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Report - - Tower Works, Leeds 11/11 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Tower Works, Leeds 11/11

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Clough

L.L.S
28DL Full Member
VISITED WITH FOWLE AND GEOVDUB

TOWER WORKS

The plan was to try and get up the main tower, we knew there had being a lot of building and knocking down of this place and thought we would have a look-see! Fowlea managed to climb in but came out covered in dust and said "Na't! Fook that its just a big empty tower" I thought there might have being a way up to the nice windows at the top, but no.....

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Some history....

Tower Works is a former factory with three listed towers. The Italianate towers of the factory are a distinctive landmark on the Leeds skyline.
The factory was founded by T.R. Harding to make steel pins for carding and combing in the textile industry, and the original buildings, by Thomas Shaw, were erected in 1864-6. Harding's son, Colonel Thomas Harding, employed William Bakewell to extend the works in 1899. The design of the extension was heavily influenced by Harding's love of Italian architecture and art.
The most notable features of Tower Works are the three towers that give it its name and served for dust extraction from the factory. The largest and most ornate tower (1899, by Bakewell) is based on Giotto's Campanile in Florence. The smaller ornate tower (1866, by Shaw) is styled after the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona. A third plain tower, built as part of Harding's final phase of expansion in 1919, is thought to represent a Tuscan tower house such as can be seen in San Gimignano. All three towers are listed structures, the two ornate towers being Grade II* and the plain tower Grade II.[1]
The design for the Giotto Tower included ventilation systems that were way ahead of their time in terms of minimising pollution from the steel works. The chimney incorporated a filter to remove the excess steel dust.
In 1895 T. W. Harding & Son amalgamated with two other companies to become Harding, Rhodes & Co.
The factory sustained damage in World War II when neighbouring buildings were bombed during the air raids on the nearby Leeds City railway station. It closed in 1981 after 117 years of operating on the site.

Today the site stands pretty much empty and seems to have building work on going but from what I have seen it at a snails pace!
Tower Works lies at the heart of the Holbeck Urban Village renovation area, it was acquired by Yorkshire Forward in 2005. It and is set to become another development combining modern city offices and businesses with the heritage of the industrial revolution in Leeds. Which pretty much means they have bulldozed anything and everything and just left the towers

We mananged to have a look all around the site so Im just going to throw it all at ya in the usual lazy random way...

On with the pics!

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My fave tower of the three

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On top of the scaffold and recent building works some ok views...

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GeoVDUB posing for me, he always makes a lovely people shot bless him

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Engine House.

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We think this was the engine house, I dont know.

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And finally GeoVDUB taking a shit on Fowle...

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Cheers!​
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