Former Church Institute, corner of Albion Place and Lands Lane. Adams (Richard Life Adams, 1840-1883) & Kelly (John Kelly, 1840-1904). 1866-68. Albion Place and Lands Lane, Leeds. This pretty Gothic building once had "a lecture hall for 800, a library with 10,000 volumes and walls painted with frescoes of the saints" (Leach and Pevsner 443). It was an early and "well-regarded" work of a prolific partnership which, however, went on to produce less distinguished buildings, including many schools (Webster 352). After Adams' early death, Kelly went into partnership with Edward Birchall (1838-1903) and then worked in the London area, where he had some success, helped partly by being a Roman Catholic architect: for example, he built the Italianate St Patrick's, Soho Square, which has recently been restored at great cost. As for this early Leeds building, it was converted for commercial and retail use in 1980, and the new hooped display windows now show lingerie instead of saints.
Photographs, captions, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Sources
Leach, Peter, and Nikolaus Pevsner. Yorkshire West Riding, Leeds, Bradford and the North. The Buildings of England series. New Haven & London: Yale, 2009. Print.
Webster, Christopher, ed. Leeds Architects and Architecture 1790-1914 (see the "Directory" at the back, 399-402). Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, in Association with the Victorian Society, 2011. 159-180. Print.
Last modified 14 March 2012