Back to Back to Leeds

In this article Amy Anderson visits Leeds to find out what life was like in back-to-back housing during the 1930s depression and assesses how things have changed.

Walking around central Leeds, a stranger would be struck by the obvious economic success of this great northern city, with its tall office blocks with tinted windows, colossal apartment complexes, and a steady flow of sports cars hurling themselves around the ring road. The water front to the south adds an impressive dimension to this confident City, transformed from it’s lonely dereliction to a warm-toned developments of luxury flats and lifestyle business units. There was little to tell me about Leeds before the war, before economic prosperity, the welfare state and modernity. Since 1945, generations of planners have recreated the City’s character and now Leeds is a odd mix of architecture styles, like it has never been satisfied with itself, always needed to move on, move forwards. Art deco buildings squash up against 1970s blocks, themselves backed onto Victorian edifices. The pleasing curves of the Town Hall and Corn Exchange soften the jagged angles of the high risers on the horizon.

Leeds in the 1930s

Leeds was luckier than some of the other North England towns during the 1930s depression. It’s economy was relatively diverse and was home to industries in general engineering, furniture production, and clothing, food, cigarette, screw and chemical manufacturing.
Leeds didn’t escape the downturn of course and unemployment in the city doubled between 1929 and 1931. One of the main casualties of the depression was the Leeds Waterfront. Falling demand and the growth of investment in road transport led the Leeds Liverpool Ship Canal that was once a thriving and noisy port and waterway in the heart of the City became quiet, derelict and abandoned.

Working conditions in factories had improved by the 1930s thanks to employment reform and a more politically organised labour movement. The average working day was still long, cramped and noisy and exploitation from employers was still a common experience. Advancing technology enabled mass production techniques to be used but had the effect of lowering the overall skill levels of factory jobs, which became particularly vulnerable during the economic crisis.