Report - Various Rooftops, Leeds, December 2012

[SAt]

Visited With Clough


I hooked up with Mr Clough for an evening of mooching around Leeds checking out accessible rooftops, managing to get into hotels I wouldn't normally be welcome in and observing students getting in a right state :

With a loose plan we set off and managed to successfully hit Queens, Ibis, Park Plaza and Opal 3

Hotel Ibis

Queens Hotel

The Queens Hotel is a hotel owned by Quintessential Hotels, located on Leeds City Square in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
It is an elegant Art Deco Grade II listed building. It was constructed in 1937 by architects W.Curtis Green and W.H. Hamlyn for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). It is a four star hotel and it has a total of 217 rooms.
It was acquired in 2003 by Quintissential Hotels who gave it a £10 million makeover. Previous owners other than LMS and Quintissential Hotels have included the publicly owned British Transport Hotels between 1948 and the early 1980s and latterly the Forte Group hotel and catering company.

Getting in here meant getting past the suited up doormen so we opted for the rear entrance, however, we spied an open side door which took us into a ballroom full of pissed up teenagers dressed in their smartest gear moaning about how hot it was. We got some funny looks in here as we made our way to the lift and the hatch..

Whilst here we also had a mooch around the back staircases to see if the roof of the next building was accessible and ended up having a look around the sub-basement, valet parking area and some storage rooms in some of the many arches built under the area around the station, we got a bit stuck here between staff parking up cars and a bloke skiving off on his phone blocking our way out so after some hastily thought up conversation by Clough about the flash cars he got to drive, we shared the staff elevator upto the ground floor and made our exit!

Next up..

Park Plaza

Park Plaza Hotel Leeds (also known as Royal Exchange House) is a tower block in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in central Leeds on Leeds City Square near Leeds railway station. The hotel tower was built in 1966 after construction began in 1965, it was reclad in 2004 to host the four star Park Plaza Hotel. It had previously contained offices.
It has a roof height of 77m spread over 20 floors, and held the title of Leeds' tallest building for seven years from 1966-1973, a title succeeded by West Riding House.
The Hotel is particularly convenient for Leeds railway station, being situated directly opposite it, overlooking The Queen's Hotel. The hotel is also well situated for the financial district of the city centre and is situated right on the Leeds city centre loop.

A stones throw from Queens but much taller, Park was a quality rooftop to spend some time on, getting to the roof was a bit more tricky than the previous two as the door staff were more on it and cctv right infront of the hatch meant we had to be quick at the hatch.. It was here we shared the lift with some mega boring businessmen discussing their previous contracts and quotas and blah blah..:tumbleweed

Clough sacrificed a hoody to this roof...

And finally..

Opal 3​

No trip to Leeds would be complete without the tourist attraction that is Opal 3..

Opal Tower, officially known as Opal 3, Leeds is a 25 storey building in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
It serves as student accommodation for 542 students and is close to the Civic Quarter campus of Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of Leeds.

Made friends with some students to do this one, shared a lift, discussed our 'studies' and went our separate ways...

Nice one Clough, good company, top evening and home by 4am, safe.

Cheers ​