Entries were anonymised and entered under noms de plume for impartiality. A design entered under the name ""Honor alit Artes"" was recommended by Charles Barry, and the contract was revealed to have been won by Cuthbert Brodrick, a young architect from Hull who was unknown outside his home town. He had travelled extensively in Europe in 1844-5 and acquired a love for its classical architecture. He was only twenty-nine when he won the competition for the Town Hall, but later designed some of Victorian Leeds's noted landmarks – the Corn Exchange, Mechanics' Institute and Cookridge Street Swimming Baths.