Leeds Station Low Level Plan Did you know? The arches beneath
New Station were named the ‘Dark Arches’ by Leeds’ Victorian
residents, and the name remains in use today. Today’s Leeds
Station is a historical combination of the former Wellington and
Leeds New Stations. Leeds began its relationship with the
railway in 1758, when parliamentary authority was granted for a
wooden wagon-way to haul coal from Middleton to Leeds. In the
early days of railway development, six different companies
developed competing lines and different stations in and around
Leeds. A temporary station called Wellington Station was built
by the Leeds and Bradford Railway in 1846.This Company became
part of the much larger Midland Railway, who built a permanent
Wellington Station in 1850, resting on top of arches over the
River Aire on which part of Leeds Station is built to this day.
Functional in design, it had a low, three-span train shed with
its station building opening onto City Square and containing
refreshment rooms, waiting rooms