Piece of Quaker history to be given blue plaque recognition

Today Leeds Civic Trust will unveil one of its historic blue plaques to commemorate the Carlton Hill Meeting House of the Society of Friends.

It will be placed at Old Broadcasting House, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, the former home of the BBC, which went on to use the site.

Leeds Civic Trust chairman Peter Baker said: "The trust is delighted to be able to celebrate the former Carlton Hill Meeting House with one of our blue plaques.

"It is a fine building in its own right with a fascinating history, having subsequently been occupied by a firm of wholesale clothiers and then the BBC, and it has been beautifully renovated by Leeds Metropolitan University."

The first meeting for worship was held in the smaller of the two new meeting rooms on January 19 1868, as the larger one was not completely furnished.

There was no opening ceremony but on January 27, 1868, a substantial tea was given for the men who had been employed on the premises together with their wives.

As the size of the membership declined in the early 20th Century, and the premises were costly to maintain, it was decided in 1921 to sell the two meeting houses to Albrecht & Albrecht, a firm of clothing manufacturers which, in turn, sold these two properties to the BBC.

The Quakers moved into the schoolroom at the rear of the site. The last meeting of Quakers at Carlton Hill was held on April 15, 1979. A new meeting house later opened in Woodhouse Lane.

Leeds Metropolitan University bought the site in 2005, refurbished the original meeting house and opened it in 2007 as its Institute for Enterprise with the building being called Old Broadcasting House.