Leeds Central railway station

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. Leeds Central station is shown in light blue.

Leeds Central
Leeds Central Station in 1961.
General information
Location	Leeds, City of Leeds England
Coordinates	53.795785°N 1.554704°W / 53.795785; -1.554704
Grid reference	SE294333
Platforms	8
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	London and North Western Railway Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Great Northern Railway North Eastern Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Great Northern Railway North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
18 September 1854	Opened
1 May 1967[1]	Closed

The station was not architecturally distinguished and was built above street level. After closure, part of the station site became a Royal Mail sorting office, later partially redeveloped as the West Point residential development; the remaining half of the former sorting office site was to have been used for Lumiere, a 170-metre (560 ft) high skyscraper, but eventually became the site of the Central Square office development. A goods lift and a viaduct that approached the station remain extant.

The last train left from Leeds Central on 29 April 1967. This was a Saturday and as there was no Sunday service, the station closed on 1 May 1967. The last train 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.^[2]

Services

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Headingley Line closed, station open		North Eastern Railway Leeds and Thirsk Railway		Terminus
Holbeck High Level Line and station closed		Great Northern Railway Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway		Terminus
		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway
Copley Hill Line and station closed		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Leeds, Dewsbury and Manchester Railway		Terminus
		London and North Western Railway Leeds, Dewsbury and Manchester Railway

Further reading

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

• Himelfield, Dave (15 March 2022). "Inside Leeds' lost city centre train station". Leeds Live. Retrieved 16 November 2022.

References

1. Burgess, Neil (2014). The lost railways of Yorkshire's West Riding - The central section. Catrine: Stenlake. p. 56. ISBN 9781840336573.
2. Bairstow, Martin (1999). "The end of Leeds Central". Great Northern railway in the West Riding. [S.l.]: Bairstow. p. 9. ISBN 1-871944-19-8.