'It could be re-imagined': Early plans to preserve the Yorkshire Evening Post clock tower revealed
The clock tower has been recognised as an ‘important heritage feature for the city of Leeds’
A developer is considering how best to preserve a historic clock tower as part of new plans for the former Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Post site.
The landmark tower and temperature gauge is still standing on Wellington Street after the city’s two newspapers left in 2012.
Urbanite Leeds Ltd secured planning permission in 2023 to turn the land into student flats.
Office buildings of 15 and 17 storeys are now planned for the demolished site after the original scheme ran into complications.
Consent for the student scheme, which would have been up to 42 floors high, included a condition that the clock tower would be preserved in some form.
Urbanite said it was considering its options after a public consultation was held on the latest plans.
A planning report said: “The scheme now being proposed would replace the two student buildings with office buildings of lower heights.
“Through the planning application, we will work with Leeds City Council to agree how the existing clock tower can be re-imagined within the development in an appropriate way.”
The 2023 planning permission said “a full methodology and strategy for the re-use of the Yorkshire Post clock and temperature gauge shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority.”
The condition was “in the interests of preserving the clock tower as an important heritage feature for the city of Leeds.”
Urbanite said a new interpretation of the clock tower could see digital displays used to show the time and temperature on the façade of the office buildings.
Its design report said: “Subject to further design development, technical assessment and detailed consideration, this approach could reinterpret the historic function of the Yorkshire Post clock and temperature gauge within the architecture itself.
“It would offer a means of embedding a familiar and recognisable aspect of the site’s identity into the new building, while celebrating its collective memory and creating a distinctive connection between the development and its historic legacy.”
Urbanite’s current planning application is out for consultation until October 13.
Earlier this year, the YEP and Yorkshire Post launched a campaign to save and clean up the landmark, jointly calling for urgent improvements to be made for the good of Leeds.
After the backing of several senior politicians, including Jon Trickett, West Yorkshire’s longest serving MP and former Leeds City Council leader, the owners agreed to clean up the landmark in April.