CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

YORKSHIRE (WEST) - Leeds, Burley, Rising Sun

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

290 Kirkstall Road, Leeds, LS4 2DN

Tel: 0113 275 1046

Public Transport: Bus 49, 50/50A

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

CURRENTLY CLOSED. The Rising Sun is the least ornate of the three Thomas Winn-designed 'gin palaces' that have survived well in Leeds (the others being the Adelphi and the nearby Cardigan Arms). It dates from 1899 and having outlasted the surrounding late-Victorian housing it was built to serve, it now stands on its own beside the busy Kirkstall Road, within a mile of Leeds city centre. It is built of red brick with restrained stone and terracotta detailing and its large shopfront-style external windows with fine etched glass are an impressive feature. Purpose-designed for a corner site, it has entrance doors on two sides and a linking L-shaped corridor-cum-lobby is a main element of its internal planning. A splendid curving wood and glass screen divides the corridor from the corner Tap Room, which is the pub's most spacious room and has a plain wood bar and mirrored back-fitting.

Sash windows in the bar screen provide hatch-service to the corridor and to the three smaller public rooms that lead off it. The general decor is simpler than many pubs of this age, with plain glass in the internal screens and grained woodwork in the bar, but it is in an almost untouched original state. So too are the panelled doors and fireplaces, and there is a good original terrazzo floor with mosaic "Rising Sun" name and motif at both entrances. Tetleys recognised the pub's special historic merits by designating it as one of their 'Heritage Inns'.