West Leeds High: Memories of two schools in one landmark building

It opened in September 1907 with the building design based on the façade of a school in Switzerland. The school on Heights Lane in Armley was built to house 400 boys and 400 girls providing spacious classrooms, laboratories, gymnasium and playing fields. With the boys in one wing and the girls in another shared rooms were used on a schedule so that no mixing occurred, making two completely separate schools in one building. By the 1950s the two schools were known as West Leeds High School for Boys, and West Leeds High School for Girls, and in 1959 the girl’s school moved to a new campus south of the railway line, on Campus Mount, while the boy’s school remained at the campus on Whingate. In 1993 the two schools merged to become West Leeds High School again. The campus at Congress Mount was enlarged in 1999 to accommodate both schools, and the building on Whingate was sold and converted to apartments named Old School Lofts, now a Grade II listed building. READ MORE: Memories of the Leeds school with the playground on the roof LOVE LEEDS? LOVE NOSTALGIA? Join Leeds Retro on facebook