Another terrible tower? Why Leeds looks like a depot of discarded fridges

Plans to build Yorkshire’s tallest building have provoked outrage in a city where developers are busily reaching for the sky Since the mid-19th century, the city of Leeds has proudly greeted visitors from the south with some of the most elegant towers in the land. As the train snakes its way into the city centre, a trio of fine brick chimneys is revealed at a bend in the river, each styled after a different Italian renaissance tower. One mimics Giotto’s Campanile in Florence, another echoes the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona, while a third recalls a Tuscan towerhouse in San Gimignano. It was the ornate fantasy of Victorian industrialist Colonel Thomas Harding, who hired architect William Bakewell to conjure the most beautiful ventilation shafts that a Yorkshire pin factory had ever seen. In recent years, this sophisticated scene has been overshadowed by towers of a different kind. First came the ranks of tacky waterside apartments, each topped with a jaunty curved roof, adding a touch of service station chic. Then came Bridgewater Place, the tallest building in Yorkshire, which squats like a bulky grey Dalek on the skyline. Its malevolence extends beyond its looks alone: the wind created by this “killer tower” at street level swept a lorry on to the pavement, crushing a man to death, and has injured others. They're proposing to plonk 600 units in a desert … no sandwich shop, no newsagent, no pub, cut off from the city by railway lines Continue reading...
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