Description

LEEDS

SE2835NE CUMBERLAND ROAD, Headingley
714-1/65/738 (West side)
Old Hall, part of Devonshire Hall of
Residence, University of Leeds

GV II

Formerly known as: Regent Villas CUMBERLAND ROAD Headingley.
Pair of semi-detached houses, now university hall of residence
offices and meeting rooms. Mid C19. Coursed squared
hammer-dressed gritstone and ashlar, slate hipped roof. The
houses are back-to-back in plan, 2 storeys with basement and
attics, having entrances on the S and N sides, the latter
altered when a link was built with Devonshire Hall. The
unaltered S side is of 6 bays with the entrance in the
projecting hipped bay 4: glazed door with 2 panels and plain
fanlight in a moulded keyed surround; heavy console brackets
support a deep cornice and pierced entablature with a pattern
of alternate large and small roundels which is repeated on
1st-floor sill bands and a parapet on the N side.
Fenestration: 2, 3 and 4 round-arched lights in moulded
architraves to ground floor; 2 and 3-light square-headed
windows to 1st floor. Bracketed eaves, the left 2 bays have a
separate hipped roof; gabled dormer right, tall moulded stacks
to left and right rear of ridge.
The rear (N) side is similar but with an added projecting bay
to right of the entrance which provides a basement and large
music room; round-arched lights to ground floor. The E, garden
front is of 3 bays with 1:3:1 windows, the outer hipped-roof
bays project. 3 evenly-spaced moulded ashlar stacks forward of
ridge on centre bay; to rear of ridge the 2 wooden lanterns
which light the stair wells have eaves brackets and pyramid
roofs. W side: former service entrances with steps, centre,
the outer bays project.
INTERIOR: the N house has fine detailing which includes: a
painted glass panel in the W window of the former lobby with
coat of arms and the motto 'INTER.CRUCES.TRIUMPHANS.IN.CRUCE';
inner double doors, margin lights and overlight, all with fine
engraved glass panels; a polychrome tile floor, probably
Minton; hall walls lined with marble panels; marble
architraves; 4-panel doors; a triple-arched doorway into the
Fenton Room, right, with marble columns, double 6-panel doors
and margin lights; a wooden staircase of 3 straight flights
with alternate wide and slender vase balusters and broad
moulded handrail; the staircase walls lined with richly
patterned moulded tiles to dado rail; possibly original

moulded wallpaper, overpainted. The Fenton Room has a
fireplace of veined brown marble with attached moulded
columns.
Built as Regent Villas (probably Nos 3 & 4), with another pair
of houses and a gate house, all now part of the Devonshire
Hall complex. Possibly designed by John Child, the earliest
Directory entry for the group is 1872 when Mrs Mary Dickinson,
Joseph Dickinson Thorp (corn miller), Mary Ann Thorp, Charles
Ryder (brewer), and John Whiting (Manchester warehouseman)
were residents. The 1890 Ordnance Survey map shows the layout
of drives from the gatehouse to each entrance, and the route
around the S and W sides of the grounds to the coach house
(qv). By 1894 the residents were: Henry Paterson, flax
spinner, John Shephard, machine tool maker, George Dalton,
machine maker, Charles Dennison Heaps, lead merchant, and Mrs
Sarah Marsden.
(Directories of Leeds for 1872 and 1894: Porter, White).

Listing NGR: SE2868935848

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26656129

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)