page_title: Leeds Town Hall
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Leeds Town Hall / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Spring 1972 and Leeds Town Hall has its first official clean up (on previous occasions it had been hosed down by the fire brigade) which revealed much of the beautiful stonework.
context_page_description: Leeds Town Hall is a 19th century municipal building on The Headrow, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built between 1853 and 1858 to a design by the architect Cuthbert Brodrick. With the building of the Civic Hall in 1933, some of these functions were relocated, and after the construction of the Leeds Crown Court in 1993, the Town Hall now serves mainly as a concert, conference and wedding venue, its offices still used by some council departments. It was designated a Grade I listed building in 1951.
  Imagined as a municipal palace to demonstrate the power and success of Victorian Leeds, and opened by Queen Victoria in a lavish ceremony in 1858, it is one of the largest town halls in the United Kingdom. With a height of 225 feet it was the tallest building in Leeds for 108 years from 1858 until 1966, when it lost the title to the Park Plaza Hotel, which stands 26 feet taller at 253 feet.
context_section_description: Leeds Civic Hall, on a nearby site further up Calverley Street, was commissioned in 1929 in a Keynesian project intended to provide work for the local unemployed. The Civic Hall opened in 1933 as the seat of Leeds City Council; the Council Chamber of the Town Hall was converted to a courtroom.
  On 14 and 15 March 1941, Leeds was bombed by the Luftwaffe. Houses were destroyed in inner-city districts and bombs dropped on the city centre, hitting the east side of the Town Hall, causing significant damage to its roof and walls on Calverley Street. The damage was repaired shortly after, but evidence still remains in Victoria Gardens. For the duration of World War II, the Town Hall crypt housed an ARP post and from 1942 a British Restaurant, where people could enjoy cheap, hot food, which proved popular after the war, being refurbished in 1960 before closing in 1966.
  In 1951, the Town Hall was designated a Grade I listed building, a status applied to a building of exceptional architectural or historic interest, and which offers statutory protection against unauthorised demolition or modification.
  A fire damaged the courtroom in 1991. In 1993, Leeds Crown Court opened on Westgate, ending the Town Hall's role as a courthouse; its police station and cells (Bridewell) were closed at the same time. During its time as Leeds Assizes and later the Crown Court, the Town Hall held various notable cases, including the conviction and life-sentencing of Stefan Kiszko for the murder of Lesley Molseed in 1976 (later quashed) and the conviction of Zsiga Pankotia for the murder of Jack Eli Myers in 1961. Pankotia became the last man to be hanged at Armley Gaol.
  For much of the 20th century, the Town Hall was left blackened by soot and smoke from the industrial city surrounding it. In spring 1972 the building was given its first official clean-up – on previous occasions it had been hosed down by the fire brigade – which revealed much of the detailed stonework. This was strongly opposed by the Leeds Civic Trust, which preferred that its blackness "should stand as a symbol of the city's industrial past and as a reminder to future generations of the air pollution which the city is so successfully combatting".
caption: The Town Hall during its spring 1972 clean-up
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