Leeds Dock (formerly New Dock and previously Clarence Dock) is a mixed development with retail, office and leisure presence by the

River Aire The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malham to Howden is direct, but the river's meanderings extend that to . Between Malham Tarn and Ai ...

in central Leeds,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It has a large residential population in waterside apartments.

History

The dock was constructed for boats using the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

and the Aire and Calder Navigation to tranship goods and commodities from

Leeds city centre Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters. Central districts A ...

in 1843. It was primarily used to bring

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

from

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

around Rothwell and

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

to supply heavy industries in

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central parliamenta ...

and business and commerce in Leeds city centre. The western side of the dock once had a large crane on tracks along the side of the dock to load and unload goods from canal barges. In the 1990s the surrounding area was made up of Victorian industrial buildings most of which were derelict. Throughout the second half of the 20th century the area suffered steady

industrial decline Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially of heavy industry or manufacturing industry. There are different interpre ...

. The mills and many heavy engineering works began to close, move further out of town or scale down. Construction of the £42.5 million purpose-built

Royal Armouries Museum The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a national museum which displays the National Collection of Arms and Armour. It is part of the Royal Armouries family of museums, with other sites at the Royal Armouries' traditio ...

marked the start of the area's redevelopment which opened in March 1996. No further development was made until 2004 when a

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park ( British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a bui ...

opened followed by an Express hotel in August 2006. The retail and leisure sector was launched on 11 October 2008 with fashion shows from celebrity fashion consultant and TV presenter Gok Wan. However few retail chains were attracted to the area and the site failed to take off as a shopping centre. The site, which had been known as Clarence Dock, became New Dock in mid-2012 as part of a re-branding initiative. The site was bought by

Allied London Allied London is a property development and investment company that develops landmark projects ranging from re-use to regeneration developments across retail, commercial, office, residential, restaurant, and leisure sectors. The company also offer ...

, and rebranded as Leeds Dock in 2013.

Facilities

Leeds Dock is the home of the

, a major national museum. The site attracts around 1.5 million visitors a year. Although the site was originally intended to include a destination shopping centre, few shops opened and most of the shops that did open have since closed. Leeds Dock's main shopping street, 'The Boulevard' radiates southbound from Armouries Square. Another focal point is 'The Anchorage' at the top of the dock. Clarence House is a tower containing 227 apartments and six retail units.

Gallery

File:Knight's Way Bridge (14221790918).jpg, ''Knights Way'' Bridge at Leeds Dock over The River Aire, linking Leeds Dock with the East Bank, designed by

Buro Happold Buro Happold (previously ''BuroHappold Engineering'') is a British professional services firm that provides engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for buildings, infrastructure, and the environment ...

File:Clarence Dock 1.jpg, Leeds Dock File:Clarence Dock 2.jpg, Waterfront Festival Day at Leeds Dock File:Clarencedockboulevard.jpg, ''The Boulevard'' at Leeds Dock, looking towards the

File:Clarence Dock Public Art.jpg,

Public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

on display at Leeds Dock File:Clarence House, Leeds.JPG, Clarence House File:Armouriessquare.jpg, Armouries Square

References

External links

Leeds Dock official website
{{City of Leeds Buildings and structures in Leeds Buildings and structures completed in 2007

History

Facilities

Gallery

See also

References

External links