Quarry Hill, Leeds

Quarry House at Quarry Hill

Quarry Hill Flats in June 1967

Quarry Hill is an area of central Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is surrounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road to the east and north. The Leeds - York / Hull railway runs just south of the district into the city centre. In Victorian times Quarry Hill was known as a particularly lawless area of Leeds with frequent anti-Jewish and anti-Irish riots.

History

Quarry Hill was originally an inner-city area of Leeds. Between 1938 and 1978 Quarry Hill was the location of what was at the time the largest social housing complex in the United Kingdom. The building was designed in 1934 by R.A.H. Livett (1898-1959), the Director of Housing and later City Architect for Leeds. Its design was influenced strongly by modernist developments in Europe, specifically the Karl Marx Hof in Vienna. The development was noted for its sheer size and also modernist design. It had then radical and modern features such as solid fuel ranges, electric lighting, a state-of-the-art refuse disposal system (Garchey) and communal facilities. However due to social problems and poor maintenance, the Quarry Hill Flats were demolished in 1978.

Current

Since the 1980s, Quarry Hill has been a focus for regeneration within Leeds, and today is home to the West Yorkshire Playhouse which opened in 1990, Quarry House (a Department of Health/Department for Work and Pensions building with a social/leisure complex, which opened in 1993) the BBC Yorkshire building and the Leeds College of Music. Century Square and the Playhouse Square are located at Quarry Hill. The regeneration has seen Quarry Hill become disassociated with East Leeds, and become part of central Leeds.

In the media

The flats were shown in the opening sequence of the popular 1970s sit-com Queenie's Castle (1970-72) which starred Diana Dors.

Further reading

• Alison Ravetz (1974). Model estate: planned housing at Quarry Hill, Leeds. London: Croom Helm. 

External links

• BBC Leeds - Detailed history on Quarry Hill