Park Square is a Georgian public square in central Leeds, West Yorkshire. The square is grassed over and is a traditional Georgian park. The square is in Leeds' financial quarter and is surrounded by Georgian buildings, which are occupied as offices, many by barristers and solicitors.
Park Square was part of a fashionable West End housing development, known as the Park Estates which was developed at the end of the eighteenth century for the upwardly mobile wealthy, to give them some distance from industry and the river, but within easy reach of the commercial centre. [1] It was laid out from 1788, [1] being completed in its original form in 1810 with houses 'well built in the modern tradition'. [2] Somewhat grander dwellings were available in nearby Park Place. [1] In naming the area, the word 'street' was avoided in favour of terms such as 'Row', 'Parade', 'Place' and 'Square', considered more prestigious, as had already been done in Georgian developments such as Bath, Bloomsbury and Bristol. [3]
It featured a private garden square and a church, St Paul's, on the south side which offered exclusive pew and interment rights to the residents. [4]
However the initial aim of a purely residential area was not maintained when a large warehouse and cloth cutting works, St Paul's House, was built in 1878 for ready-made mass production tailor John Barran on St Paul's Street, with its rear aspect effectively taking up half the south side of the square. This was, however, in grand Arabic-Saracenic style by architect Thomas Ambler, and notable as the first planned and designed clothing factory. [5] The building was modernised and converted to offices in 1977, with a new main entrance on Park Square South. [5] [2]
The other half of the south side of the square was taken up by St Paul's Church, (built 1793, demolished 1906). In 1938 Rivers House (21 Park Square South) was built on the site in Neo-Georgian style as offices for the Water Board. [6] It is now private flats: Park Square Residences. Number 9, Park Square East is Vicarage Chambers, being on the site of the former vicarage of St Paul's Church. [7]
For much of the 20th century a major feature was a bronze statue by Alfred Drury (1895) of Circe who changed the companions of Odysseus into swine, shown around her feet. [5] [8] This is also Grade II listed, [8] but was moved to the Leeds Museum in 2008. [9]
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Edward Alfred Briscoe Drury was a British architectural sculptor and artist active in the New Sculpture movement. During a long career Drury created a great number of decorative figures such as busts and statuettes plus larger monuments, war memorials, statues of royalty and architectural pieces. During the opening years of the 20th-century he was among the foremost architectural sculptors active in Britain and in that period created the series of works in central London for which he is perhaps now best known. These include the figures on the Old War Office building in Whitehall, elements of the facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum and four of the colossal statues on Vauxhall Bridge.
The architecture of Leeds, a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, encompasses a wide range of architectural styles and notable buildings. As with most northern industrial centres, much of Leeds' prominent architecture is of the Victorian era. However, the City of Leeds also contains buildings from as early as the Middle Ages such as Kirkstall Abbey, one of Britain's best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries, as well as examples of 20th century industrial architecture, particularly in the districts of Hunslet and Holbeck.
Leeds Civic Trust is a voluntary organisation and registered charity established in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in 1965. Affiliated to the national charity Civic Voice, its stated purpose is "to stimulate public interest in and care for the beauty, history, and character of the city and locality, to encourage high standards of design, architecture and town planning; [and] to encourage the development and improvement of features of general public amenity".
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Kelly & Birchall, a partnership between Edward Birchall and John Kelly (1840–1904), was an architectural practice based in Leeds, England, from 1886 to 1904 and specialising in churches in the Italianate and Gothic Revival styles.
Mawer and Ingle was a company of architectural sculptors, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between 1860 and 1871. It comprised cousins Charles Mawer and William Ingle (1828–1870), and Catherine Mawer (1804–1877) who was mother of Charles and aunt of William. The group produced carvings on many Gothic Revival churches and their internal furnishings. They also worked on civic buildings, warehouses and offices. Many of these are now listed by Historic England, and many of the surviving buildings are within Yorkshire. Their work outside Yorkshire included Trent Bridge.
Alfred Hill Thompson, ARIBA was an English architect in the Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts styles, who specialised in small schools and chapels in the Yorkshire area. In partnership with Isaac Thomas Shutt he co-designed the Church of All Saints, Harlow Hill, completed in 1871.
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