Architecture of Leeds

However, the City of Leeds also contains buildings from as early as the Middle Ages such as Kirkstall Abbey, one of Britain's best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries, as well as examples of 20th century industrial architecture, particularly in the districts of Hunslet and Holbeck.

Leeds city centre is currently undergoing much redevelopment, with a number of skyscrapers such as Bridgewater Place and Altus House.

[2] To the south of the city are substantial clay deposits, so that red brick has been the predominant building material for the extensive nineteenth century housing.

[2] The particularly fine clay found in Burmantofts led to a decorative covering of terracotta or glazed Architectural Faience being used on both interior and exterior walls of important buildings.

[3] The oldest existent man-made structure in the Leeds metropolitan district is the earthworks of the Iron Age fort at Barwick in Elmet.

The lack of Medieval architecture in central Leeds may be attributed to the small size of the town during the majority of the period, the population usually being around 1,000.

At Kirkstall Abbey, the ruins are particularly well preserved and show an austere form of Norman architecture with some later Gothic additions and embellishments.

The earliest building remaining in the city centre is a late 16th- or early 17th-century house in Lambert's Yard, off Briggate.

There are several examples of industrial architecture from the latter part of this era in Holbeck, Hunslet, Armley and areas surrounding Leeds city centre.

[25] In 2007 it was reported in the Yorkshire Evening Post that the remains of a 17th-century cottage in Alwoodley had been demolished after controversial approval from Leeds City Council.

While the exterior of Headingley Castle is Victorian Gothic in style, the architect employed modern building techniques and materials including cast iron in its construction.

Chapel Allerton has many art deco semi detached houses from the 1930s while large parts of the city centre contain many commercial buildings from this era.

Major examples include Leeds Civic Hall, designed by E. Vincent Harris in 1930 and built between 1930 and 1933 to provide the unemployed with work during the Great Depression,[41] the Queens Hotel on City Square (1937),[42] the Brotherton Wing of Leeds General Infirmary (1940) and the Elinor Lupton Centre, Headingley (1934).

[47] The following year, Shaftesbury House, a large five-storey brick hostel for working men and woman opened.

It was designed in 1936 by George C Robb, senior architectural assistant to Livett, and after its closure, was converted in 2006–7 to the sustainable Green House.

[48][49] Chapel Allerton also boasted the former Dominion Cinema, which was built in Art Deco style, however this closed in the late 1960s and became a bingo hall, which was demolished in the 1990s.

The growth of the financial and business services sector from the mid-1980s onwards resulted in a boom in office developments in the city centre.

Many of the buildings constructed at this time are in the style known as the "Leeds Look", which is typified by the use of dark red brickwork and steeply pitched grey slate roofs.

[76] By the 1960s and 1970s land for social housing was becoming scarcer and the council started looking towards building 'high rise', with such estates as Cottingley sporting prominent tower blocks.

By the 1970s less land was available for such developments and the particularly large estates were becoming unpopular, however faced with a need for a larger social housing stock, Leeds City Council built smaller estates such as Holt Park (in partnership with Norman Ashton), replaced the prefabricated 'war houses' in Cottingley with newer prefabs[77] and redeveloped areas such as Beckhill in Meanwood.

The 2002 redevelopment of Leeds railway station incorporated a notable steel and glass roof covering the main platform hall and providing panoramic views to the south west from the mezzanine level.

In 2008, Building Design, the architectural journal, shortlisted Bridgewater Place for the Carbuncle Cup, which is awarded to 'buildings so ugly they freeze the heart'.

The building itself is based around a striking honeycomb frontage, modelled on close-up images of an insect's eye, and is illuminated at night in a variety of colours that reflect the mood of whichever show is playing at the time.

[96] Two major developments in Leeds city centre were planned for completion around the beginning of the new decade, but were put on hold due to the prevailing economic conditions and subsequently cancelled.

[97] A number of investments and proposed activities are aimed at regenerating 253 hectares of land that lies south of the River Aire in Leeds.

Commercial Estates Group (CEG) are leading a project on patches of land around Globe Road and Water Lane, Holbeck, including a 40-storey, 142 metre tall structure.

[98][99] In 1968 John Betjeman made a television film called A Poet Goes North,[100] in which he gave his opinion on the changing architecture of Leeds.

In referring to Leeds' plans for the future, Hutchinson said "there are worrying signs that Yorkshire is about to make the same mistakes that we have made in London over 20 years ago".

This incorporates a number of key projects for development or redesign of new public space, and included a strong consultative element.

In 1987 the Trust started putting up Blue plaques to honour notable buildings, objects and people in Leeds.