Thursday 19 February 2009

A Visit to Leeds Art Gallery - Victorian Tiled Hall.

Today Geoff and I visited Leeds, we are both originally from Leeds, indeed I went to school just outside the City Centre and travelled into the city every working day for seven years of my life. My, how it has changed!
We wanted to visit the new Leeds City Museum which has a photographic exhibition of Leeds however free entry and half term holidays added up to long queues and we had neither the time nor the inclination to wait.
So instead we headed to the Art Gallery where we were able to visit the Tiled Hall which is being used as a cafe.
What a visual treat - it is a patchworkers inspirational dream, floors, walls and ceilings. Newly restored in 2007 it features stunning Victorian ceramic tiles and parquet floors.
These first two photos are a general overview of the cafe area.





Parquet floor tiles.



Even the ceilings are tiled - stunning hexagon patterns!






The bottom of the walls are done in these stripes of tiles.


Then my favourite - the walls - covered in these soft blue/green heavily embossed tiles.








Each tile is a slightly different shade - so randomly subtle and beautiful.


This just says to me - squares of hand dyed fabric with hand quilted motifs!

So if you ever go to Leeds, go to the Art Gallery for a coffee - you will not be disappointed. Here is the website link.
The Leeds Tapestry is also on display next door in the Library.

3 comments:

Lynn Cohen said...

I love all this...I too see quilt pieces everywhere I go...in fencing, walkways,walls,etc. These are particularly beautiful. As is your work above. I love the cupcakes and the top one with the hearts too. All lovely work.

June Butler said...

Janet, may I use one of your pictures of the Tiled Hall on my blog? I'll link and give you credit for the picture, of course.

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