Thorp Arch Trading Estate
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53°54′58″N 1°19′08″W / 53.916°N 1.319°W
Thorp Arch Trading Estate is a
War years
The Royal Ordnance Factory was built to supply British forces with munitions during the
Post war development
The Royal Ordnance Factory closed in 1957. However, with a boom in the construction trade and many others in the post-war years, the site found many new industries requiring the space it could offer.
George Moore (founder of Moores Furniture Group) bought the site in 1960s and converted it into a trading estate. Moores Furniture Group furniture factory is situated on the estate, as is a Leeds City Council household recycling centre, a sewage works and many other small businesses situated.
A major development, and the biggest employer, is the British Library lending division, the British Library's second site after the St Pancras site in Central London.[1] The British Library Boston Spa, as it is known, is housed in a large eight-storey concrete building (with windows set in narrow slits to avoid light damage to the books) and many smaller, newer buildings around it.
The Thorp Arch Retail Park occupies semi-underground bunkers and many of the retail outlets have grassy banks up the exterior walls. The retail park houses Brooks Discount Retailers,
The retail park had a branch of Texas Homecare, but because of the small-sized units, it occupied two units several hundred yards apart but they were closed. Bargain Street, (a now defunct West Yorkshire discount clothes and household good retailer) also had premises.
During the 2008–2009 UK retail crisis, two retail chains, Land of Leather and Empire Direct, closed.
Features
- The street names are all uniform, with roads running in a North-South direction named "Street 1", "Street 2", "Street 8", etc., and those crossing them named "Avenue A", "Avenue B", etc.
- Running along the sixty-year-old lamp posts on certain parts of the estate are electricity cables.
- The retail park is set in grass covered bunkers.
- There are level crossingson certain streets, despite the railway being dismantled since 1965.
- The retail park is home to a playground, formerly home to an old Bren Gun Carrierand a fire engine, and is still home to a large mock pirate ship (about 40' in height).