Up until 1958 there was a railway station in Holbeck. All right, that might not be the most amazing fact that you learn today, but it was unusual in that it was on two levels, high and low.
It wasn’t very practical as it was too near the City Centre, which in those days had two stations, City Station which we still know and love, and Central Station situated on Wellington Street and was the terminus for the London train. Because of the volume of traffic on the lines, trains would back-up whilst awaiting the allocation of a platform and block the station altogether. Unsurprisingly, Holbeck Station closed in 1958, so we can’t blame that one on Lord Beeching, and when Central Station was shut in 1967, the line was closed.
Should you have been at a loose end as far as entertainment was concerned on Saturday 29th April 1967, you could have done worse than to stand on Wellington Street in the early evening when the final train pulled out of Central Station on its way to Harrogate, as detonators had been placed on the line which exploded as the train left the station and passed the signal box. How much says that Health and Safety would knock that on the head nowadays. As an aside, Central Station did not officially close until 1st May but it didn’t open on Sundays as there were no services. To say that the destruction of the line was done so swiftly following the final departure it seems odd that here we are, some fifty-two years later and, apart from the remains of the track being removed, nothing has been done since. This is where a group of people with a vision of turning the high-level trail across the viaducts from Holbeck to Geldard Road into a local resource come in.
Holbeck Viaduct Project was set up to try to put the route of the former railway line to good use by transforming it into a leisure area where people can have a stroll, ride their bikes or just sit and chill. It could also be used as an art space or whatever else the creative imagination of Leeds people can come up with. I was invited to a progress meeting to check on how well, or not, things are going and was impressed by the enthusiasm of the team and their vision for the future. It does seem that the neglected bridge where we met is just rusting away and becoming an eyesore, when all around it are new industrial units and upmarket car showrooms. It looks very sorry for itself and is not a great welcome to visitors to the City. On a personal note, I would love to see the faded ‘Dunlop and Ranken’ lettering restored as a nod to Leeds’ industrial heritage, as they were steel producers during the last century, with a factory adjacent.
Although the enthusiasm of Holbeck Viaduct Project shows no bounds, it appears that the same cannot be said for Network Rail, the monolith with whom they are having to deal. There does seem to be a lot of goodwill on the part of the company, but it appears that getting the go-ahead to make a start on developing the site is taking some time. To be fair, there are obviously other considerations to take into account, such as perhaps utilising the old route themselves for schemes such as HS3, but this seems to be so far in the future that it should not affect a ‘meanwhile use’ for the benefit of the local population.
Network Rail has said that there will be a communication with the group by ‘late summer’ which I would take to be the end of August, autumn starting in September, but for some reason, there does seem to be some doubt about this. I sincerely hope that Network Rail do get back with a positive response to enable a start to the funds being raised and the provision of a new, exciting and environmentally friendly attraction to add to the other trail-blazing projects in our wonderful City.
Leeds Living will be following progress on the Holbeck Viaduct Project with a keen eye.
All artist’s impressions by Edward Architecture.
