Nineteenth Century
It was in the 19th century that Leeds began to grow into one of Britain's largest cities. This led to widespread building across the city. Leeds' wool and cloth trades resulted in the building of many industrial buildings during this era. The resulting workforce which migrated to the city from rural areas brought about the building of many houses. Leeds has perhaps the most surviving examples of back-to-back terrace housing in the UK, particularly in Holbeck and Harehills.
"Headingley Castle", originally known as The Elms, was built between 1843 and 1846 by the local architect John Child for the corm merchant Thomas England. While the exterior is Victorian Gothic in style, the architect employed modern building techniques and materials including cast iron in its construction.
Leeds city centre has many examples from this era, such as Leeds Town Hall, the Leeds Kirkgate Market, the Hotel Metropole, the Leeds City Varieties, the Central Post Office, Calls Landings and the Corn Exchange to name a few.
Leeds Town Hall (pictured top) was designed by Cuthbert Brodrick and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1858. The Hotel Metropole was built in the 1890s and was inspired by French architecture of the time. The Leeds Corn Exchange was also designed by Cuthbert Brodrick and was built between 1861 and 1864. The building lay derelict for many years until 1985 when it was converted into a shopping centre. Harehills, Burley, Holbeck, Chapeltown, Woodhouse and East End Park contain many houses from this era, while Cross Gates has a 120-foot (37 m) column guided gasholder from this era.
The 19th century saw the construction of most of Leeds' railway infrastructure, including architecturally notable viaducts in Holbeck and Leeds city centre. None of the major railway stations from this era have survived, in fact most of Leeds railway station was rebuilt as recently as 2002.
As well as industrial architecture Hunslet has a history for some notable churches. The main steeple on Church Lane was once part of a large church. All but the steeple were demolished in the 1970s and a smaller church building attached. Meadow Lane in Hunslet was also home to Christ Church, an architecturally notable Gothic church, which has since been demolished.
Leeds Parish Church was constructed in 1841 and at 115 feet (35 m) tall it held the record as Leeds' tallest building until the building of the town hall in 1858.
Read more about this topic: Architecture Of Leeds
Famous quotes related to nineteenth century:
“The secret point of money and power in America is neither the things that money can buy nor power for power’s sake ... but absolute personal freedom, mobility, privacy. It is the instinct which drove America to the Pacific, all through the nineteenth century, the desire to be able to find a restaurant open in case you want a sandwich, to be a free agent, live by one’s own rules.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1934)
“When I see that the nineteenth century has crowned the idolatry of Art with the deification of Love, so that every poet is supposed to have pierced to the holy of holies when he has announced that Love is the Supreme, or the Enough, or the All, I feel that Art was safer in the hands of the most fanatical of Cromwell’s major generals than it will be if ever it gets into mine.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Detachment is the prerogative of an elite; and as the dandy is the nineteenth century’s surrogate for the aristocrat in matters of culture, so Camp is the modern dandyism. Camp is the answer to the problem: how to be a dandy in the age of mass culture.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The nineteenth century is a turning point in history, simply on account of the work of two men, Darwin and Renan, the one the critic of the Book of Nature, the other the critic of the books of God. Not to recognise this is to miss the meaning of one of the most important eras in the progress of the world.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The most revolutionary invention of the Nineteenth Century was the artificial sterilization of marriage.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)