Holbeck Urban Village in Leeds

 

Egyptian Revival style detailing on the offices at the Temple Works

Entering Holbeck Conservation Area, having briefly examined the buildings stones used for the locks, retaining wall, Bridge 226 and the former Canal Company Office at Granary Wharf – which are Rough Rock, Elland Flags and possibly White Mansfield stone – previous research using Google Street View informed me that the principal building material seen here would be red brick. 

 

Tower Works on the 1908 Ordnance Survey map

 

Tower Works was built for Thomas Richards Harding in 1866, as a factory producing pins for wool, flax, cotton and silk combing and for carding cloth, with his son Colonel Thomas Walter Harding - a mayor of Leeds and a notable philanthropist – extending it considerably in 1899. 

 

The chimneys at Tower Works

The factory operated until 1981 and much of it was demolished and a new development comprising massive multi-storey apartment blocks replacing it, although the Grade II* listed Verona Tower (1864) and Giotto Tower (1899), have been retained along with the Grade II listed Little Chimney (1920), the Engine House (1899) and the Entrance Range (1866). 

 

A detail of the Verona Tower

 

The Verona Tower, by Thomas Shaw, is built with polychrome bricks with gritstone bracketed sills and cornices and its Italianate style is based on the Lamberti Tower in Verona. The Giotto Tower by William Bakewell makes extensive use of Burmantofts terracotta and its design is based on the campanile at Florence Cathedral, begun by Giotto in 1334. 

 

A detail of the Giotto Tower

Apart from the Italianate towers exhibiting fine craftsmanship and materials, which was popular in industrial buildings of the Victorian period, the Giotto Tower functioned as a dust extraction chimney, which was very advanced for its time. Although they have been saved from demolition, they are completely dwarfed and largely obscured by the surrounding apartment blocks, which possess very little architectural merit. 

 

The entrance range at Tower Works

 

After photographing the rear of the Globe Iron Foundry fitting up shop, which has no interest to this Language of Stone Blog, I made my way to Globe Road where I took a few photos of the Entrance Range, which according to Historic England (HE) was also probably designed by Thomas Shaw. 

 

The carriage entrance at Tower Works

Very coarse grained Rough Rock is used for the rusticated round arched carriage entrance, which has a keystone, pilasters supporting the entablature and a modillion cornice – with a rock-faced plinth, voussoirs to the windows, string courses and pyramidal dentils used for decoration to the adjoining red brick walls. 

 

A massive block of Rough Rock used for the base of a pair of pilasters

 

Taking note of the variation of the colours and textures in the paving stones, which I thought was quite unusual and reminded me of the sandstone that has recently been used for the steps at the front of Barnsley Town Hall, I continued to Water Lane. 

 

Paving outside the entrance range to Tower Works

Walking alongside the Hol Beck to the Grade II listed cast iron bridge (1849), which replaced the wooden bridge linking John Marshall and Company's flax mill with the newly built warehouse (1808) on the south side, I noted that Rough Rock has been used for its canalisation. 

 

The bridge over Hol Beck

 

On the south side of Water Lane, the 6 industrial buildings on my list to photograph are all built with red/brown brick and none of these are of interest to this Language of Stone Blog and their age, architectural features and historical significance are best described by the HE listings for Nos. 97, 99, 101, 103, 105 and 125 Water Lane. 

 

Various listed industrial buildings at Holbeck Urban Village

 

Similarly, on Foundry Street, Saw Mill Street, Marshall Street and Bath Street, the premises of foundries, machine shops, workshops, warehouses and various mills are brick built and their descriptions can be found in the Leeds and Hunslet section on the British Listed Buildings website. 

 

Listed buildings in and around Holbeck Urban Village

The predominant material for the industrial buildings is brick, but sandstone from the Elland Flags has been used for the boundary walls to Marshall Mills together with gritstone from the Rough Rock, which can also be seen as setts along with pink and grey granite and whinstone. 

 

Boundary walls to Marshall Mills and road setts

 

Although not part of my Photo Challenge, the most interesting building that I saw in Holbeck Urban Village is the office block to the Grade I listed Temple Mill, which was built as a flax spinning mill as part of the Marshall Mills complex, which originated on the north side of Hol Beck. 

 

The office building at Temple Mill

 

The mill was built 1838-1840 and the office added 1840-1843, with both being designed in the Egyptian Revival style by the English architect Ignatius Bonomi, who modelled them on the Temple of Edfu, Coarse grained and often pebbly gritstone from the Rough Rock has been used in its construction, but finer grained beds have been probably been selected to enable carving of the fine details of the capitals and deep coving.

 

A capital on the Temple Mill office building