SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

There are 11 different face carvings on the side of the Town Hall facing Oxford Place. I only became aware of them very recently, so I took a photograph of each today (Aug 12 2013). This photo is the middle one of the 11. The faces are fierce looking (particularly the scary eyes in some of them!). On checking the Leodis website I found that 10 of the 11 seem to be in that in photos dated October 13 1999, where they are described as mythical heads. I thought I would however mention them for anyone who does not know of them and may be interested to at least have a look at them.I would have posted this in the 'Leeds Town Hall' forum rather than 'Buildings and structures' but for some reason the former (currently at least) does not seem to allow new threads to be added.

This photo shows the location of one face at the Bridewell of the Town Hall. There is one face just out of view to the left and the other 9 faces are out of view to the right.

I'd love to see the original templates or "cartoons" for the sculptures, as the stone masons must have worked from drawings. There are so many of these heads on keystones around Leeds, especially on rows of terraced houses. I've often wondered whether they were modelled on real people. It would be interesting to try to identify the mythical characters on the Town Hall!

Tasa wrote: I'd love to see the original templates or "cartoons" for the sculptures, as the stone masons must have worked from drawings. There are so many of these heads on keystones around Leeds, especially on rows of terraced houses. I've often wondered whether they were modelled on real people. It would be interesting to try to identify the mythical characters on the Town Hall! Hi Tasa. I would also like to know that. I thought I would post this photo (taken Aug 12 2013) showing what seems to be a cross-eyed face! The eyes are spooky on some of the faces!

Leodian wrote: Tasa wrote: I'd love to see the original templates or "cartoons" for the sculptures, as the stone masons must have worked from drawings. There are so many of these heads on keystones around Leeds, especially on rows of terraced houses. I've often wondered whether they were modelled on real people. It would be interesting to try to identify the mythical characters on the Town Hall! Hi Tasa. I would also like to know that. I thought I would post this photo (taken Aug 12 2013) showing what seems to be a cross-eyed face! The eyes are spooky on some of the faces! I just googled Leeds Town Hall and on one of the headings I came across a very detailed description of the architecture of that building. The description doesn't name the heads but mentions them as large keystones carved with Mythical heads.    

Thanks stutterdog for that interesting information.

Leodian wrote: Tasa wrote: I'd love to see the original templates or "cartoons" for the sculptures, as the stone masons must have worked from drawings. There are so many of these heads on keystones around Leeds, especially on rows of terraced houses. I've often wondered whether they were modelled on real people. It would be interesting to try to identify the mythical characters on the Town Hall! Hi Tasa. I would also like to know that. I thought I would post this photo (taken Aug 12 2013) showing what seems to be a cross-eyed face! The eyes are spooky on some of the faces! That does look like the way Zeus is regularly depicted.... though is probably just some stylised carving maybe?