Park Square, Leeds
Park Square is a
History
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
For much of the 20th century a major feature was a bronze statue by
Former residents
- Pioneering surgeon Berkeley Moynihanhad his consultancy rooms on the square.
- Sir Clifford Allbutt, inventor of the clinical thermometer had his consulting rooms at number 35.[10]
- After marrying in 1808, brewer Joshua Tetley settled in Park Square.
- Edith Pechey, one of the first women doctors in the United Kingdom and a campaigner for women's rights, opened her own practice at number 8, Park Square.
Gallery
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From the South
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Looking westwards from the centre
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Looking east
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Statue of Circe and swine
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Blue Plaque
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Street sign
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Houses on the west side
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Street sign
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Park Square North with blue plaque
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Street sign
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8 Park Square East
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Rivers House
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 1-86077-130-0.
- ^ Built Environment Quarterly. 3 (3): 232–237.
- ISBN 0900741236.
- ^ ISBN 1-870071-638.
- ^ "Park Square South, no.21, Rivers House". www.leodis.net. Leeds Library & Information Services. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ Historic England. "Vicarage Chambers and Attached Railings (1375441)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Statue of Circe at West End of Central Garden (1375465)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "Leeds statue comes in from the cold". Yorkshire Evening Post. 7 March 2008.
- ^ Lazenby, Peter (6 December 2005). "Blue plaque for medical pioneer". Yorkshire Evening Post.