SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Apart from a structure on the top there has been little obvious recent change to the building. Some work has however very recently started at the car park by what remains of Hartley Hill at the old Public Dispensary, presumably in advance of some work at that building (long closed down as a dispensary). This photo was taken on December 7 2017 from across North Street and shows the new building on the left and the boarded-off dispensary car park on the right (the Inner Ring Road is out of view below and between the new and old buildings).

It is reported on page 3 of today's (Dec 13 2017) Yorkshire Evening Post that plans to demolish the vacant Symons House on Belgrave Street to make way for a 23-storey tall student flats building will be discussed by the Leeds City Council Plans Panel tomorrow. Assuming that permission is given then with the building work now going on that area will eventually look a lot different to what it did even fairly recently. The changes in appearance of the centre of Leeds in recent years is quite remarkable, with most of it in my opinion looking good.

Leodian wrote:. The changes in appearance of the centre of Leeds in recent years is quite remarkable, with most of it in my opinion looking good.

I'm not sure this one will add to the good. Looking at
https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/onlin ... 165872.pdf which is one of the 87 documents to be found at https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/onlin ... KQ4JBFN100 I think it will look somewhat out of place. It will dwarf Fairfax House on Wade Lane and certainly dwarf the Santander building on Merrion Street. Ironically the reasons given for it not detracting from St John's Church are the light grey/brown bricks in the design are what I think (and Leeds Civic Trust have made the point already) make it look like a concrete monstrosity at distance. In my opinion that won't be helped by the "bays" structure which will look like they are formed by concrete beams.

On a separate but related note I believe there is also an application to convert the unfinished building at the top of Cookridge Street, that was meant to be the Arena Hilton, into student residences too. I think that plan includes adding an additional couple of floors to what is already up.

Work is continuing on the construction of the student's accommodation building near Belgrave Street though it is mainly now at the sides of the tower. These are 2 photos that I took on January 23 2018. The first shows a view looking across at the New Briggate/North Lane/Vicar Lane junction. The second is a view from New Briggate that shows a very old building (The Wrens) and the new building.

As the last photo that I posted of the building work was taken on January 23 2018 I thought I would post these 3 that show some progress of the work. The first was taken on March 21 2018, the second on May 15 2018 and the third on July 17 2018.

These are a couple of views of the construction work that I took on December 4 2018. The first is a side view taken from the Vicar Lane/North Street junction area. The second is a view from North Street looking across the slip road coming from the Inner Ring Road (that is though just out of view below).

It looks as if most of the external work may have now been done. This is a photo that I took on July 23 2019 from North Street looking across the Inner Ring Road.

I don't know if students are already occupying apartments but as work seems to have ended I thought I would add these 2 likely final photos of the VITA Student Leeds St Albans Place building on Cross Belgrave Street, Leeds. The first is a view along Cross Belgrave Street from near New Briggate and the second is from North Street looking across the Inner Ring Road.

I've looked at the website for the building and among the location's facilities and attractions in which I was amused to see it stated "we are directly opposite the Trinity Centre which is sure to satisfy all your retail needs!". I think "directly opposite" is stretching it somewhat!