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

• Wikidata Q26547315

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