I used to be a London Bus driver, my route was the 24, i drove past it 8 times a day, 5 times a week for 2 years

I, like you, do that "upward looking" thing in Leeds and you see stuff like "Thornton and Co, India Rubber Manufacturers" above a shop front just a bit further up Briggate from M&S, very rewarding sometimes.
I heartily recommend buying/borrowing a copy of the latest version Of [iPevsner's Architectural Guide to Leeds[/i (as updated by Susan Wrathmell) ... it has short walks in the City Centre in it and I guarantee it will point out stuff that the lifelong Loiner never knew.


Aha, a Burmantofts-faced building? (e.g. Atlas House which houses the Allied Irish Bank in King Street, faced in "Marmo" ... or e.g. The interior of the cafe in the City Library, a great place to leaf through that Pevsner ... fantastic).

I worked in it for a short stint.

Well of course we can't let this comment pass without an honorary mention of Temple Mill in Leeds and a whole article dedicated to it rlhttp://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/news/temple-mill-leeds/rl, pure unadulterated Victorian entrepreneurship sticking two fingers up at his rivals in the city and building in a totally bizarre and unnecessary design , just because he had the money and time and will to do so - not forgetting that he then made a fortune out of the manufacturing process therein.

Temple Mill is in Holbeck, an area south of the city that housed huge swathes of the population in cramped back-to-back houses but also contained much of the heavy industry that the city grew to prominence in, the mills and the Hunslet Engine Works for instance so it was an intensively developed, probably filthy, industrialised area - why the hell would you build an Egyptian temple in the middle of it

Compare and contrast to any modern industrial estate you like and you'll see nothing of a modern equivalent either in design or simple "Balls to the rest of you" attitude amongst business leaders today.

It is remarkable looking at 19th century industrial architecture just how many flourishes were added – even to chimneys.

Well funny you should mention that www.skyscrapercity.com/index.php

Is just about the most comprehensive resource on the planet.

The photography from some people is simply stunning

a sample in this thread of the standard on show

www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1636110