In July, we ran an article about a handful of lost Leeds schools that were demolished or turned into something else.
Leeds being a big, old city, we realised there would be more. Having asked for suggestions on several Leeds nostalgia forums we realised it was a lot more.
From the suggestions we were given, we counted 39 additional schools which had closed from the 1950s to 2000s – and there are probably that many more again. So what was meant to be Part Two of our Lost Leeds Schools series is now part two of an incomplete trilogy which may well become a quadrilogy. We had to look up that word, by the way, and our spellcheck was far from happy with it.
Read more: Beautiful photos from when the Queen visited Leeds
So here are 15 Leeds schools which fell to the bulldozers and the fluid demands of an ever-changing education system. You'll notice they appear alphabetically from A to R. There were a lot of ex-schools beginning with S which we'll cover in Part Three.
If you went to any of these schools or you'd like to suggest some more let us know in the comments.
1. Asket Hill
This primary school on Kentmere Approach, Seacroft, had space for 155 pupils, aged three to 11. It closed in 2005 and was later demolished.
The site is now occupied by housing.
2. Bentley Lane Primary School
This Meanwood school opened in the 1930s and closed in 2004. It was later the Carr Manor Centre, which was part of Park Lane College. The main building was demolished, around 2010, and is now housing although the single-storey former library remains.
There are more photos of Bentley Lane School here.
3. Brownhill Primary School
This grand-looking school, on Harehills Lane, opposite Coldcotes Avenue was built around 1904. It was rumoured to have been built on an old mining works – an Ordnance Survey (OS) map from the 1840s supports this theory – and former pupils reported cracks appearing in the plaster.
The school was demolished around the 1980s. The site now appears to be allotments and wasteland.
4. Buslingthorpe, Meanwood Road
This primary school, tied to Buslingthorpe St Michael's Church, was on Buslingthorpe Lane, Hyde Park. Children would play on a patch of wasteland behind the school, known as 'Buggy Park'.
The school, which was in operation until, at the earliest, 1969, has long since been demolished. It's now trees.
5. Christ Church Infant School
This little school was behind the former Christ Church, on the corner of Great Wilson Street and Meadow Lane. The school, which is most likely late Victorian or Edwardian, was still in use in the 1950s but appears to have closed by the late 1960s.
The church itself was demolished in 1972, probably around the same time as the school. The site is now occupied by a large, modern office building.
6. Cross Flatts Middle School
This school (pictured above) on Harlech Road, Beeston, had a single-storey infant school and a two-storey junior school. The site is now occupied by Park View Primary Academy.
7. Foxwood High School
This secondary school, off Brooklands View, Seacroft, opened in 1956. It was the first comprehensive school to open in Leeds and was part of the then-new Seacroft housing estate. The school, which had 1,500 pupils, switched from a boys' school to co-education in 1971.
In 1992, the school was renamed East Leeds High School before its closure four years later. The building was used as East Leeds Family Education Centre before its demolition in 2009.
The site is now occupied by Springwell Leeds Academy East.
8. Green Lane Council School
Originally Green Lane Board School, it was opened in 1874 by the school board's chairman Sir Andrew Fairbairn. The school, which accommodated 1,035 pupils, aged three to 12, was best known for its rooftop playground.
The Armley school, which closed in 1982, was later used by Park Lane College and as a furniture store for Leeds City Council's education department. The building, which had become a target for vandals, was demolished in 1994.
9. Ingledew College
This school, off Sandringham Drive, Moortown, had a distinctive uniform with red, green and black stripes. It began as a private house called The Mount before it became Ingledew College for Girls. Boys were later admitted before the school closed in the mid-1960s.
The site is now occupied by flats.
10. Kirkstall Road Primary and Middle School
These adjacent schools opened on Kirkstall Road, in 1904. Early on, the school followed the Montessori teaching method where pupils were afforded some freedom and choice as opposed to being force-fed a curriculum.
Like Green Lane School (see above) there was a playground on the roof; probably due to the segregation of boys and girls. Pupils of the school included singer Melanie 'Mel B' Brown.
The school was closed in 1992 and demolished shortly afterwards. Today the site is occupied by the smaller Kirkstall Valley Primary School.
11. Lawrence Oates School
The postwar school off Stainbeck Lane, Meanwood, was named after the explorer Captain Lawrence Oates who died alongside Captain Robert Scott in 1912 in Antarctica having been to the South Pole. Oates was born in London but his parents came from Meanwood and he would spend time in Leeds as a young man.
The school closed in 1992 and was later demolished. The site is now part of the Carr Manor School campus.
12. Moor Grange High School
This boys' school, on Parkstone Avenue, Ireland Wood, opened as Moor Grange County Secondary School in 1960. It has a four-storey main section and a two-storey section with science, metalwork, woodwork and art rooms.
Indoor scenes for the ITV drama The Beiderbecke Tapes, starring James Bolam and Barbara Flynn, were filmed inside the school in 1987 shortly before its demolition.
13. Princess Field Primary School
Information on this small school in Holbeck is limited.
The school between Princess Field Place and Bowling Green Terrace was probably built in the 1880s, as it appears on an Ordnance Survey map from 1889. The boys' and girls' school appears on another OS map from 1968 although the building is no longer labelled as a school, indicating it may have closed.
The school, named after a field, labelled on an 1840s map as 'Princes [sic] Field', was most likely demolished during the Holbeck slum clearance of 1968. Today it's an office building and a car park.
14. Queen's Road County Primary School
This school, on the corner of Queen's Road and Royal Park Road, Hyde Park, opened in 1892. The school, which had places for nearly 1,400 children, later became Royal Park Middle School in the 1970s.
It closed in 2004 and was demolished 10 years later. There are plans for a multi-use games area on the site.
15. Roseville Secondary Modern School
This imposing four-storey red brick school began as an infant school called Kepler Council School, around 1900. It later became a secondary school for girls. It has since been demolished and is now a car park.
A big thanks to Leeds Libraries and their online photo archive Leodis.net as well as West Yorkshire Archive Service.
Photos are published courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, which collects and looks after the unique documentary heritage of the region dating from the 12th century to the present day - more than 800 years of local history. It also runs Catablogue, an online blog dedicated to preserving the past, serving the present and protecting the future.
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