. The ground-floor level of the exterior and the three lower floors of the interior were altered and refurbished in around 1928 to designs by Garside and Pennington of Pontefract produced in December 1927, and included new faience facades by the local firm of Burmantofts. The top floor and the western half of the first floor were left largely unchanged, save for the replacement of a few doors. Further alterations were made to the ground floor in the 1970s.

6 Templar Street is believed to have also been constructed in the early C19 and although it is not known if this was its original function, it was a brewhouse for the pub until the late C19/early C20, after which time it became a store. It has also been suggested that the brewhouse may have operated as a communal brewhouse for a number of pubs, including the nearby Devonshire Arms on Templar Street (now demolished), but this is unconfirmed.

Reasons for Listing

Templar Hotel, including 6 Templar Street, an early-C19 pub extended in the mid-late C19 and altered and remodelled in 1928, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a C19 pub given a Brewer's Tudor makeover in the early C20, and incorporates Tudoresque features both externally and internally;
* it has an impressive ground floor exterior with faience work by Burmantofts, a notable Leeds pottery firm that exported around the world;
* despite some later alteration it retains a good level of 1920s interior survival, as well as C19 features to the upper floors, which serve to highlight the pub's evolution and the trend during the inter-war years of altering and remodelling older pubs;
* the attached brewhouse at 6 Templar Street is a rare survival illustrating the process from production to consumption, and its function remains legible in the physical fabric.

Group value:

* it forms a group with the Grade II-listed Grand Arcade (1897 with later alterations, restored in 1992) on the opposite side of Vicar Lane, for their shared use of Burmantofts faience and their strong contextual relationship as buildings of leisure and recreation.

External Links

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