Anyone from Leeds may have spent many a lazy moment pondering the curious hexagonal building which sits on the Eastgate roundabout in Leeds city centre.
It may surprise you to know that the site was once a petrol station, and has only been around since the 1930s.
With the help of Leeds Libraries, we take a look at the history of the strange, tiny building on Eastgate roundabout.
With the help of Leeds Libraries, we take a look at the history of the strange, tiny building on Eastgate roundabout.
5. 'Popularly-priced'
This photograph was taken during the site’s construction. The signs show the structure was built by contractors Wright & Sons, based on Skinner Lane. The sign to the right promises an Appleyard of Leeds Ltd Filling Station “for the rapid supply by power driven pumps of popularly priced Appleyard petrol and Appleyard oil”. Photo: Leeds Libraries - leodis.net
Leeds had been transformed during the 1930s – the Quarry Hill flats would open, overlooking the roundabout, around five years after the new Eastgate was completed. The flats were the largest social housing site in the country, and remained on site until demolition in 1978. This photo, from 1971, shows the view from the bottom of Eastgate with Oastler House, the largest of the houses which made up Quarry Hill Flats, in the background. Photo: Leeds Libraries - Leodis.net
A map of Leeds from 1921 shows that the road we now know as Eastgate had not yet been built, and the site that would ultimately become the roundabout was home to a pub and small cinema. Eastgate itself is now seen as simply an extension of the Headrow, but the site was once home to dense housing and industry on Virginia Street, Nelson Street and Union Street, the latter of which is now home to the Victoria Gate Shopping Centre. This photograph was taken in 1983 - Circle House is on the left and the Marquis of Granby public house in the centre. Eastgate roundabout was still being used as a petrol station. Photo: Leeds Libraries - leodis.net
Having been disused for many years, the former petrol station became the site of Leeds’s Millennium Fountain in 2000. Photo: Leeds Libraries - Leodis.net