Leeds Cathedral

The story of St Annes Cathedral begins in 1786 when a Dominican priest, Fr Albert Underhill, moved the long established Roundhay Mission to premises in the centre of Leeds. In the autumn of that year some rooms were obtained in a building off Briggate to house the mission, and so the towns first Catholic place of worship since the Reformation came into existence. This chapel, an upper room adjacent to the Pack Horse Hotel, served the small Catholic community in Leeds for eight years, until a purpose built chapel, St Marys, opened in Lady Lane in October 1794. A successor church, designed by a local architect, John Child, opened in October 1838. It was dedicated to St Anne in honour of Anne Humble, the late sister of Grace and Sarah Humble the principal benefactors of the new church, which stood at the junction of Guildford Street and Cookridge Street. St Annes was raised to Cathedral status in 1878 upon the creation of the Diocese of Leeds. Twenty years later it was clear that the days of this great church were numbered owing to Leeds Corporation’s plans for this part of town. At the end of 1899 it was formally announced that the Cathedral was to be compulsorily purchased and demolished. Construction of the present Cathedral began in the autumn of 1901 and was completed in the early part of 1904. The task of designing Leeds new Cathedral was given to a London architect, John Henry Eastwood(1843-1913), who had been born near Leeds, with Sydney Kyffin Greenslade (1866-1955). Together they produced an outstanding design in the Arts & Crafts neoGothic style with an unusual layout to accommodate the Cathedrals relatively small city centre site.