Great Hall of the University of Leeds

The Great Hall is a grade II listed Gothic Revival building located at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The building is primarily used for formal occasions such as graduation ceremonies and university students' examinations. Its undercroft was previously utilised to house the university library collections before the Brotherton Library opened in 1936. The Great Hall is one illustration of the many diverse styles of buildings on the campus of the University of Leeds; it is an example of red brick architecture associated with the term red brick university.HistoryThe Great Hall is built on a site of the former Beech Grove Hall Estate, which was purchased in 1879 by the then Yorkshire College before the college joined the now defunct Victoria University (alongside the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester). This estate was later demolished in 1884 for it to become the site of the Clothworkers buildings of the Baines Memorial Wing and the Great Hall building itself. The buildings were designed by the late architect Alfred Waterhouse R.A (famed for his works on the Natural History Museum in London) in red pressed brick and had dressings of Bolton Wood stone in a Gothic Collegiate style.