The river takes a turn to the left here and we catch sight of Leeds Bridge; a cloth market had been held here since the Middle Ages, however the current structure was erected to the design of T Dyne Steel in 1870.
The building with the white façade seen on the left side of this view has the distinction of being the place which saw the birth of Jabez Tunnicliffe’s Band of Hope temperance movement in the 19th century.
More famously, it is also the site from which Louis LePrince filmed what are often referred to as the earliest ever moving pictures in 1888, (he had taken the actual first pictures in the garden of his Roundhay home some days earlier).
Leeds Bridge
As we cruise the riverside premises on the south bank to our left, we catch a glimpse of the 1870s Leeds Bridge House; originally Cobden’s Temperance Hotel; an unusual triangular footprint which pre-dated New York’s similar, but more famous Flat Iron Building by over 20 years; the again, New York’s version has 20 floors!
The aforementioned Kings Mills used to be on the north bank here; we can still see the name wrought into the foundations of what later became the Leeds City Transport permanent way yard; now a number of sympathetically restored buildings which face on to Sovereign Street.
Opposite, we have the long range of Asda House; built in the late 1980s, it remains the head office of one of the nation’s premier retailers before passing under another George Leather Jnr design, Victoria Bridge,; an attractive elliptical arch named for the newly crowned queen in 1839.
The river now turns to the north to run under City Station whose recently built, futuristic golden south entrance dominates the scene.
With the culvert carrying the Hol Beck to our left, we have the lock which takes us on to the Leeds Liverpool Canal directly in front of us, but it’s time to turn around and retrace our steps eastward; as we do so, we catch a glimpse of a number of famous Leeds landmarks through the gaps in the waterfront properties to the north; Cuthbert Broderick’s wonderful Corn Exchange, (1863) as well as the assembly rooms of the third White Cloth Hall and Leeds Minster, (formerly the Parish Church of St Peter) designed by Dennis Chantrell and completed in 1841; the largest new church to have been built in England since Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral in London over 150 years previously.
With a willing crew, we cruise back to the mystic East, past Thwaite Mill and the permanent moorings to tie up at Fishpond Lock for a most satisfying lunch courtesy of the delightful Mrs Steel.
Photo by Dennis Nicholson
The rain has started now and doesn’t show any signs of abating, so we clear up and make our way back to our home base to berth and put the good boat Out and About to bed.
Making our farewells, I reflect on the glow a few hours on the water with good friends brings; a span of generations between 19 and 87 years have been brought together for this outing and my mother in law, not renowned for unbridled enthusiasm, has asked if we can go on the boat again for her 90th birthday!
With the best of thanks to Dennis and the Canal Connections team.
John Steel
10th June 2019