Victoria Quarter Shopping Centre - Leeds, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 47.896 W 001° 32.520
30U E 596030 N 5962062
This stained glass was installed into the roof of an area of shopping arcades known as the Victoria Quarter in 2009.
Waymark Code: WM17MNN
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/10/2023
Views: 2
"
Victoria Quarter
The Grade II* listed Victoria Quarter is a network of interconnected, covered shopping spaces, forming an upmarket shopping district popularly known as 'the Knightsbridge of the North'. Created in a major redevelopment programme through the restoration of the existing Victorian and Edwardian arcades, and the creation of a contemporary arcade through the pedestrianisation and glazing over of the adjacent Queen Victoria Street with what was at the time the largest work of public art in England, and the largest secular stained glass work in the world, designed by artist Brian Clarke. Covering three blocks between Briggate and Vicar Lane, comprising County Arcade, Cross Arcade, Queen Victoria Street and King Edward Street, the Derek Latham & Company redevelopment opened as the Victoria Quarter in September 1990. The project is widely cited as an exemplar of successful and contextual urban regeneration, and in 1991 was awarded both the Leeds Award for Architecture and the Civic Trust Award...
...Stained glass
Cited as the largest work of public art in Britain at the time of its installation, the 749 square metre stained glass roof, which spans the length of Queen Victoria Street, was designed by painter Brian Clarke between 1988 and 1990 as an integral part of the development scheme. Architects Latham and Co. had previously worked with the artist on the restoration of the Cavendish Arcade in Buxton, completed in 1987, which entailed the restoration and reuse of a complex of historical buildings through the creation of a public shopping space, and the integration of monumental artwork. The canopy at Leeds, made of mouthblown glass, traditionally leaded, enamelled, acid-etched and assembled using the mosaic technique, was fabricated under Clarke's supervision in Germany, and then installed at Leeds over a period of six months, and remains the largest work of stained glass in Great Britain and in Europe. Its colour scheme was derived from the artist's study and adaptation of Frank Matcham's own colour palette in his designs for decorative glass. The abstract, gridded canopy is said to reference Leeds' heritage as a centre of the textile industry in its design."
Extracted from Wikipedia