Talk:Leeds Town Hall

Roofing works
The "21st Century" section gives the impression that Page/Park are responsible for the reroofing project when in fact this job is being managed by NPS Leeds.EricPolymath (talk) 21:50, 15 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for bringing this up. I've made an edit which I hope clarifies the matter.  Rcsprinter123    (gossip)  21:04, 15 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Some of the plaque is difficult to read but I read it as saying "June 1st 1881 This dome was stripped and old lead put on again by Herbert Westcombe, Joseph Nettleton, E J Wilson, R B Jackson, J Lindley God Save the Queen" .EricPolymath (talk) 21:44, 22 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Wow. Is there any chance that when it becomes possible, you could take a photograph of the plaque for Commons? These are local men's names and it would be interesting to track them down at some point. Storye book (talk) 21:22, 22 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I have uploaded 4 images of the plaque (search for "Leeds Town Hall Plaque") which were taken from slightly different angles as some words are easier to see with the light at a different angle.EricPolymath (talk) 21:35, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much indeed for that. It is very useful evidence for the human history of the building. I'm guessing that this would have been part of a topping-out ceremony for the builders when they finished the job. There often used to be two topping-outs - one for the owners, architects, benefactors, mayors and so on, and one for the builders. My father, a London architect for some years, observed this, and understood that there were certain superstitions associated with the builders' ceremony, which made that one more interesting for him, but of course he could not be part of that. He tried to research it, but very little work has been done on this area. Of course topping-outs for builders no longer happen, due to the change in the contracting system and so on. So this plaque is an important evidence of a lost area of social history. It would be interesting to know whether the named builders left a shoe, bottle, coin or whatever hidden in the structure somewhere. Storye book (talk) 09:02, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Surely judging from the wording and the date they are making repairs?EricPolymath (talk) 10:43, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
 * But they seemed to think the repairs were major enough to merit a plaque. And it was right on top of an iconic building. I should have thought that that could have merited a celebration of sorts up there? Any excuse, eh. I'd have done the same in their place. I've been in a few towers and spires, and they all have atmos - except, oddly enough, the dome of St Peter's. And that has none, IMO. Storye book (talk) 19:06, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

Check refs?
Having been alerted to a typo in one of this article's quotations, I attempted to check the source at the online British Newspaper Archive. The headline and quotation were not in the cited newspaper (Leeds Mercury) - I trawled through every page of that day's issue. After some variously-worded searches in the BNA, I found the exact same headline and quotation in another local Leeds newspaper (Leeds Intelligencer). .I would now strongly suggest that the other newspaper quotations are checked for correct/incorrect sources. Storye book (talk) 09:45, 22 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks Storye book. I am probably responsible for inserting the reference you were checking, from when I expanded this article. It is probably a case of having found it in the correct source, but then copied the wrong reference into position after the quote on some late night or other. I shall try to give everything a check over soon to make sure it was a lone error. Regards, Rcsprinter123   (cajole)  23:55, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Sorry to put you to so much extra trouble. As you say, no doubt it was a one-off blip. Storye book (talk) 09:44, 27 September 2023 (UTC)