Holy Trinity Church, Leeds

In Boar Lane in Leeds, there is an evangelical style Church of England with an outrageous steeple. This is the Holy Trinity Church of Leeds. It was built by 1727 but the steeple, that looks like a fully opened telescope standing on its face, was not installed until 1839. The church at first had two designers and no steeple.

The two designers are, William Halfpenny and William Etty. Halfpenny's design for the tower called for a square colonnade topped off with an obelisk tapering to a spire. The church was built according to Etty's design and model but he did not aspire to a spire. Some unknown person later installed a sort of wooden spire which blew down in 1839.

The wooden spire was replaced in 1839 with the tall stone spire of today by the architect Robert Dennis Chantrel. The steeple stands in three diminishing stages topped by a spire in three diminishing stages. In 2020 the building underwent major renovations and became part of the parish of Saint George's Church.

The interior is a plain rectangular vessel with Corinthian columns on the sides. Above the altar there is a carved, gilded statue of a pelican with her chicks. The legend of the pelican is that in hungry times she would tear her own flesh to feed the chicks. This fable resonates with the idea of Christ giving his life for humankind.