Templar House is located on Lady Lane in the north eastern area of Leeds city centre. It has a varied history and I've put it in 'Other Sites' as its very difficult to categorise! This was a fascinating bit of research if you're a bit of a history geek, especially being quite familiar with that part of town.
The building and the area its located in has quite a history - the site was formerly the first Roman Catholic church in Leeds, built in 1786. It was replaced in 1840 as a Wesleyan Methodist chapel. At the time it was an important building and was one of the biggest chapels of its kind in Yorkshire, able to accommodate 1,700 worshippers with a schoolroom on the ground floor for 400 pupils. The surrounding area became much less densely populated so by 1933 it was no longer viable so was converted into offices. During the 1950's it was used as an army recruiting centre, for National Service and in the late 70's it was known as the Employment exchange (benefits office). Below photo taken 1956 when used by Hoover Ltd.
At some point it was also used by British Road Services, as the signage just about still shows. Apparently this organisation was renamed as the National Freight Corporation in 1969 so not sure if the old signage was just left in place. Below photo from 1984.
This was taken at the same time :
The building is Grade II Listed and according to Historic England it was then used for warehousing, which seems to add up given how most of the interior looked to me. However the last use made of it was as an amateur boxing club, which was quite successful it seems between around 1990-93.
The building currently sits within Victoria Gate, the £165m pound redevelopment. Phase 1 has been completed and was originally to incorporate Templar House in a new public open space but that didn't actually happen. Phase 2 is to involve more of the same, however according to one of the partners "The changing market conditions and impact to retailer confidence requires a re-appraisal of the second phase of the Victoria gate proposals". So we shall see...
The old signage
Not the original staircase
Some of the original coving and ceiling I think can be seen here
More internals
And finally what's left behind from the boxing club
The building and the area its located in has quite a history - the site was formerly the first Roman Catholic church in Leeds, built in 1786. It was replaced in 1840 as a Wesleyan Methodist chapel. At the time it was an important building and was one of the biggest chapels of its kind in Yorkshire, able to accommodate 1,700 worshippers with a schoolroom on the ground floor for 400 pupils. The surrounding area became much less densely populated so by 1933 it was no longer viable so was converted into offices. During the 1950's it was used as an army recruiting centre, for National Service and in the late 70's it was known as the Employment exchange (benefits office). Below photo taken 1956 when used by Hoover Ltd.
At some point it was also used by British Road Services, as the signage just about still shows. Apparently this organisation was renamed as the National Freight Corporation in 1969 so not sure if the old signage was just left in place. Below photo from 1984.
This was taken at the same time :
The building is Grade II Listed and according to Historic England it was then used for warehousing, which seems to add up given how most of the interior looked to me. However the last use made of it was as an amateur boxing club, which was quite successful it seems between around 1990-93.
The building currently sits within Victoria Gate, the £165m pound redevelopment. Phase 1 has been completed and was originally to incorporate Templar House in a new public open space but that didn't actually happen. Phase 2 is to involve more of the same, however according to one of the partners "The changing market conditions and impact to retailer confidence requires a re-appraisal of the second phase of the Victoria gate proposals". So we shall see...
The old signage
Not the original staircase
Some of the original coving and ceiling I think can be seen here
More internals
And finally what's left behind from the boxing club
