It was a pleasant walk in the sunshine back to Leeds rail station, along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. There are numerous bridges and it's all quite green and leafy, with waterlilies on the surface.
A section sandwiched between the canal and river has been made into an urban park, quite untamed and full of wildflowers and butterflies.
Graffiti 'artists'/hooligans (depending on your viewpoint!) have run amok. One wonders how they have managed to access some of the more out of the way stretches, like the wall below tightly sandwiched between the canal and rail lines. And still more high-rise blocks are under construction.
Here and there, reminders of the industrial past of this area have been retained. The Italianate tower (below), built in 1866 and modelled on the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona, was a dust extractor for the Tower Works, operational from 1864 until 1981, which made steel pins for carding and combing in the textile industry.
Eventually the canal arrives at its Leeds endpoint, Granary Wharf (the name being no doubt a bit of a giveaway as to what used to be situated here). In the distance in my photo below you can see the lock that releases it into the River Aire, which becomes navigable from here through the centre of the city to the Leeds Dock marina and then into the Aire and Calder Navigation.







No comments:
Post a Comment