Leeds Central railway station

Leeds Central
Leeds Central Station in 1961.
Location
Place	Leeds
Area	City of Leeds
Coordinates	53°47′45″N 1°33′17″W / 53.795785°N 1.554704°WCoordinates: 53°47′45″N 1°33′17″W / 53.795785°N 1.554704°W
Grid reference	SE294333
Operations
Original company	London and North Western Railway
Pre-grouping	L&NWR, L&YR, GNR, NER
Platforms	8
History
18 September 1854	Opened
1 May 1967[1]	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
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Leeds Central railway station was a terminus railway station in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was opened in 1854 as a joint station between the London and North Western Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Great Northern Railway and the North Eastern Railway. It replaced the cramped LNW terminus at Wellington Street, which had opened in 1848 with the line to Dewsbury. It closed in 1967, when its services were moved to Leeds City to consolidate all of Leeds train services in one station.

Railway Clearing House diagram of Leeds in 1913

The station was not architecturally distinguished and was built above street level. The site is now a retail park which in turn is to be redeveloped into offices. Part of the Leeds Central station site had also since become a Royal Mail sorting office that is latterly being redeveloped into the West Central residential development and Lumiere, a 170-metre (560 ft) high skyscraper. A goods lift and a viaduct that approached the station remain extant.

The last train leaving from Leeds Central was an early evening service to Harrogate filled by the usual Birmingham RC&W DMU. Detonators were placed on the track by Railway staff which exploded as the train rolled away from the platform and past the signal box on its final departure.

References

1. Burgess, Neil (2014). The lost railways of Yorkshire's West Riding - The central section. Catrine: Stenlake. p. 56. ISBN 9781840336573.

• Cobb, Col. Michael H. (2005). The Railways of Great Britain - A Historical Atlas. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-3002-2.