Woodhouse, Leeds

The now demolished St Mark's student residences with older house and St Mark's Church, looking down St Mark's Street - towards St Mark's Road

Woodhouse is a largely residential area just north of the city centre of Leeds and home to the University of Leeds. It is in the Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward of City of Leeds metropolitan district. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 25,914.[1]

History

The name Woodhouse is first attested around the 1170s as Wd(e)husa, Wd(e)huse, and Wudeusum. It is likely to derive from Old English wudu 'wood' and hūs 'houses'.[2] It was described in 1853 as a "large and handsome village".[3]

The original Woodhouse area of Leeds extended in a wide horseshoe arc travelling north from Burley Street (where it is known as Little Woodhouse), up along Clarendon Road, including the current site of the University of Leeds, across Woodhouse Moor (now a public park), then on towards its northernmost boundary, the steeply banked woodland of Woodhouse Ridge [4] a part of the Meanwood Valley Trail and the Forest of Leeds (where the area was known as Woodhouse Cliff to the west and Woodhouse Carr to the south east).

During World War II the Institution Street (now Holborn Approach) area was accidentally bombed by the German Luftwaffe during night-time blackout air-raid attempts to destroy a nearby industrial target. Several buildings were hit and as a result 3 people at the bottom end of the street were killed.

Architecture

Older residences are largely redbrick back-to-back and 'through' terraced housing. There are also concrete council houses (the Holborn Estate) and a mixture of more modern buildings, particularly student accommodation. There is a small amount of light industry. The former Anglican parish church of St Mark's, which has been renovated by Gateway Church Leeds,[5] lends its name to nearby streets and the St Mark's Residences of the university. The church building was used as the exterior of The Parish Church of St Mathews in the TV comedy series The Beiderbecke Affair. Other older buildings include Quarry Mount Primary School, and several public houses. On Holborn Approach (formerly Institution Street) is the Temperance Hall and Mechanics' Institute which was opened by Samuel Smiles in 1851 as an alternative to local pubs for socialising. It cost £900 and is of red bricks with yellow sandstone details.[6] Over the years it as been used for various purposes. It is now used as Holborn Church.

Location grid


 Meanwood
Hyde Park Sheepscar
   Woodhouse, Leeds  
Leeds city centre

References

  1. ↑ "City of Leeds population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  2. ↑ A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, English Place-Name Society, 30–37, 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961–63), IV 130.
  3. ↑ William White (1853) Directory and Gazetteer of Leeds, Bradford,.... West Riding of Yorkshire (reprinted 1969, Clarke Double & Brendon)
  4. ↑ Forest of Leeds Woodhouse Ridge,
  5. ↑ Gateway Church, Leeds St Marks
  6. ↑ R. J. Morris The Historical Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1981), page 103
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Coordinates: 53°48′46″N 1°33′33″W / 53.81278°N 1.55917°W / 53.81278; -1.55917

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