The Calls is an area and street 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 Leeds city centre,

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 b ...

. This district falls within the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

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 parliamentar ...

ward of the City of Leeds Council. Formerly an area of industry in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, it has now been regenerated with a mixture of uses: primarily offices, residential and leisure.

Etymology

The first evidence for the existence of the place-name ''The Calls'' is the street-name ''Call Lane'', first attested in 1557, but presumably referring to The Calls. The place-name ''The Calls'' is first attested in its own right in 1668, with the French

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...

''le'', as ''Le Calls''. The place first appears on maps from John Cossins' 1726 ''Plan of Leeds'', which shows a street labelled "Calls" running from the

Leeds Bridge Leeds Bridge is a historic river crossing in Leeds, England. The present cast iron road bridge over the River Aire dates from 1870. It is Grade II listed. History The medieval town of Leeds centred on 13th century burgess building plots eithe ...

Leeds Parish Church Leeds Minster, or the Minster and Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds (formerly Leeds Parish Church) is the minster church of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the site of the oldest church in the city and is of architectural and l ...

. The old street sign also shows it as "Calls", without "the". The origin of the name ''Calls'' is uncertain. Recent local history books frequently give the etymology as the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''callis'' ('a stony footway, foot-path').David Thornton, ''Leeds: A Historical Dictionary of People, Places and Events'' (Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, 2013), s.v. ''CALLS, THE''. However, this word is not found elsewhere in English usage or place-names, making it an unlikely origin for ''The Calls''. Rather, the usual authority on English place-names, the

English Place-Name Society The English Place-Name Society (EPNS) is a learned society concerned with toponomastics and the toponymy of England, in other words, the study of place-names (toponyms). Its scholars aim to explain the origin and history of the names they stud ...

, concluded that the name was 'probably' from the Northern English dialect word ''caul'', meaning '

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

' (whose origin is itself obscure).Harry Parkin, ''Your City's Place-Names: Leeds'', English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017), p. 32. At the time of the publication of the Society's volumes on West Yorkshire, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' listed the earliest attestation of this word as 1805, but other research showed the word in use already in the sixteenth century.''Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue'', 12 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002), s.v.
Caull
'. Another possibility, however, is that the name comes from the Northern English dialect word ''call'' 'place where cows are driven'.

History

It is thought that in

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

times there was a ford over the River Aire near the present

. "The Calls" was originally an open space mainly of orchards, but is now a built up area. The Calls area along with neighbouring Clarence Dock served as docks on 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 The Aire and Calder Navigation is the canalised section of the Rivers Aire and Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the ...

throughout the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

and the early 20th century. The area's decline began in the early 20th century when Leeds' industry moved away from the centre out towards

, Holbeck,

Armley Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than from Leeds city centre. Like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the Industrial Revolution and had several mills, one of which houses now the Leeds Industri ...

and

Kirkstall Kirkstall is a north-western suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the eastern side of the River Aire. The area sits in the Kirkstall ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds West parliamentary constituency, represented by Rachel Reeves. T ...

. From 1985 to 1995

Leeds Corporation Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of l ...

carried out a major regeneration with careful conversion of listed building warehouses and new build in sympathetic style for a mixed use area. This includes the historic Fletlands Corn Mills into a boutique hotel, 42 The Calls Hotel, in 1991. The Centenary Footbridge by

Ove Arup & Partners Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...

across the river to Brewery Wharf was opened in 1993. A silver ball fountain was installed to commemorate this work. File:Calls footbridge 8 June 2013 1.jpg, Centenary Footbridge File:Calls Sphere Old Brewery 5 August 2018.jpg, Silver ball fountain File:Fletland Mills blue plaque.jpg, Civic Trust plaque and Leeds Award for Architecture on Fletland Mills File:Calls Landing.jpg, Calls Landing

Leisure

There are many pubs and bars around the area. The pub The New Penny on Call Lane was awarded a blue plaque by

Leeds Civic Trust Leeds Civic Trust is a voluntary organisation and registered charity established in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in 1965. Affiliated to the national charity Civic Voice, its stated purpose is "to stimulate public interest in and care for the ...

on 19 October 2016, "for providing a safe venue for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people." The plaque states that the pub is "one of the longest continually running LGB & T* venues in the UK, having been so since 1953". The area is also the setting for the post parade street party and stalls at Leeds Pride.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calls Streets in Leeds Gay villages in England LGBT culture in Leeds Entertainment districts in the United Kingdom Places in Leeds