SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

The old South Point building on South Accommodation Road has been standing derelict for a long time. It used to be the headquarters of the Leeds Development Corporation and Leeds environmental health services.


The Demolition show on BBC 2 a couple of weeks back got me wondering if anything was happening so I asked Leeds council via Twitter. It was bought by AQL in February and they're going to turn it into a data centre: https://www.aql.com/news/293/. It's actually more suitable than it sounds, even in its current condition, because they'd have to strip it out and replace the windows anyway. I like this idea: the area needs something other than car repair workshops or recycling places to make it more attractive and it brings in more money from people working there who might want to pop out for lunch or a pint after work. Be good if they could finally do something with the old R H Bruce mill as well...

I like the idea but I'm not sure how many jobs a data centre will generate? A couple of security guards and another techie to add to the existing staff?
OK, so I'm just jealous of those who get to work in data centres.

BarFly wrote:I like the idea but I'm not sure how many jobs a data centre will generate? A couple of security guards and another techie to add to the existing staff?
OK, so I'm just jealous of those who get to work in data centres.

When I was a student, one of my holiday jobs, was a security guard at this building.
I cannot remember the company occupying it in the 1960's.
I have designed several data centres and confirm that comparative few people work in them. Most of the staff are only needed when things go wrong. From experience, the local takeaways will do well

On Twitter AQL mentioned that they're also planning on making it "a fully sustainable development and startup space", so it should be more than just a few server halls. South Point is big so there should be plenty of room for everything.