Tower off Crown Point Bridge,Whats that all about?

[jonleeds]

I think The Chandlers is an old building too, the plaque on the building is referring to the date the place was converted from an old riverside mill to inner-city apartments. This area around The Calls was the first part of Leeds to see this development of waterfront flats that has over recent years run away with itself. Apparently the majority of them lie empty and they were bought by people at the height of the property boom as 'investments' but a lot of them were poorly built and the original buyers have had to sell them at a loss... The tower is probably over a hundred years old along with the building its part of. Some people have said it could have been a 'firewatch' tower? Nobody really seems to know.

[hyperioncantlogin]

Just been reading Andrew Turton's book about his G Grandfather, (Horse-Drawn transport in Leeds William Turton corn merchant and tramway Entrepreneur) Here's a paragraph from the book. "The round brick tower is a bit of a mystery.It now contains a stone spiral staircase to a platform with iron railings and a few windows lower down.It is nearer the stable area (east) than the area where steam engines would be so it is doubtful if it ever was a chimney.Peter Brears writes, in 1993 of 'A local tradition states that he [William Turton] built the tall round minaret which rises above his warehouse as a look-out tower,from where he could see his vessels coming and going along the Navigation [Aire and Calder canal]."
So thats it no one knows the mystery of the Crown Point tower. Well that may not be Strictly True.

[BLAKEY]

I was always under the impression that it was a fire watch tower, but the theory that it was to view the river traffic seems equally likely if not more so.

[jim]

I wonder if there could have been a connection between Turton's horse drawn transport business and the fire brigades connected with building insurance, That could be a good reason to have a fire watch tower at the site.