2000- 2010  

A Visit to the Old School Lofts .

Story by Bryan & Judith Jones. Photos By John Swash - June 2002.


Back entrance to the "yuppie" flats including the "blue carbuncle"
"Judith and I went to look at the old school last Thursday, our first
visit for about 5 years. I thought I would put down a few observations
for the benefit of those living overseas or over the Pennines. The
cricket field is now swamped with housing with a new access road
cutting across Heights Lane. The rugby pitches are still there and
still in use by WLHS but sadly the dinner prefab is no more. The same
goes for the music room, science labs and the old changing rooms.
Behind the main building (or Old School Lofts as it is now known) the
playground has become the main car park while the air raid shelter,
which defied the might of the Luftwaffe, has fallen foul of the
developers. Also gone are the toilets which used to adorn the back of
the building and the changing rooms which I remember as being accessed
via a rickety set of wooden steps.
There is a rather swish new entrance on this side which for some reason
has been painted bright blue. CCTV cameras are everywhere and have
probably captured many images of middle aged blokes sneaking round in
a suspicious manner and peering into windows saying "that used to be
the woodwork room tha knows".
One of the oddest things about the place is that there is no pedestrian
access to Whingate Road, the front being entirely "protected" by
railings. The people living here presumably jump in their cars to
drive to the corner shop. We were looking round at about 2pm and the
place seemed deserted although most of the flats in the main building
looked lived in. The board outside claimed that some units were still
available to let from £350 per month. We are out of touch with Leeds
prices but that seemed quite cheap to us.

It is very strange to think of living in one of our old classrooms or even worse the Prefects' room but I might be tempted to ring the letting agent up and ask for a tour of the inside. In case the above all sound very negative I should say that in spite of the mish mash of housing round the back, the blue carbuncle, and the air of a medium security
prison, the old place still has a certain presence. The stone and brickwork look to have been cleaned up really well and the view from
Charlie Cake Park is impressive.

By the way if you think the School has changed radically you should see
the inside of the Travellers Rest…"

The blue carbuncle

"As one of the middle aged blokes lurking around the old school with my camera in 2002 , I guiltily drove round the school and parked near the front door in parking space which ,40 years ago, was reserved for the likes of Little Joe Rose in his Rover and Mike Caird in his Triumph Vitesse. I was there at 4 pm and it was nice to see a throng of kids in the same blue blazers waiting for the bus on Whingate outside the school exactly where we used to." -John Swash

Des res with nice high ceilings:

"Studio apartments, one bedroom apartments, and one bedroom apartments with balconies. The Old School Lofts offer a range of loft style apartments. Formerly the West Leeds Boys High School this remarkable conversion has a unique feel. The apartments feature high ceilings, a fantastic sense of space, exposed brick walls, mezzanine floors and come part furnished. With on-site parking, CCTV security and attractive surroundings the Old School Lofts have something for everyone."

If you're wandering what its like to live in the "Old School Lofts" you can now take a 3D virtual Tour

These are some interior shots of the Old School Lofts . The stairwell with its iron railings looks familiar. Anyone recognise their old classroom?

Armley is the new Wandsworth - The conversion of a former boys' school is bringing smart apartments to a grim Leeds suburb. Report from the Times June 2006

SO, ARMLEY is the new Wandsworth? If there were property hype awards that would surely take first prize this year.
Armley, a suburb of Leeds, is known for the prison of that name - just like Wandsworth. It is a land of pound shops and red-brick terraced streets, where washing hangs out at the front. Armley is only ten minutes from Leeds city centre on the bus yet is a world away from Harvey Nicks and smart apartments. You could hardly call Armley the Wandsworth of the North, but change is certainly in the air. Young buyers and people who rent, priced out of Headingley and Chapel Allerton, are moving in, bringing bars, restaurants and a Tesco Express in their wake. "That means you can now buy such luxury items as Parma ham," says Maria Dempsey, 33, an Armley resident. "A couple of years ago, you couldn't even buy parmesan around here." The developer, Citu, hopes that its conversion of the former West Leeds Boys' High School into one and two-bedroom loft apartments will help to transform the area's grim reputation.

Sunset over Armley Jail (2004)

Make that a conversion of a conversion. The imposing Grade II listed Victorian school was converted into duplex apartments in 1999 by the North British Housing Association, but when government rules on affordable housing changed this year it became available for refurbishment. The mezzanine galleries in former classrooms and double-glazed windows were in, but the style was distinctly institutional. This remains in the wide corridors of the common areas, but the garish colours and tatty carpet are going.Out, too, will go the bright yellow kitchen units; in will come white gloss. Up comes the cheap laminate flooring; down go wooden floorboards. Citu says that the attention to interior details and subsequent price increase will keep bulk investors at bay. Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? There is, however, a fighting chance that the majority of residents will be owner-occupiers. There are only 66 apartments, and many former tenants are interested in buying.
Owners can work with Citu's designers to create bespoke interiors. "There will be a wide palette of styles, finishes and colours, so people can have exactly what they want." This seems ambitious, but if it works it is a bonus in apartments priced from £115,000 to £220,000, and aimed at first-time and younger buyers. What they will be struck by is an abundance of exposed brickwork. This uneven surface means that the overall finish is not quite as neat as it might be. In the show apartment bathroom, for example, the towel rail looks distinctly wonky, nailed into bare brick.
The kitchens come with a Baumatic halogen hob and a huge fridge with a water-dispenser as standard. Heating is individually controlled gas. Furniture packs, from £6,000 (with 42in plasma television), and art work for the walls are available. Leases are 999-year, service charge and ground rent about £750 and £100 a year.
The apartments, ranging from 500 sq ft to 850 sq ft, are not huge, but the two-bedroom ones feel more spacious than comparable city-centre flats. The high classroom ceilings help. Each flat has only one bathroom, so sharers will have to manage without the luxury of an en suite.
But what's an en suite when you could be sharing your staircase with the Kaiser Chiefs? Ricky Wilson, the singer with the Leeds band, is buying one of the penthouses that will sit either side of the bell tower. Two flats are also planned for the former launderette on the ground floor. If you are going to live in Armley, this is the place to be. "The apartments here are not what you would expect, and that's what attracted me to them," Wilson says. "They are the start of a whole new era for the area."
Ah, the area. Up the hill, away from the main drag of Town Street (they don't go in for fancy names round here), it is surprisingly rural. However, at the back of Old School Lofts is a new Barratt estate showcasing the very best in ghastly modern house design. And another one is going up a few fields away.
Surrounding the building are standard scrubby plants and paving. Each flat has one parking space, but extra spaces can be bought outright for £8,000. Before making any decisions about parking, buyers should be advised that it is a 15-minute walk to downtown Armley. Which could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how the invading armies from Headingley fare in the great deli wars.

Crikey -look what they've done to the cricket pitch!

Conversion of the school to "Old School Lofts"and building new housing "College Lawns" on the sports field 1999/2000.
Photograph by Richard Collier

The Future For West Leeds High School

After a century, the fate of West Leeds High School is to be merged with Wortley High school and the combined schools will be rehoused in a purpose built new school on the West Leeds site, at Congress Mount, in 2009

In 2006 Education Leeds announced plans for the closure of a number of Sixth Forms across the Inner-City Area. This would see the end of West Leeds' Sixth Form as the Post 16 Education System is reorganised to (hopefully) provide better options and performance for students across the city. The school was told that it would be merging with local school Wortley High School to form one new school. This was said to be due to the falling birth rate in the local area. Both schools opposed the merger saying merging would create more faults than benefits.

However the merger got approval and the construction of the new school began in 2008 on the West Leeds High School Site. In May 2008 the new name was announced - Swallow Hill Community College, to represent the area and the links the school will have with the community. (The area surrounding the site of the new school was historically known as Swallow Hill).

When the new school was complete the West Leeds buildings were emptied and closed in September 2009. In October 2009 the school buildings began to be demolished to be replaced with sports fields for the new school.

Former West Leeds High School on the horizon and its successor , Swallow Hill Community College, in the mid-ground, captured in a single photo, taken from Congress Mount.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved] © Copyright Stephen Craven and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

 

Swallow Hill barely made it to its 10th Anniversary-Following yet another reorganisation the school became Dixons Unity Academy in Oct. 2018