Highbury Works

Highbury Works is a tannery and fellmonger’s works built in 1857, originally for Samuel Smith. It is located on Green Road, Meanwood, Leeds, and was closed in 1994. The building is of dressed stone construction with ashlar dressings, and has corrugated sheet roofs with roof-lights and a single ashlar stack. It is arranged in an L-plan with 21 x 27 bays, and includes six single-storey tanning sheds to the east.

The main, north-west front features a large round-headed cart entrance, flanked by segment-headed doorways with four-panel doors and blocked overlights. There are blocked and casement windows, along with inserted doors, to either side. A plaque inscribed 'S.1857.S.' is positioned centrally above the ground floor. Above this are further blocked windows, a loading door, and a row of openings that originally had louvred shutters, now with the lower portions blocked and 4-light casements inserted.

The south-west front has a segmental-arched cart entrance with a sliding door, followed by blocked windows and a door. The top of the segmental arch over the mill race is visible beneath the ground-floor windows. An off-centre loading door is positioned above, alongside boarded casements and a bridge obscuring a door to the left. Further boarded casements are situated to the right, with a row of casements above. The south-west corner is distinguished by a tall circular stack rising from a square base, featuring a moulded cap and painted brick with iron banding.

The north-east front includes a three-storey, four-bay block with blocked windows on each floor. To the right are six gables with four windows each, and further shuttered openings obscured by later lean-to additions. The mill race runs beneath the fourth gable through an ashlar segmental arch.

Internally, wooden floors and staircases remain. The sunken wheel pit survives in the south-east corner. The tanning sheds feature iron columns supporting wooden roofs, and contain two rows of ten deep tanning pits with stone sides, though many are now filled. The site was previously occupied by a medieval corn mill belonging to Kirkstall Abbey, which was later used as a paper mill before being destroyed by fire in 1852. Highbury Works represents the best-preserved large-scale mid-19th century tannery in Leeds, a significant center for tanning in England during that period.