Former Leeds And Liverpool Canal Company Warehouse

Former Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company Warehouse, Canal Wharf, Leeds

A warehouse built around 1776 to the designs of Robert Owen, engineer for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company. The main block is constructed of coursed squared stone with a graduated stone slate roof and gable copings. It comprises four storeys with six first-floor openings and quoins throughout.

The south front facing the road presents a symmetrical facade. A projecting central glazed entrance with an overhanging hipped roof and glazed gantry tower above stands in front of the original entrance, which has a quoined surround. Flanking this are three-light flat-faced mullion windows, with outer loading doors that are segmental-arched with quoined jambs at ground and first-floor levels. The third-floor loading doors are narrower, with stone lintel and tie-stone jambs. A lunette window sits above. Various insertions have been made to the facade: doors at the far left, a loading door to the right reduced to a window, and an inserted window to the top right. A projecting band at each floor level steps down from the outer to the inner bays and runs around the entire building.

The rear elevation, facing the canal, originally had five first-floor openings. The original first and fourth openings consisted of tiers of loading doors above ground-floor level, some later reduced to windows. Four windows were inserted in 1994. A boarded dormer occupies the centre of the roof.

The right return features a tier of four loading doors with segmental arches and quoined jambs. The upper storeys were reduced to three-light windows. A circular window with keyblocks sits in the gable, with a three-light window at ground-floor level and an inserted door to the left.

An added single-storey block stands to the left. It has central loading doors from the road, now glazed. Along the canal side, it features low two-light flat-faced mullion windows, with the third blocked and partially cut through by a full-height loading door, now a window. The block includes paired gutter brackets and a hipped roof. It stands over the canal, with the end barge opening converted to a window and two inserted doors. A small lean-to has been added to the right.

The interior contains an inserted brick staircase serving all floors to the left of the entrance. The upper floors are supported on two rows of cast-iron columns with fire-proof brick arches. The mullions are chamfered on the inside. The canal extends within the building. The roof structure is of massive timber, composed of cross beams supporting queen posts clasping a collar, X-braces and six rows of purlins.

The building was probably erected as a warehouse for various goods including cloth and agricultural products. In the early 19th century, it became associated with Benjamin Gott's wool processing factory. The mid to late 19th-century interior remodelling replaced timber floors with brick vaults supported on iron columns and beams to provide safer, fire-proof construction.

The proportions and loading doors of the warehouse are similar to those of the brick warehouse at Nos 40 and 42 The Calls. The use of circular and lunette windows was also a feature of the important Marshall Mill on Marshall Street and was probably derived from 18th-century country house stables and farm buildings.

The building is an important survival from the extensive range of structures that once stood at the terminus of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, at its junction with the River Aire and close to the boundary of the Aire and Calder Navigation marked by Leeds Bridge and Bridge End. Similar warehouses are reputed to survive along the Rochdale Canal at Todmorden and at Dale Street, Manchester.

The warehouse was converted in 1994 to 1995.