Leeds: City's forgotten buildings captured and preserved

The Old George Hotel was once under the railway bridge on Lower Briggate

A building once owned by an ancient order of knights is among the lost Leeds landmarks recorded by librarians.

A photograph of the Old George Hotel, which Charlotte Bronte was a guest at, is one of the images found by staff at Leeds Central Library.

Librarians have searched archives in an attempt to chart the changing face of the city over the centuries.

The project aims to curate the Leodis gallery, an online photographic archive of more than 68,000 images of Leeds.

The Old George Hotel, which was once under the railway bridge on Lower Briggate, is believed to have been first owned by the Knights Templar in the 13th Century.

The much later photo (above), which was taken in around 1891, shows the Templar crosses displayed on the front of the pub.

The building became The Old George in 1815 with Charlotte Bronte later dropping in on her way to Belgium and describing its interior in her 1847 novel Jane Eyre.

In 1889 the Leeds Corporation paid £66,000 for the Mixed Cloth Hall so they could clear it away for what is today City Square and the General Post Office building

Researchers have also found pictures of several buildings which have either made way for major developments, been damaged beyond repair, or completely revamped making them almost unrecognisable today.

Senior librarian Louise Birch, said: "These pictures are enthralling because they not only show buildings which no longer exist, they're also a visual record of just how much the urban landscape of Leeds has changed over many centuries."

Among the other buildings featured in the archive is the Mixed Cloth Hall which was built on Park Row in 1758 and was once the largest building in Georgian Leeds.

An image of the Cock and Bottle pub on the junction of Upperhead Row and Guildford Street, taken in around 1906, has also been unearthed.

Senior librarian Louise Birch said the images told fascinating stories detailing what role the buildings played in the Leeds of its day and why they were no longer part of the city today