Chapel Allerton - Architecture

Architecture

Chapel Allerton is a conservation area for the character and historical interest of its buildings, noted not for grand edifices but rather a diversity of good quality domestic buildings from various periods. The historic core is around Stainbeck Corner, particularly around Town Street and Well Lane, with 8 listed buildings. To the south and west of this is an area of grand detached houses with large gardens dating from the 18th and early 19th century. The earlier buildings are of fine-grained sandstone derived from the quarries which were once on Stainbeck Lane. These include a number of small 19th century two-storey houses as well as grander buildings. After 1890 brick terraced and back-to-back houses were built, but of better quality than workers' housing elsewhere in Leeds, as they were intended for artisans and the lower middle class. The advent of the electric tram in 1901 made the area more accessible and further housing began to fill in empty spaces though this was of varied types. It finally lost its village character in the 1920s and it joined the Leeds urban area. Thus the area between King George Avenue and Montreal Avenue was filled in between 1920 and 1939 with bungalows and stucco-faced houses typical of Leeds of the time. In Riveria Gardens were built white rendered houses in the Modernistic style.

After the Second World War further building and rebuilding continued, mostly unremarkable, though with a few examples of good modern design. The area was once home to an art deco cinema, the Dominion. Opened in 1934 and lasting only until 1967 when it operated as a bingo hall until the later part of the 1990, the cinema stood on Montreal Avenue. The residential street 'Dominion Close' is close to its former site.