Name that edifice - Victorian Style III

electricaldave · Post by **electricaldave** » Tue 06 May, 2008 9:00 pm

So it is that Tuesday presents to you the challenge which may yet be a greater test than those that have preceded.Yet, not being an ungenerous fellow, I shall provide an additional clue, for the establishment whose identity I seek, once held an auspicious, inaugural meeting of the great and the good of Leeds whose purpose was to explore the possibilities extent for the relief of the sick - and which, in eventual turn of many decades, commissioned that great structure designed by the same hand that planned the great railway station of St Pancras and the noteworthy Albert Memorial.The hostelry itself holds another, later, title which is the one I seek and which has more renown, but in modern times there stands a mere facsimile of the original (whose name should not trouble us here) - no longer serving the role for which it was devised.The XXXXX, called the XXXXX in 17XX: a good specimen of a "mansionised" front, erected upon a garden, and added to an older tenement. The high entry, afterwards constructed, is an obsolete feature. When the mansion was converted into XXXXX the entry had to be raised for the admission of the...........

sirjohn · Post by **sirjohn** » Tue 06 May, 2008 9:21 pm

Royal Hotel on lower briggate opposite Dysons & now offices? I believe the frontage is made of fibreglass.

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Wed 07 May, 2008 5:59 pm

becketts bank...or the general infirmary,i'll plum for the latter....on second thoughts...oh i don't know!...becketts bank building,park row,owned by those wetherspoon chaps....a bank now a pub???

electricaldave · Post by **electricaldave** » Wed 07 May, 2008 8:19 pm

Indeed Sirjohn you are a scholar.....for the original title of that establishment was the New Inn where on 20th May 1767 a meeting was convened to 'consider the expediancy of an infirmary' and it was agreed 'that parochial infirmary in this place would be of great Utility' and after further meetings it was resolved 'that the said Infirmary be stiled The General Infirmary at Leeds' and thus began a process that proceeded in eventuality through three locations to the well known structure penned by George Gilbert Scott.Yet the name I sought was indeed that of the Royal Hotel so named in 1834.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 779.....of the stage wagons with their towering loads. This feature, recurring elsewhere, marks the houses frequented by common carriers, when 'Leeds to London; old stage waggons in four days; freight, six shillings a hundredweight' was a vast surprise.

sirjohn · Post by **sirjohn** » Thu 08 May, 2008 12:52 am

Yay! According to discovering leeds the name Royal hotel came from when the Royal Mail Coaches used to use it and the courtyard could accomodate 18 horses. I bet no-one living in there has any idea....