Leeds Town Hall and a meaningless Latin motto
It proved to a meaningless Latin motto which left Leeds City Council chiefs red-faced.
Leeds Town Hall ended up sporting a rather large error along with its new refurbished interior in the spring of 1979.
The well-known motto Deo, Regi, Patriae (God, Kind and Country) appeared on buildings throughout the country including the city centre landmark.
The head of the music department at Huddersfield Polytechnic , Arthur Jacobs, spotted that a large-lettered inscription on the redecorated wall read : Deo, Regi, Patrier.
The discovery prompted officials to admit they had miscopied the Latin motto leaving it meaningless.
Elsewhere the motto seen in the newly-decorated Victoria Hall - ‘Industry overcomes all things’ - had proved unintentionally apt.
For 14 months renovation work had been compressed into half that time to enable the Leeds Musical Festival to open its orchestral programme in the Town Hall on time.
The BBC orchestra and Norman La Mar had long been booked to give a concert at the end of May 1979.
But the closure of the Town Hall’s Victoria Hall since October 1978 owing to falling plaster from the roof presented the festival organisers with a problem.
The hall would be ready but it had taken a team of workmen seven months, working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, plus night shifts.