1st tower block

crackers · Post by **crackers** » Sat 18 Oct, 2008 11:23 am

Hi.Does anyone know when and where the 1st tower block was built in leeds?Searched the net for hours and can't find anything.Cheers

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 18 Oct, 2008 2:33 pm

Was it the ones at Holbeck? They were certainly there in the early sixties.

crackers · Post by **crackers** » Sat 18 Oct, 2008 3:03 pm

the earliest i have found so far is lidgett towers built in 1957?

String o' beads · Post by **String o' beads** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 1:10 am

Ebor Gardens including several tower blocks was up by 1960. Lincoln Green followed close behind.

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 1:49 pm

How big does it have to be to be a Tower Block? If 8 storeys counts, then 1935 onwards brought us Quarry Hill which would have been considered big in its time.

Brandy · Post by **Brandy** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 3:51 pm

Id go for the Queens hotel at ten floors built in 1937

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 5:13 pm

Brandy wrote: Id go for the Queens hotel at ten floors built in 1937 Rats! - missed that one Brandy

drapesy · Post by **drapesy** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 7:52 pm

I thought you might all like to see this futuristic vision - complete with trams on Briggate.! This was a proposal for a tower block on Briggate , where M & S now is, in 1938 (so later than Queens Hotel anyway). The war put paid to any chance of its construction, apparently. (Leodis Pic-http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?reso ... 0_23041934)

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 8:17 pm

just to be pedantic, are we talking resedential like the 60's monolith things near claypit lane, or office blocks? Dictionary says Tower block and high rise are interchangeable, and that Tower Block is more of a british term: 1. Indicating or being a multistoried building equipped with elevators: a high-rise apartment building. 2. Of, relating to, or marked by multistoried buildings: a high-rise fire; a high-rise district.So can we say the first building in Leeds to have a lift?

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 19 Oct, 2008 10:34 pm

LS1 wrote: just to be pedantic, are we talking resedential like the 60's monolith things near claypit lane, or office blocks? Dictionary says Tower block and high rise are interchangeable, and that Tower Block is more of a british term: 1. Indicating or being a multistoried building equipped with elevators: a high-rise apartment building. 2. Of, relating to, or marked by multistoried buildings: a high-rise fire; a high-rise district.So can we say the first building in Leeds to have a lift? Tower block does seem to be the colloquialism for high rise residential buildings these days but I took it to mean a tall building for any purpose (I suppose with all the 'city living' conversions of today, any building is even more appropriate!).I suspect that the earliest buildings to have lifts (haven't we done something on SL about lifts?) were probably not very tall so it may not be a suitable marker.