Rare pictures of a century of change in Leeds

The city of Leeds and the town hall where David Lloyd-George will receive his freedom of the city on his forthcoming visit (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

But as these other rare examples from the archive demonstrate, the surrounding architecture has been an ever changing canvas.

They also dispel the notion that the camera, or at least the photographer is always right. The main picture is dated 1910, some eight years before contemporary reports record the last Liberal Prime Minister as having been honoured in Leeds. His Freedom was decried by Labour politicians in the city, who considered it a political stunt.

But another picture captures incontrovertibly a moment in the city’s architectural timeline. It was in January 1937 that George Frampton’s statue of Queen Victoria Statue was uprooted after more than 30 years from the city centre square that bore her name, and taken by lorry to a new site on Woodhouse Moor, where it remains.

9th January 1937: The Queen Victoria Statue being uprooted from Victoria Square in central Leeds, where it has stood for over 30 years. It will be transported by lorry to a new site on Woodhouse Moor. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

The aerial view from 1933 of the new Civic Hall captures another moment of change. The new council headquarters, built partly to generate employment for construction workers at a time of depression, stands as an ivory tower in a landscape of the soot-blackened Victorian buildings spread out below.

We can see some of them at closer range in the view from 1921 down New Briggate. The patch in question has been largely replaced by the inner ring road, though the domed, former clothing factory of Crispin House, which can be seen in the background, has protected status and remains.

The trams that can be glimpsed on Boar Lane are long gone, however, and despite years of debate, there has been no replacement. Leeds remains the largest city in Europe without a mass transit system.

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1933: An aerial view of Leeds showing the new Civic Hall (the white building) and the Victorian town hall on the Headrow. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

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