SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I took this photo on October 20 2015 from a large vacant plot of land opposite the Water Lane frontage of this derelict looking building (fencing stopped me from going onto Water Lane to get a close view, and the Sun made it hard to take photos of which this was the best that I managed). From information that I've found the name should state Knight & Willson. I have found an entry in Leodis of a photo taken on 19 May 1936 of what must surely be the same building, though its appearance (and name) has changed a lot. This is the Leodis link to what was then Knight & Forster printers http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL. I wonder if anyone knows any information (or a link to information) about the company's history?

The broken clock face caught my eye as I wondered if it may be a Potts Clock (not all of those have the Potts name on them) and a comment with the Leodis photo states that it is a Potts Clock. A partially culverted Hol Beck runs right to left across the foreground in the photo.

Hi Leodian, the clock is a Potts, it was set going on the 12 January 1910.

johnnyg wrote:Hi Leodian, the clock is a Potts, it was set going on the 12 January 1910.

Cheers for that johnnyg .

The clock was not working when I saw it but I wonder if its mechanism is still in working order?

I've never heard of knight and wilson....and I was a printer all my working life!

As I was on Water Lane (and nearby areas) during a walk around today (Oct 27 2015) I took this view of the premises. It's a shame to see a lot of derelict looking buildings in that and nearby areas. The road on the right is Bath Road.

sparky415 wrote:I've never heard of knight and wilson....and I was a printer all my working life!

Wilson may well have been a very late replacement. From the links on this search result page https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q ... forster%22

1. wikimapia link suggests the factory was built at the end of the 19th Century
2. the Charles Farrar Forster wikipedia entry suggests a brother who died in 1916 was a director
3. the Ken Forster Yorkshire Post article suggests Forsters were still directors to the late 1990s

So it indicates that it was probably Knight and Forster for almost a Century and Wilson for only around 10 years, as this first streetview image from 2008 https://goo.gl/maps/FTsBtkeagr82 shows it already boarded up.