Unbuilt Britain - Unbuilt Leeds?

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Sun 03 Nov, 2013 9:13 pm

Just watching this unbuilt Britain programme on BBC 2 and it brings to mind the many unbuilt Leeds projects that never happened - the brick man of Holbeck, Lumiere towers, Leeds supertram etc. Plus the fantastic model of a subterranean railway station beneath city square... does this model actually exist??... what other schemes were planned for Leeds but never happened? Answers on a postcard please! Personally I wish that some of the schemes that used to appear in those Usborne books of the future such as the `elevator to the stars` and doughnut shaped space stations that rotated to create artificial gravity had actually come true. We were led to believe in the 1970s that by the year 2000 we would be holidaying on the moon... what a rip off... I blame Thatcher...

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Sun 03 Nov, 2013 10:25 pm

There were plans to build a skyscraper similar to the Empire State Building between Boar Lane and the railway, roughly where the hotel is now. However the Second World War broke out and, like the underground, that was that. I'm sure it's been mentioned on here previously.

Hats Off · Post by **Hats Off** » Mon 04 Nov, 2013 12:34 pm

jonleeds wrote: Plus the fantastic model of a subterranean railway station beneath city square... does this model actually exist??... I have wondered about that model too, all I have ever seen is the picture of said station.

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Mon 04 Nov, 2013 4:26 pm

I think some of these things are just artists impressions and no actual plans were made to create these things. I mean no long back there were plans to create a new housing estate, or 'urban village' on the old Woodside Quarry site with plans for multi-storey park and ride and relocation of Horsforth's train station. Only last week there was an article on Calendar about the Leeds to Harrogate railway line being in talks about electrifying the line, doubling the speed and amount of trains etc. Plus this nonsense about creating a link from that railway line to the airport and on to Bradford city centre. Like that will ever happen... I dunno, if they put the money they blow on consultations and planning stuff that never happens into actually building something they might get somewhere.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Mon 04 Nov, 2013 6:09 pm

If the money that gets spent on consultants and consultations got spent on anything productive, we'd have a 24 hour Underground network across the city linked into a state of the art tram network, all of which would be free to travel on....

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Mon 04 Nov, 2013 10:01 pm

raveydavey wrote: If the money that gets spent on consultants and consultations got spent on anything productive, we'd have a 24 hour Underground network across the city linked into a state of the art tram network, all of which would be free to travel on.... Yes that would be handy to have!

davedeath · Post by **davedeath** » Tue 05 Nov, 2013 1:17 am

I would have loved to have seen the brick man built. Perhaps it still can be. Presumably the council payed Gormley for his work at the time and have some sort of ownership of the design and concept.I remember that when I first moved to Leeds in the early 90's the maquette for brick man was displayed in the entrance lobby of the art gallery. Do they still display it? Having seen the antique roadshow I know that maquettes for Gormley's Angel Of The North owned by the local council are now worth over £1m.

edlong · Post by **edlong** » Tue 05 Nov, 2013 3:14 pm

Last time I was in the Art Gallery (a few months back) they still had the brick Gormley on display.

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Tue 05 Nov, 2013 6:36 pm

Have a look at this item I purchased at a jumble sale in the rather affluent village of Bardsey around 10 years ago. Its a solid bronze abstract sculpture only about 11" high x 2" x 2" but its enormously heavy for its size. I got to thinking that perhaps its also a 'maquette' of what might have been supposed to be a larger piece. Its definetely reminiscent of 'Moore / Hepworth' and probably contemporary to their period. I was almost given it for free as it was for some odd reason lying on the table full of shoes and the woman who was running this particular table said to me that I could have it if I could tell her what it was..! Anyway I told her it was a piece of abstract sculpture, gave her a pound for it and shoved it in my bag. Who knows, if it is some 'lost' Henry Moore or Barbara Hepworth maquette it could be worth thousands! God knows what I can do with it tho, I've tried asking on various forums and drawn a total blank, I actually took it to the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield and was greeted with quite a hostile response from the staff who told me in no uncertain terms that 'They DO NO give valuations'...!?!? I only wanted to know if they had any idea of the style / period / artist etc of the piece, I never mentioned money... I've also emailed photos of the sculpture to the Henry Moore Institute and received a similar response which I find absolutely disgusting and elitist to the point of being sickening. Anyway if anyone has an idea what I could do with it please let me know.

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Tue 05 Nov, 2013 8:19 pm

Jontry showing your picture to the Yorkshire sculpture Park at Bretton.it is in the style of Barbara Hepworth of whose works they have a few.