HM Prison Leeds 3.95

HM Prison Leeds is a Category B men's prison, located at Gloucester Terrace in the Armley area of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1847. Leeds Prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is still known locally as Armley Gaol (or Armley Jail), the historical name for the prison.HistoryConstruction of Leeds Prison was completed in 1847. Built from locally quarried stone, the prison originally had four wings radiating from a central point in a Victorian architectural style typical of the time. Each of these four wings had three landings of cells. Eventually Armley Gaol was renamed along with other prisons to make their locations more obvious to people unfamiliar with these areas.The prison was a site of execution from 1847 until 1961. The final execution was that of Zsiga Pankotia, by Harry Allen for the murder of Jack Eli Myers in a house burglary in the city's affluent Roundhay district. The final execution in A block was that of 19-year-old Walter Sharpe in 1950.The 'Castle style' entrance range of the building and the 200 metres of perimeter wall received a Grade II* heritage listing in 1976. In 1990, the Howard League for Penal Reform announced that it would conduct its own independent inquiry into the deaths of five teenage prisoners at HMP Leeds. This followed a refusal by the Home Office to hold a public inquiry.