The Leeds Permanent Building Society was a building society

Building society

A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...

 founded in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1846 and was commonly known in a shortened form as The Leeds. It should not be confused with the still existing Leeds Building Society

Leeds Building Society

Leeds Building Society was established as the Leeds and Holbeck Building Society in 1875 and is now the 5th largest in the UK and serves approximately 650,000 customers. The society was renamed to Leeds Building Society in September 2005. It has 70 branches across the UK, with 29 located in...

 (formerly Leeds and Holbeck Building Society)

Originally the Leeds was known as The Leeds Building and Investment Society which was to have been a temporary terminating society which would have been disbanded but demand soon outstripped the society's ability to build and The Leeds was converted to a permanent status.

On 8 November 1848, the new permanent Society, known as the Permanent Second Leeds Benefit Building Society, was officially founded. By the end of its first year, 1,200 members had enrolled, and £14,286 had been advanced on mortgages – nearly £700,000 today.

The Society's first offices were located in Exchange Buildings in Lands Lane, where business was conducted from 10am to 4pm, and also 7pm to 9pm on Tuesdays. They later moved to 32 Park Row, and then in 1876, to premises at the corner of Park Lane and Calverley, where the Society was to remain for the next 50 years.

In 1930, head office moved to newly constructed premises at 18 Park Lane – Permanent House - designed by local architect C.W. Atkinson. Permanent House was the Leeds’ home until the move to new premises in Lovell Park in 1992.

The founders of the Leeds Permanent were 'not men who let the grass grow under their feet'. Within six months, the Society had opened more than eight agencies across neighbouring towns, including Wetherby

Wetherby

Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

, Barnsley

Barnsley

Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...

 and Huddersfield

Huddersfield

Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....

. By the time of its tenth birthday in 1858, the Society had 3,500 members and was proudly proclaiming itself to be the largest building society in the world.

The competent management of the Society won it a high reputation at national level, and in 1871, the Society was asked to give evidence to a Royal Commission

Royal Commission

In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...

 in London, which was gathering evidence on the operations of friendly societies. The Leeds was specially commended by the Commission as a model society.

By the early years of the 20th century, the Leeds had assets of almost £2 million pounds, and the first telephones and electric lighting had been installed at its head office.

The interwar years saw a period of unprecedented growth. Agents were appointed all over Britain and branch offices opened in virtually every major city, including London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 and Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

.

Between 1920 and 1940, total assets increased to over £40 million, while membership increased more than tenfold to over 200,000. Sir Charles Davies, one of Leeds’ best known public figures, oversaw much of the growth and charted the future direction of the Leeds during this time.

The 1940s onwards saw the Leeds involved in a series of mergers with other societies, including the London North Eastern Railway Building Society, the Doncaster Building Society and the Midland Building Society. The 1950s and 1960s also saw another phase of branch expansion, with the Leeds' 100th branch opening in 1970. Expansion to its Leeds Head Office took place in this period which included the construction of various adjacent annexes to its 1930s HQ including the 61 m tall Leeds Permanent Tower (these annexes were demolished as part of the works to create The Light

The Light (Leeds)

The Light is a leisure and retail centre in central Leeds, England. It is located along The Headrow. The building was constructed in 1930–31 as Permanent House, the headquarters of the Leeds Permanent Building Society; the society moved to new premises in at Lovell Park in the 1990s...

 around 2000).
Technology too was beginning to make an impact. In 1964 the board approved a research project to investigate the conversion of mechanical accounting to electronic data processing. The Society's first computer was subsequently installed in 1967.

Like many other Building Societies, the Leeds later took advantage of changes bought by the 1986 Building Societies Act, diversifying its business into share-selling, off-shore banking, estate agency and property development.

Further amalgamations were considered in the 1980s and early 1990s, but were not forthcoming. It had a notable television advertising campaign featuring George Cole in the same period which featured the slogan Laughing all the way to The Leeds. In 1993 a new head office at Lovell Park

Lovell Park

Lovell Park is an inner-city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.Lovell Park along with its adjacent areas Little London and Blenheim, is an area of 1960s high-rise and maisonette council housing situated between the city centre and Sheepscar....

 replaced the Leeds's previous head office on The Headrow

The Headrow

The Headrow is an avenue in Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. It holds many of the city's premier shopping, civic and cultural attractions including Leeds Town Hall, Leeds Central Library, Leeds Art Gallery, The Henry Moore Institute and The Light...

 which was eventually replaced with The Light

The Light (Leeds)

The Light is a leisure and retail centre in central Leeds, England. It is located along The Headrow. The building was constructed in 1930–31 as Permanent House, the headquarters of the Leeds Permanent Building Society; the society moved to new premises in at Lovell Park in the 1990s...

 shopping and leisure complex.

Then in 1995, the Leeds merged with the Halifax Building Society, which shortly afterwards converted to plc status. After its merger with the Halifax the use of the Leeds Building Society name had ceased. In turn the Halifax had merged with Bank of Scotland

Bank of Scotland

The Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to...

 to form HBOS

HBOS

HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group having been taken over in January 2009...

 in 2001 which in turn became part of Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc is a major British financial institution, formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. As at February 2010, HM Treasury held a 41% shareholding through UK Financial Investments Limited . The Group headquarters is located at 25 Gresham Street in London, with...

 in 2009 due to the collapse of its share price and exposure to the credit crunch.