Clock at Temple Works, Leeds

I am a curious person and I like to find out about things and places. Even as a boy I would want to know what was behind a tall wall or inside an unusual building.

There are quite a few buildings in Leeds that I really would like to look around and explore the inside of. This photograph of a clock built into a wall is inside a building that I have often passed and wanted to get a peek inside.

By chance I was reading a copy of the Yorkshire Evening Post in The Leeds Library of which I am a member when I noticed pictures taken by one of the newspapers photographers. Because I have a friend who is an editorial photographer I tend to look not just at the photos in a newspaper but also at the credit to who had taken them. These photos in the paper were taken by James Hardisty a photographer with the Yorkshire Evening Post. The story in the YEP was about one of Leeds most famous buildings, the Temple Works in Holbeck, Leeds.

Around 20 local artists were holding an exhibition at the Temple Works, Marshall Street, Holbeck, Leeds and you could apply online to view inside the old flax mill. I jumped at the chance and booked at once to both see the art exhibition but mostly for a chance to look inside this famous Leeds landmark.

On the appointed evening recently a group of people including me found ourselves standing outside the Temple Works waiting to sign a disclaimer to the effect that we were entering the building of our own free will and that we understood that it was not necessarily safe. I should perhaps point out that a part of the ceiling collapsed about a year ago causing one of the 18 ornate pillars to crumble.

So with hard hats we walked between the volunteers who shepherded us with torches to the safer bits of the building. I must at this point thank these mostly young people prepared to give up their evening to show us around this intesting old building.

The photograph today shows the works clock on an internal wall of the Temple Works, Holbeck, Leeds. The clock is around 4 feet in diameter, but in this photo does not give much indication of size.

There will be more about the Temple Works in Holbeck, Leeds tomorrow on the Leeds Daily Photo.