Early plans to replace Leeds City College building with student flats

Students have passed through the doors of the former Leeds City College campus for 60 years. (Credit: Google)

Developers’ blueprints to replace the former Leeds College of Technology building in Woodhouse Lane with 20-storeys of student accommodation will go before a meeting of Leeds City Council’s city plans panel on Thursday.

The work would take place following the proposed opening of Leeds City College’s new Quarry Hill Campus in September this year, which will render the technology campus surplus to requirements.

Plans for the tower include 379 bedrooms, comprising more than 400 “bed spaces”, as well as two commercial units on the ground floor.

A council document states there are around 38,000 university students in the city without access to purpose-built student accommodation, and that there is little chance of their being a problem of over-supply, despite the recent increase in city centre student accommodation building applications.

The college was originally built as the Branch College of Engineering and Science during the late 1950s and 60s.

It was renamed Kitson College in 1967, and later Leeds College of Technology. In 2009 the college merged with Thomas Danby College and Park Lane College to form Leeds City College, becoming the third largest further education college in the UK.

The new Leeds City College Campus at Quarry Hill will house 3,000 students when it opens on August 23, and is expected to cost around £60m.

As the hearing is only for a pre-application, no decision will be made on the site at the meeting, and a more detailed application is expected to go before the panel later this year.