Kirkstall Road Viaduct

About

Kirkstall Road Viaduct is a Grade II listed railway viaduct carrying the Harrogate line over the A65 Kirkstall Road, the River Aire, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Burley, Leeds, West Yorkshire. It was built in 1849 by the engineer Thomas Grainger for the Leeds and Thirsk Railway. The viaduct, which is approximately 440 m (0.27 miles), is a significant local landmark due to the wide, shallow nature of the valley it crosses.

In addition to passing over the Aire, canal and road, the viaduct also passed over working class back-to-back accommodation in the river valley. The Kirkstall Viaduct remains in use today, with sections of the former Leeds Northern Railway line linking Leeds and Harrogate and connecting to York. However, its immediate surroundings are mostly 20th century industrial buildings and industrial parks, which replaced the residential back-to-backs.

Grainger supervised the construction of the whole the line from Leeds to Stockton-on-Tees via Harrogate and Thirsk; his design features twenty-one segmental arches on large rusticated piers, with chamfered voussoirs and a moulded cornice and parapet. At its south end, over the canal, is a low elliptical arch. The viaduct...