The Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House was built in 1878 in a backlash to the music hall tradition which was thought by 'polite society' to lower the tone of entertainment via the sort of humour presented in these pub-based establishments
The theatre cost a total of £62,000 and took 13 months to build. The architect, George Corson, was heavily influenced by his assistant James Robertson Watson who had undertaken a tour of Europe's churches and theatres
Many of the design inspirations came from these continental influences, in particular the gothic, ecclesiastical spires. The exterior is in a mixture of Romanesque and Scottish baronial Styles, while the interior has such gothic motifs as fan-vaulting and clustered colums
