Developers must sort out mess made of our famous clock tower: The Yorkshire Post says
Resting peacefully in the carefully preserved archives of The Yorkshire Post is a black and white frame of the crowning glory moment that the four-and-a-half ton cap was hoisted into place atop the concrete clock tower of our Wellington Street headquarters in 1970.
The landmark totem stood proud and tall for decades, the instantly recognisable sister mastheads of The Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post festooning it, alongside its clock and temperature gauge.
Its prominence was no accident: its erection was a statement of pride and confidence, a beacon of truth, trust and integrity - sister newspapers that between them represent the City of Leeds and the county of Yorkshire without fear or favour.
The cherry on the cake of a brutalist piece of architecture, Leeds’ famous newspaper clock tower was a sentry point manned by journalists whose job it was to root out corruption, speak truth to power, relay information to the general public for the betterment of the communities they served.
Inside that building, for 42 years, sat the guardians of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper which, just a little more than 30 years prior to the opening of its Wellington Street office had exclusively blown the lid off the Wallis Simpson scandal that led to the abdication of Edward VIII.
The building itself was a reminder to the rich and powerful: nobody is above scrutiny. Not even a monarch.
Today, the journalism remains the same; that this newspaper was crowned Regional Newspaper of the Year as recently as 2023 and 2025 is testament to that, yet the tower that once reflected the quality of our work is now a disgrace to the city of Leeds.
Sold in good faith to developers in 2012, staff moved to modern, new offices at Number 1 Leeds on Whitehall Road and the new owners promised an understanding of the historic significance of that which was now in their care.
Today, the tower once described as a reassuring welcome home for those returning to the city, is a gargoyle peering over those beneath.
Promises to preserve the masthead-festooned crown have not materialised and concerns are mounting about the signal its dilapidation sends beyond the city walls and the safety of the structure.
UrbaniteLiving and Prescient Capital are the custodians of this gateway site, and the portrayal of Leeds it now projects. The time has come: sort out the mess that has become of our once proud home, on your watch.