SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Secret Leeds is one week old, & has nearly 100 registered users..! Actually, I am hoping that another three people will register while I am typing this (number 97 has just registered).97 registered users.2,292 visits.28,181 page views....in 7 days.I was worried that I might be the only one interested in this kind of stuff. Obviously not!Tell lots of other people. Lets make it 200 in two weeks!

In fact (one hour & ten minutes later), make that 100 registered users! Thanks everyone. Now I can rest.

Is this a pic of St. Paul's House?This was built as John Barran's flagship clothing factory when Leeds was the centre of the British (World?) tailoring industry. The architect was Thomas Ambler who chose the Moorish style for the building.

This is St Paul's House... Not all that secret, but beautiful anyway. Maybe Bagpuss can tell us who did the tiles?Does anyone know why Ambler chose the Moorish style? (I'm not trying to be clever here, by the way... I don't know the answer!).

Congratulations on the popularity. Where is the above building, I don't recall ever seeing it?

The corner of Park Square East & Saint Paul's Street in the city centre. There are minarets at each corner, & this fantastic entrance at the south east corner.

It was a Victorian fad to copy all sorts of architecture. This from the Leeds Civic Trust website.It is not clear whether the Moorish style of St Paul's House was Barran's or Ambler's idea. Perhaps Barran wanted to make his mark as effectively as John Marshall had 40 years earlier with the Egyptian style Mill in Holbeck. Ambler was no doubt aware of the Alhambra in Spain. But the building doesn't embrace the Moorish style whole-heartedly. There is little evidence of it at the lower levels where a simple flat-arched opening rises through two floors. As the building rises there are increasing Islamic influences in the central columns dividing the windows on the next two floors, and finally, along with the arched entrance on St Paul's Street, only the highest floor is given the full Moorish treatment with cusped arches and lattice work, while the top corners are finished off with four miniature minarets.http://www.leedscivictrust.org.uk/barran.htm

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