Sightseeing in Leeds: Temple Works - Tower Works
This isn't your usual sort of guide to sightseeing in Leeds. I really just wanted to use this page to point of a couple of unusual buildings which, if you're coming up to Leeds for a short break, you are going to miss, if you don't know where to look. They aren't by any means the main attractions in Leeds, but it costs nothing to go and have a look and they are not far from each other in the Holbeck area of the city which is only a short walk from Leeds City centre.
Temple Works
Temple works is a Grade I listed building and up until recently the building was used as a warehouse by the catalogue shopping company, GUS. Work has been underway for a few years now to refurbish Temple Works as a retail centre. This early 19th century flax mill was the brainchild of industrialist John Marshall. Influenced by the nineteenth century facination with Eygptology the building is a mock Eygyptian temple based on the Temple of Edfu at Horus. One of Marshall's most significant innovations in constructing this building was that of bringing the concept of the folly out of the gardens of stately homes and into an urban working environment. Its most unusual original feature was probably the sheep which were left to graze on the roof when it was in use as a flax mill.
Temple Works can be found on Marshall Street in Leeds LS11
Temple Works Leeds
Tower Works
Just around the corner from Marshall Street on Water Lane in the now unfortunately derelict Tower Works; a building opened by Colonel Thomas Harding in 1864. Whereas Temple Works takes its influence from Eygpt, the turrets that form Tower Works are immitations of several towers built during the Italian Renaissance. The largest and most ornate tower is an imitation of the Giotto campanile in Florence. The second ornate tower is based around the Lamberti Tower in Verona. The third tower (not shown), is possibly a representation of a Tuscan tower house.
Tower Works Leeds