Description and History of Site:-
Built in 1902 although a permanent electricity supply had been started from Whitehall Road in 1893 by the 'Yorkshire House-to-House Electricity Company' who bought the site and began construction and cable laying in 1892. The original equipment, all supplied by John Fowler & Co. of Leeds, consisted of two 100kW and one 50 kW alternators driven by cross-compound steam engines. The supply was generated at 83 cycles and 2000V. The electricity supply business including the generating station was bought by Leeds Corporation on 15th December 1898, by which time the capacity had increased to 2,400 kW in all.

The following is a summary of report of an excursion to the then new power station by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1903.

"This Station is situated in Whitehall Road, and has been enlarged from time to time. In 1891 a Provisional Order was granted to the Yorkshire House-to-House Electricity Co., and in 1893 the supply of electricity to the public was commenced. The works comprise an area of 290 feet by 181 feet, and consist of engine-house, switchroom, cable cellar, boiler-house, stores and workshops. The engine house plant consists of one McLaren and one Belliss engine, each of 2,400 horse-power,running at 200 rpm, and directly coupled to the alternators. The supply is generated at 2kV, 50 cycles, two-phase. In the cellar below the engines are two surface-condensing plants, one for each engine, each with 3,400 square feet of heating.
The switchboard was made by Messrs. Ferranti, and consists of six sets of their two-phase oil break switches on the dynamo board with necessary bus bars, synchronising apparatus, &c. The cable cellar running under the floor of the switch-room is so arranged that the cables leaving the board are carried down direct on to shelves supported on brackets carried on iron pillars, and the cables then pass away into the cable subway, which runs as far as Queen Street. The subway is capable of holding 200 cables.
In the boiler-house are twenty-four water-tube boilers with 4,300 square feet of heating surface each. The boilers, fitted with Meldrum's coking stoker and forced draught, are arranged with twelve on either side of the boiler-house. Immediately. above is the coal store, from which the coal gravitates by means of inclined shoots into the mechanical stokers.The coal-conveying plant will deal with 40 tons of coal per hour.
The capacity of the generating plant is 8,740 kilowatts, and the number of 35-watt lamps (or their equivalent) connected to the mains is over 260,000."

By about 1912, reconstruction and extension increased the capacity of Whitehall Road by the addition of one 6 MW, two 12 MW and one 15 MW sets all generating 3 phase current at 50 cycles, 6.6 kV. By 1919 it was apparent that the increasing demand for electricity could no longer be met from the Whitehall Road station leading eventually to the decision to build a completely new station at Kirkstall (WYK01219) which opened in 1931.

Electricity generation finished in 1967, but the site was retained by the Central Electricity Generating Board as a training establishment until the late 1990s.

Chris Allen has put 10 images on Geograph of the site that need adding or linking too.

Further Reading and References:-
Thompson , W J (ed). A brief guide to the industrial heritage of West Yorkshire. Association for Industrial Archaeology, 1989.
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1903_Institution_of_Mechanical_Engineers:_Visits_to_Works
Souvenir Pamphlet, Official Opening of Kirkstall Power Station, City of Leeds Electricity Department, 1931.

Help us improve this entry

The compilers welcome corrections or additional information on all sites.
Any information provided will be verified before appearing on the web site.

Email comments

Key Words :- generating station electricity power

Address :- Whitehall Quay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 4BU
Grid Ref :- SE 29562 33299
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.795166 , Long -1.552706
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site demolished or no longer extant
Site Condition :- Site redeveloped to industrial / commercial use
Site Dates :- 1902 -
Record Date :- 5 May 2015

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Nick Nelson