115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street, and 121-126 Briggate, Leeds, City and Hunslet, Leeds

Summary

Shops and offices, 1898-1904, altered in the C20. By Frank Matcham for the Leeds Estates Company as part of the County Arcade development. Free Baroque style. 1930-1931 building to Briggate and Kirkgate corner, by Chorley, Gribbon and Foggitt, in Art Deco style, the whole a single department store from 1938.

Description

Shops and offices, 1898-1904, altered in the C20. By Frank Matcham for the Leeds Estates Company as part of the County Arcade development. Free Baroque style. 1930-1931 building to Briggate and Kirkgate corner, by Chorley, Gribbon & Foggitt, in Art Deco style, the whole a single department store from 1938.

MATERIALS: pressed brick and Burmantofts buff terracotta, mahogany shopfronts with black Siena marble dressings. Slate, asphalt and corrugated-steel roof coverings. 121-126 Briggate is steel framed with Portland stone cladding, steel windows, and corrugated-steel and paving slab roof coverings.

PLAN: a long linear development on the south side of King Edward Street with a western return onto Briggate and an eastern return onto a narrow alley named Fish Street approximately halfway along the street, which divides the block from its similarly detailed eastern counterpart (separately listed at Grade II). Attached to the south side of 115-120 Briggate is the 1930s 121-126 Briggate, which is largely rectangular in plan, but with a slightly angled south elevation that follows the line of Kirkgate.

EXTERIOR:

115-120 BRIGGATE and 2-16 KING EDWARD STREET BLOCK: Matcham's 1898-1904 block along the south side of King Edward Street is of three-storeys plus basement and attic with decorative work in Burmantofts terracotta, including shaped window surrounds, shaped and Dutch/Flemish gables, and relief strapwork scrolls, foliage, carved heads, and plaque decoration. A large north-west corner turret with a polygonal roof exists at the Briggate end, along with a smaller north-east turret with a polygonal roof at the junction with Fish Street.

To the ground floor are mahogany shopfronts with slender mullions and decorative spandrels. The shopfronts are 1990s reproductions that replaced a 1930s open loggia-style arcade with recessed display windows. A later entrance has been incorporated to the block's north-west corner facing Briggate, along with three further traditional-style entrances on the King Edward Street elevation. The ground-floor bays are separated by black polished-granite pilasters. On the first floor are large casement windows with round and basket-arched heads, prominent keystones, and carved Ionic mullions in the style of gaines (a form of decorative tapered pedestal), whilst the windows to the second floor are simpler and contain plate-glass sashes. To the top of the King Edward Street elevation is a dentilled cornice and balustraded parapet surmounted by shaped, pedimented and Dutch gables. The western Briggate return and the eastern return onto Fish Street are similarly styled to the King Edward Street elevation. Neighbouring buildings fronting onto Fish Street and Kirkgate are attached to the rear.

At the junction with Fish Street, and mirroring the design of the eastern block across the alleyway, is a corner turret that incorporates three elliptical roundels containing coloured and gilded mosaics depicting an artist's palette and measuring tool (probably referencing an original occupier of 16 King Edward Street) flanked by scrolled foliate decoration. To the ground floor is an original entrance opening and doorway.

The block's roof has been replaced and considerably raised, but two small dormer windows at the north-west corner that face onto Briggate and King Edward Street have been retained. A late-C20 plant deck*, which is not of special interest, has also been introduced and straddles the roofs of the block and 121-126 Briggate.

121-126 BRIGGATE: 121-126 Briggate is attached to the south side of 115-120 Briggate, at the corner with Kirkgate, with four-bay principal elevations onto both streets and a canted south-west corner. Both principal elevations are of four-bays (that to Kirkgate is wider) plus the canted corner bay. The building is of five-storeys plus basement, with the fourth floor set back on the building's flat roof to prevent light into neighbouring buildings being compromised. The building has a steel frame with Portland stone cladding to the exterior and steel casement windows with margin lights to the upper and lower parts. The ground floor is clad in black polished granite and includes a deep signage fascia that runs around and across both elevations and is supported by pilasters with stepped capitals and integral display cabinets (now partly boarded over) to the front face. Below the fascia band are metal shopfronts with a clerestory-style Art Deco patterned frieze comprised of electrocopper glazing. A later doorway has replaced a shopfront window to the far left of the Briggate elevation, and two former entrances on each side have been converted into shopfront windows. The building's south-west corner originally comprised three shopfronts at ground-floor level, including one to the canted corner itself and flanking windows to the side returns, but these were removed in the 1990s and a main entrance created.

The three bays that wrap around the south-west canted corner rise slightly higher than the rest of the elevations with a solid parapet incorporating a stepped zig-zag patterned frieze. To each of the three main upper floors located are large windows (those to the corner wrap around its canted sides slightly) with cast-iron panels with zig-zag mouldings separating the upper-floor levels. Both the windows and panels are painted a cream/pale yellow colour, which is replicated to the rest of the principal elevations. The remaining bays to each principal elevation have recessed glazed curtain walling arranged in a concertina-like fenestration pattern across the elevations below a fluted frieze. The bays are separated vertically by octagonal pilaster strips and the same moulded panels as those to the south-west corner are set between the upper floor levels. At the top of the elevations is a plain parapet surmounted by a later railed balustrade. The bay to the far right of the Kirkgate (south) elevation has an additional storey at roof level in the same style and materials as the original floors below. This was added in 1995 when the neighbouring property, 7 Kirkgate, was demolished and replaced by a glazed stair and lift tower providing access to a restaurant created on the fourth floor. 7 Kirkgate does not form part of the listing.

The flat-roofed fourth floor, which originally housed the service areas and kitchens for a third-floor restaurant, but itself became a restaurant in 1995, is rendered and is set back from the roof edge with a walkway/narrow paved terrace wrapping around both west and south sides. A slender, fully glazed addition* on the south side was added in 1995 and is not of special interest. The building is attached on its eastern side to neighbouring buildings fronting onto Kirkgate and Fish Street.

INTERIORS: the interiors*, which have been substantially altered and modernised in the late C20 and early C21 and have lost their original features, are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street were constructed in 1898-1904 as part of the County Arcade development designed by the theatre architect Frank Matcham for the Leeds Estates Company. The development, which swept away old buildings and yards around the Smithfield Meat Market and Shambles area (rows of butchers' shops), saw part of the oldest district in the city transformed with flamboyantly designed buildings containing shop premises, cafes, offices, and two arcades.

Blocks were constructed in and around the newly laid-out streets of Queen Victoria Street and King Edward Street, including County Arcade and Cross Arcade, and two blocks on the south side of King Edward Street (a western block comprised of 115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street, and an eastern block comprised of 18-26 King Edward Street and 49-51 Vicar Lane) separated by a narrow alley/lane called Fish Street (in the early C19 the area around Fish Street had been established as a fish and vegetable market).

The corner premises of 115-117 Briggate and 2 King Edward Street was first occupied by Charles James Fox, piano dealer, and the remainder of the block's King Edward Street elevation was comprised of smaller retail units. In 1926 115-120 Briggate and 2-14 King Edward Street were bought by H and D Hart Ltd, milliners, costumiers and furriers, who moved there from 2-4 New Briggate. Also, around this time a loggia-style shopfront display arcade was added to the ground floor of the King Edward Street elevation and an internal display arcade also incorporated inside the western Briggate entrance. In November 1938 Matthias Robinson Ltd purchased the buildings (along with 16 King Edward Street) and the business of H and D Hart Ltd, including all their stock, for around £200,000, in order to extend their store, which was located in the neighbouring building of 121-126 Briggate.

Matthias Robinson Ltd was founded in West Hartlepool in 1875 by Matthias Robinson who established a small drapers shop. The company later grew in size and opened another store in Stockton in the 1890s, which was destroyed by fire a year after opening. The company subsequently built a larger store known as the Coliseum. In 1910 the company bought a number of buildings on Briggate and Kirkgate in Leeds city centre, including the Buck Inn, which were converted for use as a department store. However, the buildings, which had differing floor levels throughout and had limited space, were not suitable and in 1930-1931 the buildings were demolished and construction of a new purpose-built store at 121-126 Briggate began. The new store, which increased the number of departments from fifteen to twenty-nine, opened on 2 September 1931 and included a restaurant and smoking lounge on the third floor, and a shopfront display arcade on the ground floor inside the main entrances.

The new building at 121-126 Briggate was designed by the Leeds architects Chorley, Gribbon and Foggitt and was designed to provide the maximum floorspace with the minimum obstruction. William Irwin and Co Ltd of Leeds were the principal contractors. Following the purchase of 115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street in 1938 these buildings were subsequently amalgamated internally with 121-126 Briggate to create a single large department store. Matthias Robinson Ltd was acquired by Debenhams in 1962 and the store's name officially changed to Debenhams in 1972. The internal arcades were removed from both buildings in the 1960s and an additional floor was added to the top of 121-126 Briggate at around the same time. Further internal alterations were carried out in the 1990s when floor levels were fully aligned and the interior of 115-120 Briggate/2-16 King Edward Street was completely removed as part of a facade retention scheme. A structural steel frame was inserted and tied to the external walls, the roof was replaced and also raised, and escalators inserted. The mid-C20 top storey of 121-126 Briggate was also removed and modern corrugated roof coverings introduced, and a modern plant deck installed that spans both roofs. A narrow building located at 7 Kirkgate was also demolished at the same time and replaced with a stair and lift tower. The upper floors of neighbouring buildings in the south-east corner of the block (8-9 Kirkgate, and 9 Fish Street) were incorporated into the store as back offices and staff rooms in the early C21.

Following the collapse of Debenhams in December 2020 the buildings are in the process of being converted (winter 2021) for mixed commercial and residential use, along with the upper floors of neighbouring buildings on Kirkgate and Fish Street, and the 1990s escalators have been removed.

Reasons for Listing

115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street, constructed in 1898-1904 to designs by Frank Matcham, and 121-126 Briggate, constructed in 1930-1931 to designs by Chorley, Gribbon and Foggitt, amalgamated into a single department store in 1938, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* they have striking principal elevations combining flamboyant Free Baroque and sleek Art Deco architectural styling that display strong levels of architectural flair and distinction;
* 115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street incorporate high-quality decorative terracotta work by the renowned local firm of Burmantofts, whilst 121-126 Briggate's contrasting and progressive modern design is a good example of an early-1930s provincial department store exterior with bold wave-like fenestration, zig-zag mouldings and carvings, and a canted south-west corner that acts as a modern interpretation of the corner treatment of Matcham's build;
* despite the loss of the interiors the exteriors survive well overall and the buildings have a very strong townscape presence;
* 115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street was designed by the renowned theatre architect Frank Matcham, who has many listed buildings to his name, whilst 121-126 Briggate is a good example of the work of a notable local firm.

Historic interest:

* 115-120 Briggate and 2-16 King Edward Street forms part of an ambitious late-C19/early-C20 town planning and redevelopment scheme;
* the buildings, which were amalgamated in 1938 to form enlarged department store premises for Matthias Robinson Ltd, are a good example of the evolution of retail buildings in the late C19 and C20, and the changing architectural fashions of the period.

Group value:

* the buildings have strong group value with 18-26 King Edward Street and 49-51 Vicar Lane and the various listings covering the Victoria Quarter, as well as other listed C19 and C20 commercial buildings on Briggate.

External Links

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