Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built between 1853 and 1858 to a design by the architect Cuthbert Brodrick.

Imagined as a municipal palace to demonstrate the power and success of Victorian Leeds, and opened by Queen Victoria in a lavish ceremony in 1858, it is one of the largest town halls in the United Kingdom.

The distinctive baroque clock tower, which serves as a landmark and a symbol of Leeds, was not part of the initial design but was added by Brodrick in 1856 as the civic leaders sought to make an even grander statement.

The south, principal facade to The Headrow has a deeply recessed portico of ten Corinthian columns,[1] a frieze and then the 225 feet (68.6 m) high[2] clock tower, which has a concave dome and was not in the original design.

[5] The decoration was by John Crace,[6] and, combined with the cut-glass chandeliers and the largest organ in Europe when opened, led one writer to say that it was "the best place in Britain to see what it looked like on the inside of a wedding cake".

[9] In the centre of the vestibule stands an 8 ft (2.4 m)-high white marble statue of Queen Victoria, by Matthew Noble, presented to the Council upon the hall's opening as the gift of the mayor Sir Peter Fairbairn.

From left, the other four main figures are Industry with an anvil and a bale of cloth, Poetry and Music with a faun's head and a flower-swag, Fine Arts with a Corinthian capital and a bust of Minerva, and Science with a compass, globe and tools.

[12] The four Portland stone lions on plinths along the frontage, an 1867 addition by the sculptor William Day Keyworth Jr,[17] contrast with the sandstone of the building itself, and were modelled at London Zoo.

[26] The resolution read: "As the attempt to raise funds by public subscription has failed, it is the opinion of this Council desirable to erect a Town Hall, including suitable corporate buildings".

[32] This, and other motions to limit its costs, were defeated by small majorities, but they demonstrated that financial prudence was a strong compulsion for some Victorian local politicians, who disliked incurring civic expense without genuine proof of public advantage.

[34] Sir Charles Barry, at the time still occupied rebuilding the Palace of Westminster, was persuaded to advise the Town Hall Committee in their judging,[35] which gave the competition considerable status.

A design entered under the name "Honor alit Artes" was recommended by Charles Barry, and the contract was revealed to have been won by Cuthbert Brodrick, a young architect from Hull who was unknown outside his home town.

He was only twenty-nine when he won the competition for the Town Hall,[38] but later designed some of Victorian Leeds's noted landmarks – the Corn Exchange, Mechanics' Institute and Cookridge Street Swimming Baths.

[40] The major elements of Brodrick's design used a distinctly Roman style, quite different from any of the others submitted, which used a strong entrance colonnade and rectangular plan, and took inspiration from French buildings of recent decades.

The building is mostly of local Yorkshire stone, but the problems of finding enough large blocks of sufficient quality meant using millstone grit from 17 different quarries, which led to worries about whether the colour would match.

They provided finance on an unprecedented scale, for mayor's reception rooms described by the historian Derek Linstrum as "splendidly furnished",[54] portraits of William Wilberforce and Charles James Fox, and a marble medallion of Napoleon III and Eugénie.

[46] The total cost, after all structural and decoration contracts, is estimated to be around £125,000[56] (about £16 million in 2023) – and the council had to find extra funding at a time when there was great poverty among Leeds's working classes.

Another example is the ventilation turrets (now considered part of its character but which caused alarm when they first appeared) and the vases on the roof parapet, which Brodrick only requested the extra money for from the council after trial ornaments had been ordered.

[63] Further modifications to the Town Hall continued to be made after its opening, beginning with the entrance steps being changed in part to semi-circular in the 1860s,[64] Brodrick suggesting in 1867 that a larger skylight be put in each of the courts,[2] and then, later in the same year, the placing of the four sculpted lions along the south front.

Brodrick's final touches to the Town Hall, the lions are the work of William Day Keyworth Jr of Hull, and each is made from two pieces of Portland stone with zig-zag joints.

[17] Evidence of Brodrick's early interest in lion sculptures is documented in travel sketches from his European tour, at San Lorenzo Cathedral and the Palazzo dell'Università in Genoa, and the monument to Clement XIII in St Peter's, Rome.

She proceeded from the Mayor's home down Woodhouse Lane to the city centre and back up to the top of East Parade where a temporary triumphal arch had been constructed to frame the building.

[65] With a red carpet and military band on the steps, they entered the building, she knighted the Mayor, and then the hall was declared open on her behalf by the Prime Minister, the Earl of Derby.

Houses were destroyed in inner-city districts and bombs dropped on the city centre, hitting the east side of the Town Hall, causing significant damage to its roof and walls on Calverley Street.

[74] In 1951, the Town Hall was designated a Grade I listed building, a status applied to structures of exceptional architectural and historic interest, and which offers statutory protection against unauthorised demolition or modification.

[2] In 1993, Leeds Combined Court Centre opened on Westgate, ending the Town Hall's role as a courthouse;[69] its police station and cells (Bridewell) were closed at the same time.

The three-year works will provide new seating and soundproofing, new bars and public event spaces in previously blocked-off rooms, comprehensive interior redecoration, modifications to two chandeliers to use dimmable LEDS, relocation of the box office to the ground level.

[81] Despite its original purpose as the seat of local government in Leeds being taken over by subsequent council buildings, the Town Hall retains an active role in the civic and cultural life of the city.

Remaining historic features include the old borough courtroom, which has wooden benches and stairs leading down from the dock into the basement – now a storage area but was originally the bridewell (prison cells), located under the front steps.

It was used in the opening scenes of the 2016 film Dad's Army[87] while The New Statesman,[8] Peaky Blinders, Residue, National Treasure, and The ABC Murders TV series are among productions which have used interior and exterior shots.