Fred Broadbent

Broadbent was an architect for the Leeds Education Department from 1908 until his retirement in 1937. He started working for the Leeds School Board in 1890 under Leeds architect Walter Samuel Braithwaite (1854-1922). Broadbent admitted LRIBA, a Licentiate member of RIBA. In 1911 and FRIBA, Fellow Member of RIBA, in 1921. His position meant his designs were ubiquitous in Leeds schools and colleges during the early twentieth century. Among his work was the City of Leeds Training College at Beckett Park in 1910. Along with James Graham, he created the main layout of the college that competition architects used as the basis of their designs. He was responsible for alterations to buildings used for other Leeds colleges; the old Methodist Chapel on Woodhouse Lane was refitted for use by the Leeds College of Commerce in 1933. He altered a school on Vernon Road for use by the Yorkshire Training College of Housecraft. Broadbent also designed Carnegie Hall on the Beckett Park site to house the Carnegie College of Physical Training. One of his early jobs was refitting the Woodhouse Lane mansion (later used as Harewood Barracks) for use by Leeds Girls High School. He worked closely with Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson on some of the furniture and fittings for the school. In 1907, this building became the main administrative centre of the newly formed City of Leeds Training College. From 1904, he was a Freemason.
Broadbent was born in Armley on 3 January 1873, the son of John Broadbent, a Butcher, and Maria Calvert. He married Hannah Peck in 1898. Broadbent died at his home in Alwoodley on 31 August 1946.