Feature - March 2007, Leeds Town Hall

MsJ2uk · Post by **MsJ2uk** » Tue 08 Jan, 2008 12:08 pm

Phill_d wrote: Yes deffo thats one i'd like to do PRETTY PLEASE mate I've done the clock tower & Town Hall tour twice, it is interesting.I'm at the Town Hall on 13th Jan, doing the tour again....unfortunately not the clock though.

Post by **cnosni** » Thu 10 Jan, 2008 12:06 pm

MsJ2uk wrote: Phill_d wrote: Yes deffo thats one i'd like to do PRETTY PLEASE mate I've done the clock tower & Town Hall tour twice, it is interesting.I'm at the Town Hall on 13th Jan, doing the tour again....unfortunately not the clock though. Okay,here goes.How can one arrange,if a all possible, a "trip" up the clock tower for us interested Loiners?Any one help?

Phill_d · Post by **Phill_d** » Thu 10 Jan, 2008 12:09 pm

cnosni wrote: MsJ2uk wrote: Phill_d wrote: Yes deffo thats one i'd like to do PRETTY PLEASE mate I've done the clock tower & Town Hall tour twice, it is interesting.I'm at the Town Hall on 13th Jan, doing the tour again....unfortunately not the clock though. Okay,here goes.How can one arrange,if a all possible, a "trip" up the clock tower for us interested Loiners?Any one help? YES I SECOND THIS MOTION!!!!!! spiffing idea mate

Post by **cnosni** » Thu 10 Jan, 2008 12:19 pm

dazzel wrote: hi guys and girls,,,,,great site. moved to jersey from leeds 12 years ago , but as they say -you can take the lad from the north, but you cant take the north outta the lad

.....R.E what was on town hall site?..i can reme being in the art gallery as a boy with school.in there is an oil on canvas titled "The Mute Hall" (at least i think that was the title).anyway i seem to reme the curator telling the group that the Mute Hall was the 1st town hall and it was on the site of the present hall,,,,like i said ,its a long time ago but maybe worth checking out... Okay everyone,i have solved the mystery of what ws on the site of the town hall.I have consulted my new collection of old Leeds maps i bought from the library and i can tell you that...............(drum roll please)In 1847,it was a park/formal garden which looks like it was open to the public.It would looked quite nice there,adjacent to the Oxford Place wesleyan chapel which still exists,located on the other side of the street on the western side of the town hall.As for the moot hall,there is some speculation as to how it got its name,but the Dictionary says "Moot-debateable,not settled. Raise a point for discussion,(hist)assembly of freemen of a town"Doesnt seem too controversial that the Moot Hall was used for gatherings,in which points for discussion will have been raised.Link to Leodis image of the Moot Hall,which was situated just North of the juncture of Briggate and Kirkgate so just about where the front of Debenhams is now.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 8_83250064

Chrism · Post by **Chrism** » Sun 27 Jan, 2008 3:56 pm

Oooh! I've been up the clock tower,and walked round the walkway at the top, a couple of times. Is it still open on Heritage weekend?

Bramley4woods · Post by **Bramley4woods** » Sun 27 Jan, 2008 5:09 pm

cnosni wrote: dazzel wrote: hi guys and girls,,,,,great site. moved to jersey from leeds 12 years ago , but as they say -you can take the lad from the north, but you cant take the north outta the lad

.....R.E what was on town hall site?..i can reme being in the art gallery as a boy with school.in there is an oil on canvas titled "The Mute Hall" (at least i think that was the title).anyway i seem to reme the curator telling the group that the Mute Hall was the 1st town hall and it was on the site of the present hall,,,,like i said ,its a long time ago but maybe worth checking out... Okay everyone,i have solved the mystery of what ws on the site of the town hall.I have consulted my new collection of old Leeds maps i bought from the library and i can tell you that...............(drum roll please)In 1847,it was a park/formal garden which looks like it was open to the public.It would looked quite nice there,adjacent to the Oxford Place wesleyan chapel which still exists,located on the other side of the street on the western side of the town hall. Just a thought but could it have been the original Park as in Park Lane and Park Square ?More thoughts ... How big was it?Did it extend as far as Cookridge street and were the Education Offices, The Public Library, and the Art Gallery built on it? How about the Cookridge Street baths? The Civic Hall even (obviously much later)?

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jan, 2008 8:33 pm

Bramley4woods wrote: cnosni wrote: dazzel wrote: hi guys and girls,,,,,great site. moved to jersey from leeds 12 years ago , but as they say -you can take the lad from the north, but you cant take the north outta the lad

.....R.E what was on town hall site?..i can reme being in the art gallery as a boy with school.in there is an oil on canvas titled "The Mute Hall" (at least i think that was the title).anyway i seem to reme the curator telling the group that the Mute Hall was the 1st town hall and it was on the site of the present hall,,,,like i said ,its a long time ago but maybe worth checking out... Okay everyone,i have solved the mystery of what ws on the site of the town hall.I have consulted my new collection of old Leeds maps i bought from the library and i can tell you that...............(drum roll please)In 1847,it was a park/formal garden which looks like it was open to the public.It would looked quite nice there,adjacent to the Oxford Place wesleyan chapel which still exists,located on the other side of the street on the western side of the town hall. Just a thought but could it have been the original Park as in Park Lane and Park Square ?More thoughts ... How big was it?Did it extend as far as Cookridge street and were the Education Offices, The Public Library, and the Art Gallery built on it? How about the Cookridge Street baths? The Civic Hall even (obviously much later)? Its thought that the Park Square/Park Lane place names actually refer to the Manorial Park which was in that area.The Leeds council site Discovering Leeds says this.Park Estate"The Park Estate took its name from the medieval park which had been part of the demesne of Leeds manor. After the sale of the manor by Charles I in 1628, the park was broken up and sold off as small closes or fields. At the end of the seventeenth century the Wilson family inherited the site of the manor house and some of these fields. Gradually the Wilsons acquired more land, and by 1761 Richard Wilson owned all the land to the west of Boar Lane and the Coloured Cloth Hall, almost as far as the township boundary. The land was made up of fields; there were no buildings except for the farms at Drony Laith and St. Peter's Hill. The northern boundary of the estate ran along Park Lane, which joined the Upperhead Row at Burley Bar at its western end."

muhniepie · Post by **muhniepie** » Sat 01 Mar, 2008 6:03 pm

Having taken the excellent town hall tour on Friday 29th March I was informed that the tower of the town hall was a late addition. the original designs did not have the tower in them, and when Queen Victoria opened the town hall there was no tower. It made me think how weird it would look if a tower had never been built. I decided to do some playing in Photoshop to see what it would have looked like.

muhniepie · Post by **muhniepie** » Sat 01 Mar, 2008 6:06 pm

I am so glad the tower was built! the building just isn't the same without it. The most impressive and unique part of the structure is definitely the tower.

Post by **cnosni** » Sat 01 Mar, 2008 8:45 pm

muhniepie wrote: Having taken the excellent town hall tour on Friday 29th March I was informed that the tower of the town hall was a late addition. the original designs did not have the tower in them, and when Queen Victoria opened the town hall there was no tower. It made me think how weird it would look if a tower had never been built. I decided to do some playing in Photoshop to see what it would have looked like. Wow thats weird,definitely needed a tower to top it off.