Leeds City Varieties

Heritage listing

Details LEEDS SE3033NW SWAN STREET 714-1/76/395 (North side) 15/02/60 City Varieties (Formerly Listed as: THE HEADROW (South side) City Palace of Varieties) II* Music hall theatre and inn. 1865, with remains of late C18 inn to east. By George Smith. For Charles Thornton. Rendered brick, slate roof. Theatre block: 3 storeys, 7 bays built on Swan Street, former entrance at east end of north side from The Headrow obscured by a canopy, rectangular window above; rear facade to Swan Street: entrance to ground floor/basement bar to right of centre, 2 tiers of round-arched recesses and bracketed eaves above. Remains of inn: 4 storeys, 2 bays fronting Swan Street, this block projects forward of the theatre and has the main theatre entrance left with segmental arch and moulded plaster semicircular arch above, later C20 openings to right; first floor: paired sash and 2 blocked windows; 2nd floor: 2 small segmental-arch casements left; 3rd floor: 4 flat-arched windows. INTERIOR: the former Headrow entrance has a stairway of 4 straight flights with a ramped wooden handrail on cast-iron balustrade with circular and scroll motifs; the stairs rise to the rear of the auditorium (above the ground-floor bar), and to the higher galleries and boxes. The Swan Street entrance has glazed double doors and opens into a more elaborate staircase hall with ticket office; the stone stairs to left and right are each of 2 flights, united at the 3rd flight and rising to a landing supported on ornate cast-iron columns. The balustrade to stairs and landing has cast-iron scrolled panels supporting a ramped wooden handrail. The auditorium is reached to the left and a bar and former dining room to the right. The latter has an inserted ceiling, the room above has traces of the original roll-moulded ceiling c

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.