Details
LEEDS
SE3137SE GLEDHOW LANE, Gledhow
714-1/57/696 (South side)
22/09/75 Gledhow Hall
II*
Mansion, now flats. Completed shortly after 1766, by John Carr
for John Beckett; altered and extended for James Kitson, Lord
Airedale c1885-1890 by architects Chorley and Connon. Ashlar;
hipped slate and lead roofs, tall corniced stack to ridge
between bays 1 and 2, to left end, and rear of ridge left and
right; balustered parapet, cornices, chamfered quoins. 2
storeys over cellars.
West front has 2 two-storey canted bays and 3 windows between,
all sashes without glazing bars, in moulded architraves.
Central paired glazed doors with overlight, Gibbs surround and
pediment, 4 stone steps with nosed treads.
Rear: late C19 work: 3 bays of 3,4,3 windows, the outer
3-window bays project; entrance in left bay with 2 pairs of
decorated Ionic columns in antis forming a loggia with white
marble paving; central bay has 4-pane sashes, bay window left;
paired and single sashes to right bay; service block recessed
right.
Left return: the large C19 service block projects on left; the
main house has a corner entrance porch with Tuscan columns,
glazed door with overlight, a finely-detailed oriel window to
1st floor, centre, has acanthus, egg-and-dart, and fluted
decoration below paired windows (modern frames), cornice
above; to left are the paired segmental-arched bathroom and
toilet windows; to right an external stack with stepped
corniced stages and tall flue.
INTERIOR: entrance through the rear loggia: architrave to
recessed doorway, carved scroll to entablature, shallow
triangular pediment with winged cherub holding shield
inscribed 'SALVE'; paired half-glazed panelled doors, fine
stained glass with fruit and butterfly motifs, damaged.
Entrance hall: mosaic floor with scrolled pattern in black and
brown. Doorways have architraves, hallway has later partitions
(for flats), panelled dado and mouldings, some reset. Stone
cantilevered stairs, wrought-iron scrolled balustrade,
mahogany handrail; partitioned top-lit stair well retains 8
fine lunette windows, each with stained glass representing
foliage, flowers and fruit framing a central coloured panel of
translucent stone or stained glass, painted glass borders with
ferns, scrolls etc.
1st floor, NW side, the very fine tiled bathroom of c1885
designed by Chorley and Connon for Mr Kitson: 2 panelled
mahogany doors, one into a shallow cupboard, carved walnut
segmental panel over, moulded tiled walls in brown, blue and
white, dado, moulded rail, arcaded walls, imposts with scrolls
and masks, cornice, scrolled frieze, dentilled cornice. The
ceiling also tiled in a strapwork design incorporating 3
diamond-shaped vents; the fireplace in the E wall is bolection
moulded with scrolls and swags below a dentilled pediment.
Next to the bathroom the toilet is similarly decorated with
tiled walls, the windows have fine stained glass with bird
motifs.
Ground-floor rooms not examined but reputed to retain fine
interior fittings of the C18 and C19.
Lord Airedale (1835-1911) was the 2nd son of James Kitson
(1807-85), founder of the famous Kitson Airedale locomotive
foundries. An industrial magnate and notable figure in the
Liberal party locally and nationally; he was created baronet
in 1887.
(Thoresby Society Publication Vols LX and LXI, Nos 131 and
132: Beresford, M W: East End, West End. The Face of Leeds
1684-1842: Leeds: 1988-: 119; Fraser, D (Ed): A History of
Modern Leeds: Manchester: 1980-).
Listing NGR: SE3156637049
