History
After construction of the two prior white cloth halls in 1711 and 1756 there was a meeting in 1774 to plan the building of yet another cloth hall in Leeds. Most of the money for the scheme came from the wealthy Leeds merchants, and a site was found on a piece of land called the Tenter Ground in the Calls. The hall was built around a large central courtyard, and at the northern end it was two storeys high, with assembly rooms on the upper storey. The Hall was built at a cost of £4,300, and opened in 1775. During the Victorian period, the White Cloth Hall Yard played host to various events, including the circus, as evidenced by an 1858 poster for Pablo Fanque's Grand Allied Circus.
The Cupola from the demolished 2nd White Cloth Hall was installed on the roof in 1786.
When the railway system was extended through the town centre in 1865 the building was literally sliced in half by the new North Eastern Viaduct. This necessitated the construction of the 4th White Cloth Hall, built at the expense of the North Eastern Railway company.
Read more about this topic: 3rd White Cloth Hall
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“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)