Wagon Lifting Hoist Mini Museum

Welcome to the Wagon Lifting Hoist Mini Museum

Located on the ground floor of the Grade II listed landmark lifting tower – one of the last remaining parts of the original Leeds Central Station – the mini museum celebrates Leeds’s rich industrial heritage. It exhibits artefacts spanning the station’s more than century long history, including photography and specially created films capturing the memories of those who once used or worked at the station.

Dating back to 1850, the lifting tower was one of a pair which stood either side of the river and canal viaduct. Using steam power and large chains, its role was to hoist wagons from the higher-level passenger line down to the Great Northern Goods yard at the original Leeds Central railway station.

Leeds Central station closed in 1967, and the entire complex was demolished apart from this one lifting tower. The Grade II listed building received a Leeds Civic Trust blue plaque in July 2011, marking it as an important historical point of interest in Leeds city centre.