Through by light on Rosebank

Places to explore
The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

A walk around today's Rosebank - a steep hillside affording views over the Aire Valley - could lead most people to conclude in this built up inner city area this was land that was unsuitable for building on. As many of us established Secret Loiners know this was far from the case and the hillside once housed a whole estate of inner city housing which was a tribute to the Victorian building industry and determination of those who drove it.So "old" map in hand a field trip up down, along up and around the bank was this mornings delight and boy was it hard to reconcile a steep grown over banking once holding three long streets of housing!!But hold them it did as the victorian builders cut three levels into the hillside and designed a cacophany of retaining walls, butresses, tall houses, small houses doubled up houses in all directions possible. Also innovative designs in which at it's ultimate you could have a five storey house but your fourth and fifth floor was somebody else's two storey house in the street behind!!Reconciling the map and todays lie of the land only became possible by climbing the various staircases that are the only remnants of this remarkable victorian development. One gets a starting point for the roads that ran along this hillside, that today would seem impossible to create. But create them they did..Once home a trawl through Leodis reveals little other than what you may find pictorially for any inner city industrial social housing. Cobbled streets, back to backs, "middens" abound and not much looks "steep" apart from the odd glance of a set of handrailed stairs creating the gateway to another level.After looking at 91 pictures of the Rosebanks that hide the real dimensions of this development, pictures 92. 93, 94, 97 & 99 finally give the game away of how to create a whole estate of houses on a steep hillside! I know we've been this way before but it's worth looking again......

User avatar
Leodian
Posts: 6478
Joined: Thu 10 Jun, 2010 8:03 am

Post by Leodian »

That is very interesting The Parksider.I don't know the area so I've just had a quick 'walk' round some of it through Google Street View (GSV). Some 'street art' caught my eye and this is a link to it:- http://goo.gl/maps/zch5u. As the GSV is dated June 2008 I wonder if anyone knows if this artwork is still there?    
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

Jogon
Posts: 3036
Joined: Wed 21 Dec, 2011 1:28 pm

Post by Jogon »

I couldn't think where this was though I lived a few streets away.There was another thread on this where philld found a lovely old b&w shot from the top of the hill and there was an old gas lamp.Marvellous, it then moved to a few then & now shots.Will try find & edit&addIt is only recently that the Burley rd end of this has been developed.Until then it was derelict terraces cut into the hill.

Jogon
Posts: 3036
Joined: Wed 21 Dec, 2011 1:28 pm

Post by Jogon »


The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

Jogon wrote: Found it - started as a W&Whttp://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=4238 Super picture, that still hides the steepness of this development.Could your genius with the pics upload pics 94 & 99 that are on leodis if you put "Rosebank" into the search terms.These two really show what lengths they went to to build an estate on a steep hillside!!

User avatar
Brunel
Posts: 1174
Joined: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 12:34 pm

Post by Brunel »


User avatar
Leodian
Posts: 6478
Joined: Thu 10 Jun, 2010 8:03 am

Post by Leodian »

During my Google Street View (GSV) 'walk' around some of the Rosebank area (see my post today at 18:17:41) I also came across a view on Rosebank Road that I would be interested to find out what may have once been there. This is the link to the GSV:- http://goo.gl/maps/ismEA    
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

Brunel wrote: Try these..............http://www.stuartwaltonart.com/USERIMAG ... 0Leeds.JPG     The second pic looks up to a tall house on Belle Vue Road with a ginnel beside it. That one still stands as do a number of the houses across the road at the very top. Even though the land flattens out the builders still built tall!! The following are good shots.....http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?reso ... 5_23284548        

The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

Leodian wrote: During my Google Street View (GSV) 'walk' around some of the Rosebank area (see my post today at 18:17:41) I also came across a view on Rosebank Road that I would be interested to find out what may have once been there. This is the link to the GSV:- http://goo.gl/maps/ismEA     They've made the bank into a community "facility" this is just a decorative modern feature of which there's several. there's a nice info board nearby but someone has spay painted over it.http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?reso ... 89297122On this one there's eight houses.There are four blind backs against the hillside, and they are three floors high. The top two stories are four more houses fronting on to the street above so the windows you see are the "through by light" element of the construction.One row of four houses is on the lower road and the houses directly above are also on the lower road but front the upper road hence this was how they managed to get three streets along a steep narrow bank, by effectively "overlapping" houses!         

User avatar
Leodian
Posts: 6478
Joined: Thu 10 Jun, 2010 8:03 am

Post by Leodian »

All fascinating stuff. Cheers The Parksider.
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

Post Reply