Granary Buildings is a heritage listed building in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England.

History

Built in around 1776 as a warehouse for the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Company, the Granary Building is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It stands by Lock No.1 (the ”River Lock”) of the canal. It is regarded as “an important survival from the extensive range of buildings at the end of 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 ...

at its junction with the

River Aire The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. Part of the river below Leeds is canalised, and is known as the Aire and Calder Navigation. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malha ...

and close to the boundary of the

Aire and Calder Navigation The Aire and Calder Navigation is the River engineering#Canalization of rivers, canalised section of the River Aire, Rivers Aire and River Calder, West Yorkshire, Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Kn ...

. The building was designed by Robert Owen, engineer for the canal company, and was unusual in that a branch of the canal ran into the building allowing loading of barges under cover. Significant remodelling took place in the mid to late 19th century including the addition of the single-storey extension to the west. Internal timber floors were replaced with cast-iron columns and fire-proof brick arches to reduce the risk of fire. Conversion to its current use was undertaken in the mid 1990s including the insertion of additional windows and raising the height of the top storey to satisfy current standards for ceiling heights, work undertaken by the engineering firm Abbey Pynford. The main building served as the headquarters for Baird Group Ltd, a menswear company, until May 2021 and the later extension is Water Lane Boat House, a bar.

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed agricultural buildings Grade II* listed industrial buildings Industrial buildings in England Listed buildings in Leeds Buildings and structures in Leeds

History

See also

References