Description

LEEDS

SE3033SW CROWN STREET
714-1/78/145 (East side)
19/10/51 No.27
Remains of north-west range of White
Cloth Hall, including entrance
(Formerly Listed as:
CROWN STREET
White Cloth Hall)

GV II*

Entrance to cloth hall, now shops. Opened 1776, cupola from
Second Cloth Hall of 1756, altered 1865 and C20. Red brick,
part rendered and lined in imitation of ashlar, stone
dressings, stone cupola, slate roof.
10 arches of a blind arcade remain from the much longer west
range of the hall which took the form of 4 wings ranged around
a rectangular courtyard, the northern range including the
upper Assembly Rooms (qv).
Facade: 3-arched entrance bay breaks forward with mouldings
and key-blocks to arches on imposts above rusticated
pilasters; central wide carriage entrance, glazed door in
architrave to left; pediment above frames remains of
shouldered architrave to circular window (blocked). Flanking
blind arcade (4 to left, 3 to right) has plain impost blocks
and probably inserted openings. Rear: walling to right of
entrance bay intact: 4 round-arched recesses, 2 retaining
original small-pane windows; stone sills and impost blocks;
brick dentilled eaves.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the Leeds cloth market was held in Briggate
until the First Cloth Hall for undyed (white) cloth was opened
in Kirkgate (qv) in 1711. Weavers bought from the merchants of
the city who would then finish, dye and resell. In 1756 the
expansion in the trade resulted in the construction of the
Second Cloth Hall in Meadow Lane, by which time 4,000-5,000
clothiers attended the Leeds cloth halls each week. The
merchants financed this, the third Cloth Hall in the 1770s, a
period when three-quarters of the cloth passing through Leeds
was exported, one of the country's major exports. The
development of factory processing of cloth through all its
stages in the early C19 caused the decline in the use of the
Cloth Hall and when the viaduct carrying the new railway line
was built in 1865 a large part of the building was demolished.
No.25 White Cloth Hall (part) and the Industrial premises to
rear of Third White Cloth Hall entrance range are not included

as part of this listing
(Burt, S & Grady, K: The Merchants' Golden Age: Leeds
1700-1790: 1987-: 11; ).

Listing NGR: SE3041733348

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17533890

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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