Cuthbert Brodrick

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Cuthbert Brodrick (1 December 1821 – 2 March 1905) was a British architect, whose most famous building is Leeds Town Hall.

He was born in Hull, a member of a family connected with fishing. From 1837 to 1844 was apprenticed there to Henry Francis Lockwood. In 1845 he set up his own practice and was responsible for a number of local building projects, including the Hull Royal Institution building. During this period he took the 'grand tour' of Europe, which influenced his work from this point onward, especially the architecture of second empire Paris.

In 1852 Brodrick won the competition (first prize, £200) for the design of Leeds Town Hall, which was opened in September 1858 by Queen Victoria. The iconic clock tower, which serves for many as a symbol of Leeds, was not part of his initial design but was added later by Brodrick as the civic leaders of Leeds sought to make an even grander statement. His other important buildings were the Leeds Corn Exchange (1860-3) and the Mechanics' Institute (1860-5), which later became the Civic Theatre and is soon to become the new home of the Leeds City Museum. He permanently altered the way central Leeds looked with just three buildings. He also designed the Grand Hotel, Scarborough.

By the time he was forty-five his short career as a celebrated architect was over and he vanished into obscurity for the rest of his life, dying in Jersey after spending twenty years in a Parisian suburb.

A Wetherspoons pub called the 'Cuthbert Brodrick' opened on Millennium Square in Leeds on 22 October 2007, situated between two of the buildings he designed; the town hall and Leeds City Museum.