Leeds has a very rich railway history going back to the 1750s, when the Middleton Colliery Railway became the first railway in the country to be authorised by an act of parliament.
The first passenger railway came to Leeds in 1834 with the opening of the Leeds and Selby Railway across the other side of town. This exciting new mode of transport attracted intense interest from investors, and with the promise of high returns, railway lines started to spring up all over the country. By the early 1840s Railway Mania was well and truly underway, leading to a big surge in railway stock prices.
In the 1840s, a huge chunk of government legislation related to the formation of new railway companies – everyone wanted a piece of the action. At one point there were over 20 railway companies associated with Yorkshire alone! The system was pretty unregulated and led to a free-for-all in railway construction.
In 1845, the Leeds, Dewsbury and Manchester Railway Act was passed to permit the construction of a new line across the Pennines from Leeds to Manchester via Dewsbury and Huddersfield. This route was much shorter and quicker than its competitors and would surely attract big revenues!
At the same time the Railway Mania bubble was starting to burst as reality set in and shareholders faced demands for extra cash, especially since most had only paid small deposits on their shares. The smaller companies started to run out of money and became vulnerable to takeover, often before lines were even built.
To that end, the Leeds, Dewsbury and Manchester Railway company was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway company in 1847, and the new line eventually opened in 1848.
The line from Manchester spanned the canal and river on a viaduct before terminating at a small temporary station at the end of Wellington Street (not to be confused with the new Wellington Station up the road). It was quickly joined by the Leeds and Thirsk Railway line and by the early 1850s the small station had been rebuilt and replaced by Leeds Central Station, which also became the main terminus for the Great Northern Railway service to London.
Each railway company also built its own goods warehouses, and this whole area quickly became saturated with all types of rail freight. The goods yard was at two levels – in fact if you stand on the north side of the viaduct looking over the river you can just about make out the remaining abutments of the low-level bridge. Steam-powered wagon hoists were required to lift goods wagons between the high and low level.
After nationalisation of the railways in the late 1940s, leading to the famous Beeching cuts, Central Station and the freight yards ended up surplus to requirements and closed for good in 1967.
When the high level viaduct was demolished in the early 1980s, the section spanning the river and canal remained. One of the 1840s wagon hoists was also spared, granted Grade II listed status in 1983, then standing 25 years derelict and alone in the car park of the Aireside Centre Retail Park, home to MFI and the famous Jolly Giant toy superstore.
In the late 2000s the site was again cleared for the construction of the Wellington Place office park, the preserved wagon hoist now taking centre stage with its painstaking restoration and conversion into a mini museum in 2024. Go inside to find out more about the history of this area.
The remaining section of 1840s viaduct now has a new purpose. It underwent recent restoration and today an elevated garden now forms the focal point for a new housing and retail development known as The Junction.
