Tower Works
Encyclopedia
Tower Works is a former factory notable for its three listed towers. It is located on Globe Road in Holbeck
Holbeck
Holbeck is a district in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The district begins on the southern edge of the Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 Leeds postcode area. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since...

, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal
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 , it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line...

. The Italianate towers of the factory are a distinctive landmark on the Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 skyline.

The factory was founded by T.R. Harding to make steel pin
Pin
A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together.Pin may also refer to:* Award pin, a small piece of metal or plastic with a pin attached given as an award for some achievement...

s for carding
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...

 and combing
Combing
Combing is a method for preparing carded fibre for spinning. It separates out the short fibres by means of a rotating ring of steel pins. The fibres in the 'top' it produces, have been straightened and lie parallel to each other...

 in the textile industry
Textile industry
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the production of yarn, and cloth and the subsequent design or manufacture of clothing and their distribution. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry....

, and the original buildings, by Thomas Shaw, were erected in 1864-6. Harding's son, Colonel Thomas Harding
Thomas Walter Harding
Colonel Thomas Walter Harding was an industrialist and civic figure in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. He was born in Lille, France where his Leeds-based father had a factory, and was educated at Leeds Grammar School...

, employed William Bakewell to extend the works in 1899. The design of the extension was heavily influenced by Harding's love of Italian architecture and art.

The most notable features of Tower Works are the three towers that give it its name and served for dust extraction from the factory. The largest and most ornate tower (1899, by Bakewell) is based on Giotto's Campanile in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

. The smaller ornate tower (1866, by Shaw) is styled after the Torre dei Lamberti
Torre dei Lamberti
The Torre dei Lamberti is 84 m high tower in Verona, northern Italy.The tower was begun in 1172; in May 1403 a lightning struck it, but only in 1448 restoration works were started, lasting until 1464. In the occasion the tower was enlarged: the more recent sections can be recognized today by...

 in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

. A third plain tower, built as part of Harding's final phase of expansion in 1919, is thought to represent a Tuscan
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

 tower house such as can be seen in San Gimignano
San Gimignano
San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several kilometres outside the town....

. All three towers are listed structures, the two ornate towers being Grade II* and the plain tower Grade II.

The design for the Giotto Tower included ventilation
Ventilation (architecture)
Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality...

 systems that were way ahead of their time in terms of minimising pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

 from the steel works. The chimney incorporated a filter to remove the excess steel dust.

In 1895 T. W. Harding & Son amalgamated with two other companies to become Harding, Rhodes & Co.

The factory sustained damage in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 when neighbouring buildings were bombed during the air raids on the nearby Leeds City railway station
Leeds City railway station
Leeds railway station is the mainline railway station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England...

. It closed in 1981 after 117 years of operating on the site.

Present

Today the site stands empty and many of the buildings are in a state of disrepair.

Tower Works lies at the heart of the Holbeck Urban Village
Holbeck Urban Village
Holbeck Urban Village is the name given by local government and planning agencies to a mixed use urban renewal area south of Leeds railway station in Holbeck, West Yorkshire, England....

 renovation area, it was acquired by Yorkshire Forward
Yorkshire Forward
Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of the United Kingdom. It supports the development of business in the region by encouraging public and private investment in education, skills, environment and infrastructure...

 in 2005.
It and is set to become another development combining modern city offices and businesses with the heritage of the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

in Leeds.
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