White Cloth Hall - Leeds, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 47.737 W 001° 32.390
30U E 596177 N 5961770
This blue plaque is at the entrance to the former cloth hall that was used to trade undyed white woollen cloth.
Waymark Code: WMQXWW
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/12/2016
Views: 2
In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a major centre for the production and trading of wool. The white cloth hall was built for the trade in undyed white wool. Weavers bought from the merchants of the city who would then finish, dye and resell.
This location is actually the 3rd White Cloth Hall and was built when the wool trade was at its peak in Leeds. It was built in the 1770s when three-quarters of the cloth passing through Leeds was exported.
The development of factory processing of wool led to the decline of the cloth hall and in 1865 part of the building was demolished when the viaduct carrying the new railway line was built.
These remains of the hall now house a pizza restaurant, but is a Historic England Grade II* listed building.
link
The text on the blue plaque is as follows.
LEEDS CIVIC TRUST
WHITE CLOTH HALL
This superbly restored gateway
belonged to the magnificent
quadrangular market hall which
underpinned the prosperity of
Georgian Leeds. Merchants and
1300 West Riding clothiers
met here on Tuesdays and
Saturdays to trade in undyed
'white' woolen cloth.
Built 1775-76