Description

LEEDS

SE23NE BECKETT PARK, Beckett Park 714-1/6/522 The Grange 19/10/51 (Formerly Listed as: BECKETT PARK, Beckett's Park Kirkstall Grange or New Grange)

GV II*

Country house, now offices and lecture rooms. 1752. By James Paine. For Walter Wade. Alterations c1834 and c1858 for Sir John and William Beckett. Ashlar gritstone, blue slate roofs and lead-covered dome. 2 and 3 storeys over basement, main 3 x 5 bay block with lower 2-bay range to left. Main block: central glazed porch with Ionic columns supporting entablature with balustraded parapet, flanking canted bay windows, round-arched, 4-pane sashes. A central round-arched recess breaks into pediment containing carved coat of arms. Fenestration: central Venetian window in moulded architrave with pediment, shouldered architraves and pediments to flanking windows, sashes with glazing bars. 2nd floor: 6-pane sashes, cornice over centre. Modillion cornice, 3 corniced stacks and low glazed dome to ridge, 2 stacks left. To left of main block: 2 canted bay windows, glazing bars left and 4-pane sashes right; paired 6-pane sashes, moulded cornice and pediment above. Right return: 2 large canted bay windows with tall 4-pane sashes to ground floor, balustraded parapet over; sashes with glazing bars to 1st floor, the centre with consoles and cornice; 6-pane square sash windows to 2nd floor; modillion cornice as front. INTERIOR: central staircase hall and circulating plan of interconnecting rooms, former service wing to NW. Entrance hall with fine relief plasterwork panels and medallions, Doric frieze and cornice. Pilastered segmental archway to octagonal stairwell; cantilevered staircase with curved plain iron balusters, niches and plasterwork, lantern over, Ionic columned doorways off. Series of rooms with fine plasterwork, fireplaces etc., including: front left, a long room lit by 2 bay windows, ceiling plasterwork with scrolls and swags in high relief, dentilled cornice, dado rail, wooden fire surround with egg-and-dart mouldings, central mask, palm fronds, 6-panel end doors in architrave with pulvinated frieze. Front right: oval pattern to plaster ceiling, laurel wreath, scrolls and swags in high relief, carved skirting, dado rail, fireplace in eared architrave, oval panel,

pulvinated frieze with oakleaf pattern, corniced shelf; 6-panel doors in architrave with console brackets and deep cornice. Opening off this room, to rear right, through a mock double door with original fittings, a very fine music room: scrolled plaster ceiling with panels depicting musical instruments; 4 full-height niches with carved panels and moulded brackets, carved skirting, panelled dado and rail, wooden fire surround has eared architrave, scroll and leaf motifs. From the staircase hall a corridor opens off to left leading to a second top-lit staircase with curved square-section newels and ramped handrail. First floor not seen in detail: service stair rises from 1st floor left, cast-iron scrolled balusters, fluted newel with bud finial, ramped handrail; rooms reputed to retain plasterwork, some divided by modern partitions; attic rooms not seen. Sir John and William Beckett were members of the important Leeds banking family who moved to Kirkstall Grange in the 1830s and made alterations including added bay windows, staircase and service ranges. (Linstrum, D: The Historic Architecture of Leeds: 1969-: 31; Leach, P: James Paine: 1988-: 58, 188).

Listing NGR: SE2679436689

External Links

• Wikidata Q17533712

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Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)