Details
714-1/49/437 WHITFIELD WAY
21-FEB-72 (East side)
THE GARDEN GATE PUBLIC HOUSE
(Formerly listed as:
WATERLOO ROAD
THE GARDEN GATE PUBLIC HOUSE)
II*
Also Known As: THE GARDEN GATE PUBLIC HOUSE, WATERLOO ROAD
Public house. 1902-3, by W. Mason Coggill of Stourton.
Brick and terracotta with glazed tiles to frontage; grey slate hipped roof, moulded eaves cornice, brick parapets to left and right returns, front parapet and cresting centre removed; paired corniced side stacks, small dormer windows.
EXTERIOR
Two storeys and attic, three bays in ornate Italianate style. Central entrance with 4-panel door and semicircular overlight flanked by elliptically-arched windows, all highly decorated with moulded tiles in the form of recessed panels, fluted pilasters, scrolls and swags of fruit and flowers. First floor band with raised lettering: 'GARDEN GATE'. Oriel window to centre first floor with curved tripartite window, flanking single lights, all round-headed and with keyed architraves; pilasters to corners, swag frieze.
Left return: a symmetrical five-window facade on a sloping site, windows 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 separated by slightly projecting chimney stack ornamented at first-floor level;
Right return: central entrance with moulded high Classical surround, segmental pediment broken by round-arched staircase window.
INTERIOR
Central corridor plan. Extravagant use of decoration throughout, including mosaic floors, embossed tiles, moulded plasterwork, etched glass in mahogany doors, low screens and partition walls, mirrored overmantels and pendant light fittings with glass shades. The threshold stone is of fossiliferous black marble, and the small lobby has a mosaic floor with the public house name. The doorway marked 'Vaults', left, opens into the main front bar: walls lined with moulded tiles, a deep cornice of large tiles in Art Nouveau style, tiled fireplace with egg-and-dart moulding to mirror; the bar front is curved and has a cyma-moulded profile, tiled overall. A hatch at the back serves the Smoke Room which retains low screens, bench seats, panelled walls and glazed screen wall to corridor with service bell buttons and small oval plaques with maker's name: 'J.Claughton/ Complete House furnisher/ Hunslet, Leeds.' The fireplace has a cast-iron grate and carved wooden surround with mirrored overmantel. The central corridor is tiled throughout, with a round arch halfway along. A bar service hatch and the rear Smoke Room open off the left side of the corridor, and five doorways to the right: the entrance to the Tap Room, now games room, stone fire surrounds painted in imitation of marble, moulded wooden frame to mirror above, moulded cornice, bench seats with bell buttons; doorway opening onto the stairs up to first floor; doorway opening onto the stone cellar stairs; door with a glazed panels marked 'Ladies', originally the side entrance passage; door labelled BAR opens into room with glazed screen, bench seats, cast-iron fireplace with carved wood mirror surround, ceiling cornice.
A wooden dogleg staircase leads to the upper floors. The front room on the first floor extends across the entire width of the building and has original cornices and the openings for two original fireplaces. Other rooms are largely intact with original doors, cornices etc but little else of interest.
The building combines the plan of a small late Victorian/Edwardian public house (counter in the vault, hatchways to the smoke room and corridor), with a decorative treatment which rivals that of much larger city-centre 'gin palaces' of the period. The tiles were probably made by the Leeds Fireclay Company at Burmantofts, Leeds, towards the end of the period when tiled walls were generally popular.
HISTORY
There was a public house on the site from the 1820s, and it was named as the Garden Gate by 1849, probably in reference to local market gardens in the area. In 1874 it was sold to Henry Ryder for £2560. It was sold again in 1878 and again in 1881 to Edward Wilson, who bought the public house together with the 'brew house, wash house, yard and appertenances thereto'. He commissioned the rebuilding of the pub in its present form by W Mason Coggill. It was leased to William Whitaker's brewery in 1911 after Edward's death, and eventually, via Ind Coope, sold in 1964 to Tetley's. It came under threat in the late 1960s when the whole area was redeveloped, but local intervention saved the building although it no longer stands on the main Leeds-Hunslett road which has been blocked off and pedestrianised.
SOURCES
CAMRA; The Yorkshire Regional Inventory, (2007)
CAMRA; The CAMRA National Inventory - Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historical Interest, (2003), p.33
Brandwood, G, Davison, A, & Slaughter, M; Licensed to Sell - the History and Heritage of the Public House, (2004), pp 74-5, 77, 128, 137
Pepper, Barrie; Old Inns and Pubs of Leeds, (1988), pp1-4
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Garden Gate public house is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* It has an unaltered highly decorative faience and terracotta façade as well as a complete set of public rooms with intact fittings including wood and glass screens, fireplaces, fixed seating, bell pushes, and doors with carved woodwork and etched and cut glass signage
* It has extensive decorative glazed tiling in the central corridor and main bar, including fireplace, curved bar counter and Art Nouveau cornice
* The quality and originality of the design and craftsmanship in all the decorative work is very high
* The level of intactness throughout is unusually high, and nationally very rare.
