CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

YORKSHIRE (WEST) - Leeds, Burley, Cardigan Arms

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

364 Kirkstall Road, Leeds, LS4 2HQ

Tel: 0113 274 2000

Public Transport: Bus 49, 50/50A

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

The development of dense streets of back-to-back housing on this part of Lord Cardigan's Leeds estate began in the 1870s, and when the Cardigan Arms was constructed in 1893-5 it was as the centrepiece of a thriving artisan suburb. The proprietor of the pub was Benjamin Greaves who employed architect Thomas Winn, a trustee of the Leeds Licensed Victuallers' Association. Built on a corner site about a mile from Leeds city centre, the pub's nicely-detailed gritstone facades nowadays lend welcome adornment to workaday Kirkstall Road.

The Cardigan is one of a local trio, with the Adelphi and the nearby Rising Sun - all very well preserved late Victorian drinking palaces designed by Leeds architect Thomas Winn. It is perhaps the most internally complex of the three, with three lounges of different sizes off a central L-shaped drinking lobby, a separate public bar that was formerly sub-divided with a 'Ladies Only' section ( still proclaimed in etched glass in the side door panel), and an upstairs function room, the "Harmonic Room", accessed via an open staircase from the central lobby.

The interior retains much of its as-built decor and fittings, and displays fine woodwork, extensive use of etched glass, mosaic panels in both entrances and original ceiling mouldings and wall-coverings. Outbuildings to the rear include a stable block and the shell of a small tower brewery which has long ceased brewing. Tetleys acquired the Cardigan Arms in 1927 and in more recent times designated it as one of their 'Heritage Inns' in recognition of its great historic interest.