The original concept of this gallery was initiated by an executive committee formed in 1876 for the purpose, by Leeds Fine Art Society.

[4] It opened on 3 October 1888 as Leeds City Art Gallery and was paid for by public subscription, collected in honour of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887.

It was opened by the Mayor, Alderman Archibald Witham Scarr (1827–1904), with the artist Hubert von Herkomer in attendance.

[6] What is now the Tiled Hall Café was the sculpture gallery, having been modified from the Reading Room of the adjacent public library, to be illuminated by electricity.

[3][4] A further development was the conversion of three Victorian houses on Cookridge street to the Henry Moore Institute, which is now linked by a bridge to the gallery and contains the main sculpture collections.

The gallery includes a ground floor lecture theatre named after Henry Moore which is used for a variety of events.