Tower Works facts for kids
1993 image showing two of the three towers
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| Architectural style | Italian | ||||
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| Location | Holbeck, Leeds | ||||
| Construction | |||||
| Built | 1864–1866 | ||||
| Completed | 1919 | ||||
| Decommissioned | 1981 | ||||
| Main contractor | T. R. Harding Harding, Rhodes & Co. |
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| Design team | |||||
| Architect | Thomas Shaw (1864) | ||||
| Other designers | William Bakewell (1899) | ||||
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Tower Works is a cool old factory building in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire. It's famous for its three unique towers. You can find it right next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. These towers, built in an Italian style, really stand out in the Leeds skyline.
The factory was started by T.R. Harding between 1864 and 1866. It made special steel pins used in the textile industry for preparing materials like wool or cotton. Later, Harding's son, Thomas Harding, added more buildings in 1899. He loved Italian art and buildings, and this greatly influenced the new designs.
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What makes Tower Works special?
The most famous parts of Tower Works are its three towers. They were built to help clean the air by removing dust from the factory.
- The biggest and fanciest tower was built in 1899. It looks like Giotto's Campanile, a famous bell tower in Florence, Italy.
- A smaller, but still fancy, tower from 1866 is designed like the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona, Italy.
- The third tower is plainer and was added in 1919. It looks like the old tower houses you can see in San Gimignano, a town in Tuscany, Italy.
All three towers are special and protected as listed structures. The two fancy towers are even more important, listed as Grade II*, while the plain one is Grade II.
How did the towers help the environment?
The Giotto Tower had a very smart system for its time. It included special filters in its chimney. These filters helped to catch and remove steel dust, reducing pollution from the factory. This was a very advanced idea for the late 1800s!
A change of name and a big challenge
In 1895, T. W. Harding & Son joined with two other companies. They became known as Harding, Rhodes & Co. The factory kept making its important steel pins.
During World War II, the factory was damaged. Nearby buildings were bombed during air raids aimed at the Leeds railway station. After 117 years of work, Tower Works finally closed its doors in 1981.
What is Tower Works like today?
Tower Works is now a key part of the Holbeck Urban Village area, which is being updated and improved. In 2005, a group called Yorkshire Forward bought the site.
They planned to turn it into a modern area with different types of businesses and homes. While some plans changed, the first part of the project was completed. Now, the entrance buildings are home to companies that work in digital and creative fields. In 2014, new developers were sought to continue working on the rest of the site.
