Canal and River Walk in Leeds

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One of my many retirement projects is to photograph the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Next week I’ll be in Liverpool, hopefully photographing the Liverpool end. Today I went to Leeds to photograph the Leeds end.

Looking at the Open Street Map website I found an interesting walk along the canal and River Aire from the station to the Royal Armouries Museum at the Leeds Dock. (I use open street map because unlike Google and Bing maps, there are no adverts for shops, bars and pubs; no clutter.)

I started at Leeds station (the town side), following the path along the River Aire to the Leeds Liverpool Canal. And then along the canal tow path back into town.

The photo above shows boats on the canal on the other side of Leeds station.

The photo below shows the start of the Leeds Liverpool Canal; the lock giving access to the canal from the River Aire.

After the lock, the path follows the River Aire. There are two old bridges across the canal, one is shown in the photo below.

Just coming out from under the bridge is the Leeds Water Taxi, which runs from the station area to the Royal Armouries museum, and back. It costs £3 a trip (card only) and saves a long walk back into town.

There has been a lot of development along the river (and canal). New office blocks and apartments, I hate to think what it would have been like 20 or 30 years ago.

The photo below shows the other bridge and one of the many weirs on the river.

The photo below shows the Leeds Dock area. The water taxi starts from here. The Royal Armouries museum (which is free) is also here.

I was going to spend the day catching stream trains on the Keighley Worth Valley Railway. For the last three or four days the Met Office website has shown sunny weather with no clouds. This morning it showed cloudy and sunny weather. At Keighley I wanted to photograph the steam trains and I really wanted guaranteed sunny weather. So, I decided to delay that trip and go to Leeds instead.

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