Truck Lifting Tower Aireside Centre

LEEDS

SE2933 WELLINGTON STREET 714-1/35/435 (South side (off)) 10/08/83 Truck lifting tower, Aireside Centre (Formerly Listed as: WHITEHALL ROAD Truck Lifting Tower, Aireside Centre)

II

Truck lifting tower. Before 1847. Snecked stone, a mixture of grey gritstone and softer yellow sandstone, with rusticated ashlar dressings, string course and cornice, cast-iron window frames, plaques and details. Roof not visible over parapet. North side: low level entrance, 2 large arches in outer bays flanking small central doorway with oculus above, the large arches have a plaque above: 'TO LIFT 20 TONS', the left also has a smaller plaque above: 'L&NWRL-Y/2245'. Wide arched windows in outer bays of 2 storeys above, narrow central windows. 1st-floor windows deeper than 2nd-floor. Fragmentary cast-iron small-pane window frames. South side: high level entrance. Viaduct abutment to ground floor demolished but the scar of demolished walling is clear. Wide archway to right, a narrow arched opening left, a square cast-iron flue opening top centre. 2 large arches to 1st floor flanking central arched doorway. 3 bays as north side on 2nd storey. Single arched windows on 1st floors of east and west sides; the W side has 2 tethering rings low down and the E side has 3 pairs of round tie-bar plates. INTERIOR: remains of timber flooring and framework of winch gear in upper floors. This building is important as a surviving remnant, with the river and canal viaduct (qv), of the large Great Northern Railway complex which occupied the entire area between Wellington Street and Whitehall Road. Two such towers, either side of the viaduct, enabled trucks to be lifted from the low-level Great Northern Goods Station and sidings to the high-level passenger line on the viaduct arches. (Fraser, D: A History of Modern Leeds: 1980-: 135).

Listing NGR: SE2931433358