Victoria Leeds is a shopping district and leisure area in central Leeds, comprising the 1990 Victoria Quarter, an arcaded complex of restored 19th century and contemporary shopping arcades, and the 2016 Victoria Gate development. Notable for its role in the regeneration of Leeds' city centre, and a programme of restoration and reuse which included commissiong the largest work of stained glass work in Europe, designed by artist Brian Clarke, to cover the newly-pedestrianised Queen Victoria Street, the 1990 scheme created a covered retail district of linked arcades. In 2016 ,the Victoria Quarter was merged with the newly built Victoria Gate complex to form the largest premium retail and leisure venue in Northern England. The district includes a casino and major stores such as Harvey Nichols and John Lewis and Partners.
Contemporary arcade of the Victoria Quarter, Leeds, and canopy of stained glass by Sir Brian Clarke
County Arcade, Victoria Quarter
The junction of Queen Victoria Street and Cross Arcade, marked by a cross in the stained glass canopy
Detail of the stained glass canopy which spans the length of the Victoria Quarter's Queen Victoria Street arcade
Sir Brian Clarke is a British painter, architectural artist, designer and printmaker, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, symbolist paintings, set designs, and collaborations with major figures in Modern and contemporary architecture.
Brian Clarke in his studio, 2015
Baptistery windows designed and fabricated in 1976 by Clarke for F. X. Velarde's 1932-1934 Art Deco church of St Gabriel, Blackburn.
Oil painting by Clarke from the Via Crucis series, titled And He is Condemned (1983), exhibited at the reopening of the Robert Fraser Gallery
Victoria Quarter Leeds modern abstract stained glass canopy by Brian Clarke at Cross Arcade junction, 1990